NO on L: The campaign against Pacifica’s Measure L

According to an article by Julia Scott, the Quarry has been sold to an "unidentified affiliate of Ambit Funding LLC", the

One of the constants in the Peebles Corp's ownership of the Quarry property is the way the company's public statements constantly change. Another example of this recently appeared in the news.

A June 17, 2009 article by Julia Scott titled "Economy making it difficult to sell Pacifica quarry", quotes Peebles Corp Vice President Daniel Grimm:

According to a recent San Mateo Times article (or this article from the San Francisco Business Times), the Peebles Corporation has put the Quarry property up for sale. This wasn't very surprising, since according to R. Donahue Peebles' book The Peebles Principles, the company's loan is due:

Peebles made a small fortune on the Bath Club, by exploiting a loophole that let him get the property rezoned.

"The owners were asking for $25 million to $30 million, but no one was willing to pay because it wasn't going to make money unless it got rezoned -- the building couldn't be taller than 40 feet. The rezoning would take two years. I found a loophole that would allow us to go up to 200 feet in height and offered $10 million, contingent on the rezoning.
...
After the Bath Club got rezoned, a brokerage firm offered me $42 million for the property."

One of the Peebles/Davies arguments is that the midcoast south of the slide is planning to double their population, and supposedly that means we should be happy to shoot ourselves in the foot by adding 355 houses to the two most congested intersections in Pacifica.

The San Mateo Times editorial board recommends a NO vote on Measure L, saying:

What Measure L does is permit the construction of "up to" 355 homes at the quarry site, along with commercial development. Since housing is the cash crop of this development, there's little reason to believe that, if Pacificans approve L, the final project will come in with anything less than the maximum amount.

The San Mateo Times' "Insider" also published a column about the Davies Communications insider who posed as Pacifica residents in favor of Measure L on the Pacifica-L mailing list. The details are basically the same as have been covered elsewhere (for example, here and here). The interesting part is the new spin by John Davies, CEO of Davies Communications:

Barry Parr, creator of Coastsider.com, published an article about "Jimmy/Susan" the person(s) who posted messages to the Pacifica-L mailing list, claiming to be long-time Pacifica residents, but who apparently were associated with Peebles' P.R. firm, Davies Communications.

On March 6th, 2005, Tribune Editor Chris Hunter is quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, warning:

"And if he [Peebles] comes here and says he wants to build 300 houses, he's dead in the water."

This week's San Francisco Bay Guardian includes an article by G.W. Schulz about Measure L. The very thorough, well-researched report contains too much good information to excerpt here; by all means, read the whole thing.