Proposed resort on the coast generates excitement, concerns

The resort would be located on the same property as commercial cannabis facility Half Moon Grow, which Wilkinson co-owns with Aneese Bishara, and also include six farmworker housing units — each housing two to four farmworkers. Those units would be intended to provide rent-free housing to employees, Wilkinson said. 

A formal application to the county for the project is forthcoming, he said, and the idea behind the workshop was to get ahead of resident concerns and address them up front. 

“I’m very much not trying to bulldoze through people’s issues and concerns. I want to be able to show people this is a good thing,” Wilkinson said. “I think this will be hugely beneficial to the coast and to the area.” 

Of the multitudes of residents who talked during the workshop, concerns around increased traffic and road safety was a recurring theme. A traffic study Wilkinson commissioned found that average daily trips to and from the resort would total 106, and that impact would not be damaging. 

Some neighbors, however, like KC Branscomb of Branscomb Farms — a horse breeding and training facility that sits adjacent to Wilkinson’s property — said that she remained concerned about increased use on Frenchman’s Creek Road, as she’d already experienced issues with existing traffic from the cannabis farm. 

“I don’t have any personal objections to Ed expanding his operations. I just don’t want it to be detrimental,” she said. “I expressed serious concerns about the road from a legal standpoint and from a usage standpoint.” 

Wilkinson is continuing to have conversations with neighbors, including Branscomb, about how to mitigate individual traffic issues, he said. 

Resident Anne Martin also expressed a variety of concerns about the uncontrolled traffic entrance and exit from Frenchman’s Creek Road to Highway 1, as well as issues with planned fire pits at the resort. 

“These are fire pits in a highly wildfire prone area,” she said. “To me, this poses an extremely unreasonable fire hazard to nearby residential communities.” 

Other coastal community members attended the workshop to express support for the potential boom in tourism and visitation that the resort could bring, including Half Moon Bay RV Park owner Kevin Palmer. 

“I think it’s a great project. I think we need more of this in the community,” he said. “Having more places to stay is going to be a direct benefit for the Bay Area.” 

Some also expressed excitement around their own potential use of the wellness center and clubhouse facilities, particularly given that those on the unincorporated areas of the coast don’t often have access to city-run health facilities. 

“I look to this for possibly being a place for unincorporated midcoast residents to come on weekdays and have a chance to make use of the wellness center,” resident Syd Young said. 

If the facility is realized, it will incorporate a number of different components, including an expanded farm area that will allow for farm-to-table resort meals and a high-tech wellness center. 

“The theme is going to be around food and wellness, biohacking, state-of the art wellness facilities where both coastsiders and over the hill people can access a super high level spa,” Wilkinson said.