Clif to Join me on KMUD tomorrow night

Supervisor Clif Clendenen will join me to discuss the latest developments in the General Plan Update.  Call-in format as usual.  7:00 p.m.

Liveblogging the BOS GPU meeting

It’s all happening at Lost Coast Outpost.  To avoid confusion, go to the bottom and read up.  I didn’t realize I was reading it backwards for a few minutes and it was reading like the movie Memento.

Is Sundberg breaking from the conservative majority?  He says that he is not interested in scuttling the plan in its entirety.  He did just barely win the last election against an environmental activist, and since then his district has lost Blue Lake.  He can’t afford to be cavalier about it.

General Plan Update Dead?

The Humboldt Sentinel reports on a very contentious special meeting of the Board of Supervisors, and it looks like the new conservative majority is ready to scrap the whole plan and start over.  So far no coverage from the TS or any of the other media blogs.

Addendum:  Coverage from the NCJ.

Jen Kalt interviewed on the subject.

And the Times Standard.

Second addendum:  Hank comments on the majority’s concern that the document is too big and difficult to read.

Housing Element meetings in Redway

I’ve received several emails, but went to check the County site and I can’t find any mention of the meetings.  However, several people have told me that there will be meetings for the next two Mondays at Redway School.

Again, I haven’t confirmed with the County, but I’m told that this is the schedule:

Redway- Monday June 6, from 6 – 8pm (Elementary School)

Eureka- Wednesday June 8; from 6 – 8 pm (Wharfinger building) We were scheduled in the Bay room downstairs, but to accommodate more people, we’ve moved it upstairs.

McKinleyville- Thursday June 9, from 6 – 8pm (Azalea Hall)

Redway- Monday, June 13, from 6 – 8pm (Elementary School)

Eureka- Wednesday June 22; from 6:30 – 8 pm (Wharfinger building) (upstairs)

McKinleyville- Thursday June 23 from 6 – 8pm (Azalea Hall)

Redway- Monday, June 27 from 6 – 8pm (Elementary School)

All the comments received will be provided to the Planning Commission at their meeting on Thursday, June 30. The Planning Commission will be continuing their meeting to Thursday, July 14th. If you have any questions or comments call Michael Richardson, Senior Planner, Humboldt County Community Development Services at: (707) 268-3723

Multi-family housing workshop in Redway Tonight

I just grabbed this memo from Healthy Humboldt from Heraldo’s.

Greetings all,

The County is currently considering possible sites for multi-family housing, which can include apartments, duplexes, or a “live/work” mix of residential, office and retail space. Based on input from the public, the County has revised their list of candidate sites and will be holding a series of public workshops to discuss the details. These workshops will be an opportunity for community involvement in how best to provide a wider range of housing options for people who already live and work in our communities.

Community Workshop 1

When: Monday, June 6, 2011 from 6 – 8 p.m.
Where: Redway Elementary School 344 Humboldt Avenue, Redway

Community Workshop 2

When: Wednesday, June 8, 2011 from 6 – 8 p.m.
Where: Wharfinger Building – 1 Marina Way, Eureka – The Bay Room (downstairs)

Community Workshop 3

When: Thursday, June 9, 2011 from 6 – 8 p.m.
Where: Azalea Hall – 1620 Pickett Road, McKinleyville

For more information, view the County’s Notice HERE.

Healthy Humboldt is a coalition of organizations and individuals working for a County General Plan that provides healthy housing and transportation choices while protecting our farms, forests and watersheds.

To learn more, visit us at: www.healthyhumboldt.org

If you have any questions or comments you can get in touch with us at: info@healthyhumboldt.org.

Humboldt Democrats on the GPU

Press release from the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee

RESOLUTION SUPPORTING THE GENERAL PLAN UPDATE      April 13, 2011

Whereas, further residential development in timber and agricultural land disrupts wildlife habitat, contributes to global warming, and reduces acreage available for resource production;

And, whereas, such conversion of resource land to residential use raises its value as real estate making it more costly for productive use;

And, whereas, ongoing urban sprawl onto productive resource land requires the extension of roads, drainage, fire, police and other public services paid for by the general public;

And, whereas, a General Plan Update that actually protects resource land and economizes public services while infilling established urban areas that can efficiently be served by public services has been developed through an orderly process of representative government with expert preparation by planning staff and open public hearings by the Planning Commission, both under the direction of the elected Board of Supervisors, for over a dozen years;

Therefore, be it resolved, that the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee strongly urges the timely adoption by the Board of Supervisors of a version of the General Plan Update that most effectively restrains further residential development of prime resource land and promotes efficient infill of urban areas for the benefit of the entire community now and in the future.

GPU heats up again – prelude to the upcoming Supervisors races

A number of organizations and interests have coalesced around an effort to toss all of the work which has been done over the past 10 years into the bin and start over for what they say has been a lack of public input prior to the framework drafts (certainly everyone must agree that there has been an abundance of input since).  Heraldo has a post with an extensive thread on tomorrow’s BOS meeting where that proposal will be discussed.

Dennis has covered the issue over the past couple of week’s on KMUD’s Monday Morning Magazine.  Last week he had Peter Childs on to discuss the public participation requirements of the old General Plan, which he helped draft.  This week he had Healthy Humboldt representatives.  Both shows are available online.

I have some thoughts on the issue, which I’ll share tonight.  It does appear that the County dropped the ball in failing to create Citizens Advisory Committees early on as required by local law, but I given that the framework for the GPU remains fluid (is constantly being updated) I don’t see any reason to start over, and I don’t think we can wait another ten years as I believe the old plan to be seriously outdated.

The cynical view is that developers want to delay as much as possible to slip through proposals under the old plan, and perhaps to change the make-up of the Board as Clif Clendenen, Jimmy Smith, and Mark Lovelace (all currently perceived by some as beholden to environmental and smart growth advocates – I mean really, Jimmy Smith?) all come up for re-election this next cycle.  I doubt Mark and Jimmy are going to be vulnerable, but I am told that a great deal of money is going to be put into defeating Clif.  I have heard rumors of three potential challengers, but I don’t expect anyone to formally declare until this summer or fall.

In the last campaign all three candidates ran exceptionally positive campaigns, even if some of the supporters crossed lines here and there.  I’m wondering if this race will be as cordial.  I will expect a much more detailed debate over the General Plan Update, both in terms of process and substance.  I expect the rails-to-trails issue will be big again. Since all three candidates last time around supported the Richardson Grove  project, I’m wondering if the opposition group will field its own candidate this time around.  And soon the medical marijuana dispensary ordinance will be in place, and depending on the form it could be an issue as well.

More on the GPU issue and tomorrow’s BOS meeting later.

Housing Element decertified

The County failed to rezone property designated for multi-family low income housing prior to the deadline.  The County says it will be compliant by April.

GPU process will probably face further delays

There’s going to be a big turnover in the Planning Commission due to expired terms as well as the conservative turn of the Board of Supervisors last fall.  And some of the people who have slammed the county for the extraordinary length of the process are ironically calling upon the county to slow it down even more until they have their commissioners of preference in place.

With the loss of these commissioners, a couple of whom have been on for over a decade, and the losses of Bonnie Neely and Jill Duffy, a great deal of institutional knowledge will be absent from the process.

Housing Element Approved

Heraldo reports.

As does the Times Standard.