Quarry housing opponents’ coffers nearly empty

Pacifica, Calif. (Map, News) - Pacifica residents’ group is going up against big money

PACIFICA — Pacifica residents fighting the redevelopment of Rockaway Quarry have less than $600 going into the final month of the campaign, while their opponent, a developer, has racked up more than $500,000 in outstanding debt since July while raising zero dollars locally.

Campaign finance statements were due yesterday for the campaigns for and against Measure L, which allows up to 350 units of residential housing on the property.

Pacifica Today and Tomorrow, which opposes the development, raised $1,779 since Aug. 1 and has spent $1,192,86, mostly on signs and fundraising events. All told, the group enters the final month — the most important month — of the campaign with $586.14.

“We’re just local hometown folks putting together a few signs. We have no money,” said former Pacifica Mayor Peter Loeb.

Loeb debated R. Don Peebles, the Miami-based hotelier looking to bring a mixed-use development to the 85 acres of Rockaway Quarry, in August before a standing-room only crowd at the Sharp Park Golf Course.

The Rockaway Quarry Committee has spent so much they’re $526,000 in debt as they begin the last month of the campaign. The committee raised nearly $364,000 from July 1 until Sept. 30, none of it from local donors.

It has also spent almost $700,000 during that time, including $67,876 on local cable-TV air-time and $50,000 on production of the ads. The committee begins the final month of the campaign with $23,140 in cash-on-hand.

A Peebles affiliate, Rockaway Beach, LTD., was the source of all of the committee’s funding in the last three months.

dsmith@examiner.com