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Vol.
I No. 8 Eurekans Criticize Efficiency
Dwelling Unit Proposal By Charles Douglas EUREKA – Representatives of business and real estate interests as well as concerned neighbors turned out in force Tuesday to oppose a proposed zoning ordinance to reduce the minimum amount of space allowable for apartments to 150 square feet, which would have been intended to provide affordable housing for low income tenants increasingly priced out of the market. Councilmembers eventually voted 3-0 to indefinitely postpone further consideration of the law, originally sponsored by Redwood Community Action Agency (RCAA), after pointed criticisms alleged an unseemly relationship between the proposal’s fate and RCAAs ongoing employment of Mayor Peter LaVallee. Starting an oft-heard refrain about attracting “non-productive people” to the community, Kelly Walsh of Matthews, Kluck and Walsh said the Council shouldn’t even be able to consider the proposal while LaVallee is Mayor. “If you build it, they will come,” he said. “Not only will taxes be lost to the City, taxes will be lost to the county as well…if the City shouldn’t serve the interests of a few developers, it shouldn’t have a soft spot for a few non-profits.” Business owner Don Davenport, who employed Matthews, Kluck and Walsh to successfully sue the City into dropping its plans to allow the Fireside in to be turned into a veteran’s center, called RCAA an “empire being built” in the City’s midst. He pointing to Executive Director Lloyd Throne’s seat on the National Community Action Federation board, which he claims is an agency dedicated to using public dollars to lobby the government and shape future social policy. “I have no objections to helping our homeless, our needy, our ill or our indigent…who are from our own local community, but I do oppose taking on other communities’ problems,” Davenport said. “The RCAA would be subsidized by the taxpayers; the statistics show an increase in crime with increased density.”
“Their desire to move forward on this is not as high as several years ago,” Tyson said. Councilmember Chris Kerrigan countered that RCAA did not need to be defended as they were not an applicant and this was not just a proposal about their possible conversion of lower-end motels on Broadway into affordable housing. “This is not a welfare program, this is a zoning decision as to what is appropriate in Eureka,” he said. “I think it’s ironic that the Humboldt Association of Realtors, who have consistently argued that the cost of housing is going higher, would argue against this…they’ve always indicated their willingness to create more housing opportunities.” HAR spokesperson Tina Christensen had advised the Council to hold off on the matter for further study to account for increased fire and police service calls, as well as for more specific ordinances governing conversions. She also questioned the potential impact on tourism to have low-income units along the main thoroughfare. “This proposal without built-in contingencies would create [an unfunded] mandate for Eureka’s police and fire department,” Christensen said. Councilmember Jeff Leonard agreed, blasting the owners of some half-dozen unnamed lower-end motels as irresponsible and calling for reform to the expiration of transient occupancy tax collection after two weeks of tenancy. Earlier statistics from Eureka police officials cite 234 calls last year at the Trinity Inn and 131 at the Blue Heron Motel, both on Broadway. “We have got to make those motels act like real businesses in town, or close shop,” Leonard said. Councilmember Mary Beth Wolford abstained from the vote due to her opposition to even bringing up the item for discussion again. She suggested providing additional small rooms for residences would make it too easy for a person to avoid case management and make single mothers vulnerable to predators. “That amount of space, for a family or a single person, is entirely inadequate,” Wolford said. Tyson promised to bring back a report on further regulation of lower-end motels, while Kerrigan called for a visioning session to determine what the community thinks the minimum allowable residential space should be. In addition Real estate agents took a more friendly tone as Councilmembers voted 4-0, with Virginia Bass-Jackson absent, to receive a report favorable towards condominium conversion as prelude to a permanent zoning change. “The disparity in price between single-family [homes] and condominiums is pretty significant and it’s my opinion the ownership of condominiums is the starting point for most buyers today,” Jeff Katz said. “There are a number of people who would turn their properties to owner-occupied condominiums if given that opportunity…as a representative of the real estate community, it’s up to us to educate the public about those opportunities.” A report was also filed on the efficacy of continuing the Utility Users tax, which assesses 3% on all power bills within the City. The Finance Advisory Committee recommended raising the tax to 4%, extending it for the next eight years and making it applicable to water, sewer, cable and telephone services without any allowances for low income, senior or disabled customers. The final death knell was sounded for five city committees, including Harbor and Zoo Advisory, as Councilmembers voted 3-1, with Kerrigan dissenting, to ratify their elimination. “Our city will now function more efficiently and those staff resources they devoted to those committees can now be better directed,” Special Projects Manager Gary Bird said. Leonard said the completion of a first phase of reorganization would now allow the creation of new committees devoted to public safety, neighborhoods and transportation in order to better meet the community’s current needs. Pointedly left out of Leonard’s list was animal welfare, despite the earlier speech by North Coast Animal Welfare Advocacy Center Director Barbara Shults, who called for the formation of an Animal Welfare Committee to, among other things, help capture grant funding to deal with an over-abundant feral cat population. “It’s important the community has these extensions, that we identify resources and provide for this,” she said. “Child abuse, elder abuse is all connected to this.” Shults also noted the new ability of local governments to enforce mandatory
spaying and neutering laws for dogs and cats, and found fault with the
rise of pit bull rings and lack of a dog park. |
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Copyright © 2005-06, Humboldt Sentinel. All rights reserved. |
According
to City Manager David Tyson, however, Throne had told him earlier that
day that the funding RCAA was counting on to make use of the zoning change
was no longer available.