PLANS. San Mateo County Planning and Building is making them put the planter back in order to make the on-ramp and off-ramp to Highway 1 safer.
In response to a violation notice (VIO 2016-00054) for the unpermitted removal of a landscape planter, the applicant proposes to construct one 136 sq. ft. (34 feet long, 4 feet wide, 6-inch-high) landscape planter within the Caltrans Highway 1 right-of-way, parallel and adjacent to the eastern property line of the existing Chevron gas station eastern property line. No tree removal is proposed, and less than 10 cubic yards of grading is proposed.
The proposed planter will be located in the same area as the previous planter (within the Caltrans right-of-way) but with narrower dimensions (the previous planter was 63 feet long by 13 feet wide).
According to the owner of the subject gas station, the original landscape planter was removed due to vehicles occasionally driving over it which may have been due to the lack of plants in the planter providing a taller visual barrier for drivers. For the replacement planter, staff is recommending a condition requiring 2-3 foot tall plants within the planter (maintained to 4 feet tall or less for line-of-sight purposes).
Full Plans
County Moss Beach Chevron plansTimeline: 2011 – 2018
2011 Landscape area & curb removed & replaced with asphalt without permit.
2012 Apr: Email inquiry to Planning Dept re landscape requirement & limited highway access provisions. No reply
2014 June: MCC agenda & memo to Code Compliance.
2015 Feb: Former County Ombudsman recommended Code Compliance send notice to property owner re alleged work without County permits, based on emails with Caltrans Maintenance Div that landscaping ran up to but not into Caltrans ROW, thus under County jurisdiction.
2016 Feb: VIO2016-00054 case opened. CDP & Planning Commission hearing required.
2017 June: PLN2017-00199 CDP application submitted for reduced-size landscape strip.
2017 July: MCC agenda & comment on application referral. 2017 Aug: CalFire comment: “The Fire District would prefer that the planter box not be added as part of the landscaping as it may be a possible traffic hazard during ingress and egress of the gas station.”
2018 Mar: No permit activity since Aug – MCC request update. Reply: Planner will ask CalFire if there is an alternative based on MCC requests. MCC request site visit to better understand emergency access requirements.