Crisis Team, Library Growth and Housing Concerns Fill Midcoast Agenda

The Midcoast Community Council's Jan. 28 meeting put two of the coast side's most persistent challenges into sharp relief: how a small, geographically isolated community gets adequate behavioral health crisis response from a countywide provider, and whether a wave of new housing permits is bumping up against the coast's own growth limits. In between, San Mateo County's library system made its case as one of the region's most active — and adaptable — public services.

• Telecare's mobile crisis team reports zero deaths in 18 months, but council members question 45-minute coast-side response times and loss of local knowledge

• 72 housing permits issued to Cypress Point may exceed the local coastal plan's annual cap, raising questions about future growth

• County contract delay stalls planned stakeholder meeting, pushing timeline from January/February to at least March

• San Mateo County Libraries logged 1.7 million visitors and 2.4 million items circulated; Bookmobile storytimes expanding to Moss Beach and El Granada

• Council to formally review 120-page design review standards overhaul and invite county planner to explain housing element rezoning

• Telecommunications push advances with Congressman Lofgren's office engaged on CRSP projects and CPUC map updates

The basics: Telecare operates San Mateo County's 24/7 crisis call center and mobile crisis response team (MCRT) under contract with Behavioral Health Recovery Services (BHRS). The team deploys clinicians — rather than law enforcement — to people experiencing mental health emergencies. It replaced the locally based CARES program that coast-side residents and officials had relied on for years.