Beachwood

The Beachwood suit may end up costing Half Moon Bay more than $36 million.

I don't know if I quite follow the whole lawsuit. It's stunningly complicated.

In 2005 the city won the legal battle over the undeveloped development, Beachwood, which said the area was unsuitable for residential development due to its being a wetland in the California Coastal zone.

But the most recent legal decision says that the city is the one that created these conditions in the first place as part of flood control.

Now the city owes money to the developer and to owners of homes back in 1999 when the city enacted a sewer expansion, which created the wetland conditions and caused flooding.

City officials say they simply do not have the money to pay the judgment. Laws exist that would enable the city to disband - similar to a bankruptcy - and revert to an unincorporated entity of San Mateo County, said Gordon. But he doesn't expect such an unprecedented collapse.

"It's never happened in San Mateo County," Gordon said. "If it has happened elsewhere in the state, I'm not familiar with it."

That'll be good for development, I'm sure.