For 40 years, Pacifica’s rugged coast has attracted real estate investors from as far away as Florida and the Netherlands with dreams of turning a 90-acre former limestone quarry into a development gold mine.
And for 40 years, success has been more elusive than the solitary and rarely spotted long-tailed weasels that zip through the cattail underbrush and overgrown bluffs of Pacifica’s shoreline.
One by one, projects have been rejected by the Pacifica City Council or trounced at the ballot box under a law that requires voter approval of any housing built on the site of the old quarry. Sent packing have been plans for condos and apartment buildings, luxury hotels and conference centers, a new downtown and city hall…