| Presentation of housing growth
targets encounters unusual praise
By Charles Douglas
HUMBOLDT SENTINEL
| 
In a rare scene in the recent battles over the pace
and location of future development in Humboldt County,
real estate and sustainability interests found room
for agreement at a presentation by Community Development
Services Director Kirk Girard at the Board of Supervisors
on Tuesday. |
“The candor if not the demeanor of the group is positive,”
Board Chair Roger Rodoni said.
Girard outlined the complex systems of roads, water and sewer
lines needed to implement the current Option B of the County’s
draft General Plan, which calls for the county spending up
to double the required level to install and maintain the necessary
infrastructure to accommodate the construction of new housing.
With the contentious preference for in-fill adjacent to existing
urban areas, as opposed to the controversial conversion of
forest and agricultural land, the focus was on Cutten and
Humboldt Hill’s predicted development over the next
20 years.
“The process we’re in is designed to engage those
groups,” he said. “I really think it’s a
natural inclination to work on something constructive and
the urban study areas are very constructive and get us where
we want to go.”
Supervisor Jill Geist shared the conciliatory spirit exhibited
by staff and the public alike, while expressing concern with
the ability to enhance police and fire protection without
compromising it in her district.
“This gives us a bigger picture but its important for
people to understand that resistance,” she said. “This
is a messy process…it’s just the nature of planning.”
While excited by the prospects of more targeted development,
conservationists were wary of overloading the Martin Slough’s
water retention systems, not to mention building on overly
steep slopes.
“Unless you build high rise buildings on the ledges,
you’ll never get 200 homes, much less 800,“ Eureka
resident Jens Sund said.
Housing and Community Development Fair Share is estimated
to require 2,100 new homes to be constructed in the south
Eureka area, including 966 multi-family units. Real estate
broker Linda Desiere asked for the inclusion of more than
just residential space in the improved network in Eureka’s
suburban neighbors to enhance business growth.
“It’s very hard to relocate a business up here,”
she said. “We need to take a much closer look as to
how we do commercial real estate.”
Public Health News Mixed
In her annual report to the Board, Public Health Officer
Ann Lindsay gave mixed reviews to the statistical picture
of the county population, thanking Supervisors for their continuing
support of an emergency declaration to allow Public Health
to exchange clean needles with intravenous injection addicts.
“It’s evidence that our reduction program is
having a positive effect on reducing acute cases of Hepatitis
B in Humboldt County,” she said.
Unfortunately, Humboldt also bears the dubious honor of second
place in the state in overdose deaths, with 50 last year alone.
Go-around on Edwards Subdivision
Supervisors deferred to next Tuesday its decision on an appeal
of the County Planning Commission’s decision to make
McKinleyville’s Tasi Lane a cul-de-sac, only allowing
a pedestrian and bicycle route to D Street, as well as reducing
a planned subdivision owned by Helen Edwards from 25 to 24
lots. Nearby resident Clara Jana presented letters from 14
of her neighbors opposed to the last-minute alteration by
a scarce quorum of four out of seven Commissioners.
“These residents have been directly impacted by the
Planning Commission’s changes without notice,”
she said.
Edwards retorted by relating her frustration with the endless
changes recommended for her development as it has worked its
way through the bureaucracy.
“I just want an approved project after going around
on this little piece of property since 1988,” she said.
Charles Douglas is the Editor-in-Chief of the Humboldt
Sentinel, and can be reached at www.charlesdouglas.net.
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