Received: from opus.hpl.hp.com (opus-fddi.hpl.hp.com) by jr.hpl.hp.com with ESMTP (1.37.109.24/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1) id AA252702500; Fri, 19 Feb 1999 14:16:29 -0800 Return-Path: <Eyes4Hire@aol.com-DeleteThis> Received: from hplms26.hpl.hp.com by opus.hpl.hp.com with ESMTP (1.37.109.24/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1) id AA132982486; Fri, 19 Feb 1999 14:14:46 -0800 Received: from imo14.mx.aol.com (imo14.mx.aol.com [198.81.17.4]) by hplms26.hpl.hp.com (8.9.1a/HPL-PA Relay) with ESMTP id OAA08965 for <wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis>; Fri, 19 Feb 1999 14:14:45 -0800 (PST) From: Eyes4Hire@aol.com-DeleteThis Received: from Eyes4Hire@aol.com-DeleteThis by imo14.mx.aol.com (IMOv18.1) id GAGKa05501; Fri, 19 Feb 1999 16:57:19 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <c2fbb5ba.36cdde3f@aol.com-DeleteThis> Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 16:57:19 EST To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis, Robberson.Bill@epamail.epa.gov-DeleteThis, OConnor.Karina@epamail.epa.gov-DeleteThis, WHITEHAB@pab27a.ssd.loral.com-DeleteThis, harris4life@yahoo.com-DeleteThis, geohaye@hotmail.com-DeleteThis, CoyoteSurf@aol.com-DeleteThis, harris@synopsys.com-DeleteThis, bob@quake.net-DeleteThis, whitehair.bob@icarus.ssd.loral.com-DeleteThis, atomic1@worldnet.att.net-DeleteThis, bdow@cisco.com-DeleteThis, TFeldstein@grmslaw.com-DeleteThis, mtischler@mail.arc.nasa.gov-DeleteThis Cc: DTLow911@aol.com-DeleteThis, kdoerr@pacbell.net-DeleteThis, mnowicki@ricochet.net-DeleteThis, justin@infoscape.com-DeleteThis, mike-piltz@hotmail.com-DeleteThis, bwands@slip.net-DeleteThis, amwind@lr.net-DeleteThis, pyliu@earthlink.net-DeleteThis, jlord@dp.com-DeleteThis, bjames@exponent.com-DeleteThis, Randyboz@aol.com-DeleteThis, MStokowski@quadramed.com-DeleteThis, WindyYet@aol.com-DeleteThis, RedKen2@aol.com-DeleteThis, USWA@aol.com-DeleteThis, windsurf@accesstoledo.com-DeleteThis, nancyc@accesstoledo.com-DeleteThis, mlhyde@san.rr.com-DeleteThis, dmangus@excelonline.com-DeleteThis, ftlowe@earthlink.net-DeleteThis, david_mcgillicuddy@urscorp.com-DeleteThis, amy@abksports.com-DeleteThis Subject: Coyote Alert: 2/22 Meeting Info Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 236
Windsurfers -
Please come to the public meeting before the City of Burlingame Planning
Commission on February 22nd at 7:00 pm to show support for Coyote Point as a
windsurfing resource. This is the last chance to speak up before the planning
commision decides whether or not to allow or modify the plans for buildings
which will stand as high as 123' above water to be located at 301 Airport
Boulevard. For more info, please go to website: www.sfba.org.
Please try and come an hour early to meet at 6:00 pm at ASD Windsurfing for a
briefing and discussion of the issues. Scroll to the bottom of this e-mail for
addresses. Thank you to the many of you who have already made great efforts on
this matter.
Below are some of the issues that have come up in discussions to date. Please
consider speaking on some of these points or on other points you feel strongly
about. Each speaker will have three minutes to speak.
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COYOTE POINT AS A WINDSURFING RESOURCE
Established Use - Coyote Point has been used by windsurfers as a primary
launch for 18-20 years. Coyote currently attracts hundreds of windsurfers on
peak days.
Best All Around Launch - Coyote Park Point is the most user friendly
windsurfing launch in the entire San Francisco Bay Area with a combination of
adequate parking, a shallow safe launching area, bathroom facilities,
protection from strong tidal currents, etc.
Advanced Resource - Coyote Point allows access out to the central portion of
the bay where world class bump & jump windsurfing conditions exist.
Begginer Resource - Coyote Point is the only spot on the Peninsula appropriate
for beginners to transition to open water sailing. It is protected from
currents and has plenty of beach downwind. ASD teaches beginners on weekends
in season. Long expanse of beach means beginners can come back to a beach area
when pushed downwind. It also means they will want to launch further upwind
where impact from development is most significant.
Resource for the County Park - Coyote Point is used as many as 350 windsurfers
per day during the season. The county park generates in excess of $1,000 per
day on peak days from windsurfing users. Coyote is centrally located for
windsurfers and has a high capacity unlike many of the San Mateo County
launches that become overcrowded.
Reknown among Windsurfers - Many windsurfers who visit from other States or
abroad come to Coyote Point to sail. Coyote Point Park hosted the 1997 San
Francisco Bay Pro Am Race which allowed local top sailors to compete with
internationally recognized professional sailors.
Other Peninsula launches are inadequate - Other windsurfing launches along
the Peninsula are inadequate. The Third Avenue launch suffers from inadequate
parking and limited rigging area. Launches at Candlestick and Oyster Point
have offshore wind conditions that are dangerous or difficult for less
experienced sailors.
DEFINITION OF SIGNIFICANT IMPACT
The standard proposed for significant impact to windsurfing is as follows:
A reduction of 10% or more in wind speeds at irreplaceable launching and
landing sites, or a reduction in wind speed of 10% or more over large portions
of transit routes or primary board sailing areas would be a significant
adverse impact.
Wind Quality - The proposed definition does not account for gustiness or
turbulence. Many windsurfers report that gusts and turbulence are a much
greater problem than loss of overall wind speed when sailing behind large
structures such as the Marriott Hotel in Aruba. Gustiness or turbulence can
make windsurfing more difficult or impossible and create situations where
injury is more likely. The sail used in windsurfing is an airfoil that
requires clean air flows to work properly. Windsurfers need quality wind with
even wind speeds and a constant direction, not just a quantity of wind
measured as an average speed over an extended period.
Force vs. Velocity - The definition of significant impact is based on
reduction in wind velocity. The 10% criterion was selected because it was
deemed the minimum change in wind speed that a person may be able to detect
without a wind-measuring instrument. The aerodynamic force one feels through
their sail and boom is proportional to the square of the velocity. A 10%
reduction in wind velocity is a 19% reduction in the force that acts on the
sail. The sail is in effect a delicate tool for detecting changes in wind
speeds and directions.
"Holes" - The ESA report points out that wind speed will actually be increased
in some areas. This is not an advantage to windsurfing if the areas of
increase are closely interspersed with areas of decreased wind speed.
Windsurfers will have great difficulty transitioning between conditions that
range up and down. The lowest wind velocity encountered between the beach and
the sailing area is the critical factor that affects more advanced sailors and
determines if they can sail out to the channel area on appropriate gear.
Differential Winds Speeds - The proposed definition does not account for
increase in the differential between the wind speeds at the launch and the
wind speeds in the channel. Higher differential will result in sailors on too
large gear in the channel (injuries/breakage) or too small gear near shore
(swimming home).
Existing Wind Shadow - Windsurfers already report a wind shadow problem. The
wind reduction from the project will compound an existing problem and make it
a major or severe problem. On a westerly wind, a shadow cast by the drive-in
movie screen can be felt well downwind in the primary sailing area even though
the wind-tunnel study does not show what it would classify as a wind shadow
(relative wind speeds depressed by at least 10%) reaching the Coyote Point
Park parking lot.
Definition of "Irreplacable" - The entire sailable area between the ASD launch
at the corner and the main Coyote Point Park sailing area is irreplaceable.
Almost all other windsurfing spots on the San Mateo County bayshore are
overcrowded or also face development pressures. The whole northward-facing
frontage at Coyote Point is a critical resource because launch areas near ASD
are good for beginners and allow for overflow access on good sailing days in
season.
Definition of "primary board sailing areas" - The area near ASD which will get
reduced winds, highly variable winds, and or turbulent winds is a primary
board sailing area. ASD has taught lessons there for years. Windsurfers from
all over the world come to Coyote Point to sail and rent gear at ASD and then
launch from the ASD corner.
TEST METHODOLOGY
Failure to Evaluate Gusts/Dirty Air - The report prepared on the basis of
wind-tunnel test data examines changes in wind velocity but does not look at
changes in gustiness or at the effect of severe turbulence and vortexes
created when air moves past the proposed structures.
Lack of Validation - The wind-tunnel report has not been validated with any
real world anemometer readings which might confirm that the methodology
correctly predicts changes to the wind. The report does not indicate any
possible range of error even though there are multiple areas where errors
could occur, having a compounding effect on results.
REAL WORLD CASES
There are numerous cases where buildings have been constructed between prime
windsurfing areas and prevailing winds. The experience in these cases seems to
more significant effects than those predicted by the wind-tunnel study. Many
who sail these areas reports severely turbulent air at distances well downwind
of the obstructing buildings.
Aruba - The construction of the eight-story Marriott Hotel in Aruba resulted
in a wind shadow that is reknown among windsurfers all over the world. The
majority of windsurfers now sail in a smaller portion of the bay in Aruba to
avoid the wind shadow.
Foster City - The Foster City Lagoon is currently used as a beginner
windsurfing spot. In the past it was used by advanced longboarders and
produced good planing winds. Development upwind has had a major impact on the
windsurfing and many sailors who enjoyed sailing at that location no longer
sail there.
Marina Del Rey D Basin - Windsurfers in Southern California report that
buildings located 300 yards from the sailing area in D Basin have severely
impacted windsurfing there.
BAY CONSERVATION & DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
The Bay Conservation & Development Commission (BCDC) adopted general public
guidelines for the development area in January of 1982. The guidelines specify
that buildings and improvements should be designed to encourage use of the
adjacent public-access areas by the public. Any structures which impact
windsurfing at all will in fact discourage the use of the adjacent public-
access areas by the public.
BURLINGAME
The City of Burlingame has design guidelines that call for a 65' maximum
building height and 20-25% lot coverage where building heights exceed 50'. The
proposed project has lot coverage of 49% and has building heights listed at up
to 105' in the project summary. The tallest building actually will stand 123'
above mean sea level based on elevations provided in the draft EIR.
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Planning Commission meeting on February 22nd @ 7 pm
Burlingame City Council Chambers
501 Primrose Road
Burlingame, CA 94010
ASD meeting before the Planning Commission meeting on February 22nd @ 6 pm
ASD/Advanced Surf Design
302 Lang Road
Burlingame, CA 94010
Sent your comments to the City Planner:
City of Burlingame Planning Department
Attention: Meg Monroe, City Planner
501 Primrose Road
Burlingame, CA 94010
Comments must be received by March 8, 1999 at 5:00 p.m. Please send your
comments earlier as so that the City Planner will have more time to read them
and incorporate them into the final EIR.
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Peter Thorner
(415) 454-3522
(510) 547-4422
eyes4hire@aol.com-DeleteThis
Greg Harris
(650) 694-8173
harris4life@yahoo.com-DeleteThis
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