Eco-hostel fans outnumbered
Hampton supporters four to one
By Charles Douglas
HUMBOLDT SENTINEL
|  EUREKA
- While Councilmembers held off on any final decision
on developing the prime bayside property adjacent to
the Wharfinger Building along Waterfront Drive, massive
public turnout to City Hall on Dec. 7 was decidedly
in favor of the Eco-Hostel as opposed to the Hampton
Inn recommended by the Redevelopment Advisory Board.
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“[The hostel] will help us overcome our differences
by showcasing the best and the brightest we have here on the
North Coast,” Maggie Gainer said. The Center for Environmental
Economic Development, which is the hostel’s sponsor,
has been involved in the research and development of many
successful local projects, Gainer, who serves as CEED President,
noted.
With a near-unprecedented number of people wanting the chance
to speak, Mayor Peter LaVallee terminated debate as the ten
o’clock hour approached, with the item delayed to the
next regular Council session. Prior to the debate, Councilmember
Chris Kerrigan further complicated the picture by introducing
the idea of a bayside brewery and restaurant also interested
in some of the prime real estate either under control of the
Redevelopment Agency or willing sellers in contact with city
staff.
Hampton Inn advocates were fighting an uphill battle nonetheless
in lobbying Councilmembers to ratify the recommendation, relying
on the ‘local boy’ cache of Larry DeBeni, Greg
Pierson and TKF & Associates to win them over.
“We’ve got a couple of lifetime local Eureka
residents putting forward a project who have a track record…they
take the risk out of this deal like you can’t believe,”
Eureka developer Kurt Kramer said. “There’s little
doubt to me that Larry and Greg can take this thing on.”
Hampton-backers noted the rapid expansion of transient occupancy,
or bed tax collections in surrounding communities. In the
last five years Arcata has seen a 40% increase and Fortuna’s
has nearly doubled, while Eureka’s increase has fallen
far shorter at 8.7% since 2000. City coffers would stand to
rake in $156,617 in new bed tax dollars in the hotel’s
first year of operation, according to the written bid. Yet
claims that the city would still be short of peak demand by
37 rooms even after Hampton’s completion was insufficient
to sway nearly 30 speakers running the gamut from homemakers
and business owners to conservationists and failed Presidential
candidates.
“At this critical point in time we have to think of
the long term health of Humboldt County,” Zach Mermel
said. “The fact that the spot is on the waterfront,
that’s a prime spot for setting the precedent for the
future of Humboldt County. It’s important to maximize
the investment the decision will make.”
While hotel proponents such as Linda DeSiere noted a “big
gap” in the supply of waterfront accommodations and
expressed the unanimous pro-Hampton position of her Board
of Directors at the Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce, even
she admitted that there may be room on the bay for both at
various locations stretching up to the Samoa Bridge.
Resident Maryanne Amber said it was time for Eureka to step
out of the shadow of Arcata and act in its own interests,
regardless of how it plays out in its sister city.
“I believe the healing and rebirth of Eureka has much
to do with its relationship to the bay,” she said. “I’ve
heard Eurekans say they are snooty in Arcata, ‘I just
never go there,’ ‘too many Arcata types are moving
here…it’s as if we’re always looking over
our shoulder, uneasily comparing Eureka to Arcata, somehow
we seem unsure of ourselves compared to that University town.”
Project Director Lew Litsky, who was recruited due to his
experience on the Board of Hostelling International-USA to
design the Hostel and Sustainable Living Center, said the
unique attractions such as a Wiyot Interpretive Center would
do more than make up for the 90% reduction in comparable Transient
Occupancy Tax revenues.
“These are new tourists coming in because this is a
new destination,” he said.
Self-identified comedian David Simpson asked the crowd what
kind of future they imagined for Humboldt County.
“Climate change is like the 500-pound gorilla on our
shoulders, we can deny it, we can face it but we can’t
for very much longer ignore it,” he said. “We
need to turn towards sustainability.”
Mainstreet vote on RAB questioned
In the midst of a tide of speakers exhorting the benefits
of the hostel, Eureka business owner George Clark characterized
the representation of local merchants on the Redevelopment
Advisory Board as illegitimate, entirely apart from the issues
of Sue Brandenberg’s Taxpayer League-inspired lawsuit
over the Plaza project at the foot of C Street and the resignations
of Glen Goldan and Charlene Cuttler-Ploss.
“What citizens may not know is that one decisive vote
was cast by Boardmember Charlotte MacDonald of the Eureka
Mainstreet organization for which I as a member and dozens
of other businesses are members of,” he said. “Eureka
citizens need to understand that Eureka Mainstreet and Charlotte
MacDonald do not speak for the Eureka Mainstreet members because
we are never polled or even informed on any development project
they lobby for, including the Hampton hotel.”
Clark went on to condemn the lack of information in the Eureka
Mainstreet newsletter of any of MacDonald’s votes or
activities on the RAB, which had cast a shorthanded 3-2 vote
in favor of the Hampton Inn proposal.
Any public response will have to wait for the final Council
meeting of the year on Tuesday Dec. 21, to be held at the
Wharfinger in order to handle the anticipated crowd, which
had filled the Council Chambers and a viewing room down the
hall equipped to carry a live feed from Channel 10.
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