Fear in the Hills
Girard said the county first heard about the Tooby Ranch deal when neighbors called the department to complain about how property was being sold and the new people weren’t using the land for agriculture, in defiance of the lands’ Williamson Act contract.
“And this became a very high profile case at the state level,” Girard said. “The department of conservation, that oversees the Williamson Act program, was deeply involved at this point — people started building buildings and ponds and new roads out there and they weren’t obtaining permits for anything. So that was illegal construction on Williamson Act preserve land.”
Girard said the county also happened to be getting audited by the state for this very thing — to look for violations of the Williamson Act. A lot of counties were being audited, he said.
“And so we filed complaints against all of the illegal construction on Tooby Ranch. We wrote property owners and said, this house that you built and this pond that you constructed and this septic system, all needs permits. And so that was the first major enforcement action associated with protection of the Williamson Act program.”
When the state’s audit came back, it said Humboldt County had other problems besides just Tooby. Girard said the state had a list of properties the county needed to investigate. (He couldn’t produce the list, he said, at the moment, but the assessor’s office had it. Linda Hill, the county assessor, said last week that while she had a letter about the audit, there was no property list in it.)
A lot was at stake: If the county’s Williamson Act preserves weren’t in compliance — were being used for something other than agriculture — the state could cancel all of the subvention payments the county gets for all of these preserves. Those payments make up for the money lost to the major tax breaks preserve owners get.
“So, [the audit] was, in a sense, the mother of all complaints,” Girard said. “The entire program was at stake because of these few, these very few preserves, that were obviously out of whack.”
That’s when the county added Nielsen to its code compliance staff.
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on the cover
Railroad!
Proposed lines ‘set rich blood a-tingling’ in early 1900s
Some Other Proposed North Coast Railroads
Choo-choo Fantasies
Exposing this east-west rail nonsense
seven-o-heaven
Undeterred Will
Will chides Andrew for lack of attention to detail and makes plans for his inevitable victory.
Recent on the cover
May 17
Ring of Fire
Sun and moon will perform a rare pas de deux in Humboldt skies on Sunday
May 10
District Soup
Racing for the top county seat in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd districts
May 3
A Place in the Woods
As park closure deadline nears, a scramble to save what we can
Today
44th Annual Kinetic Grand Championship Race
STAFF PICK / events, art, outdoors, sports, for kids, free / 9 a.m.-6 p.m. A 3-day, 42-mile kinetic sculpture race over land, sand, mud and water! LeMans start at the Noon Whistle on the Arcata Plaza. Follow the race through Manila, Eureka and into Ferndale on Memorial Day for the Glorious Finish. kineticgrandchampionship.com. 889-3024.
Flow 2012 Fashion Show
STAFF PICK / events / 8 p.m. Arcata Theatre Lounge, 1036 G St. Student designed and produced clothing. Fundraiser for Arcata Arts Institute. $35/$25 students. artsinstitute.net. 822-1220.
Woodside Preschool's Rummage/Bake Sale
events / 8 a.m.-noon. Woodside Preschool, 900 Hodgson St, Eureka. www.woodsidepreschool.com. 445-9132.
Lanphere Dunes Restoration
STAFF PICK / outdoors / 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Meet at Pacific Union School. Help remove non-native invasives at the Lanphere Dunes Unit of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Tools and gloves provided, wear work clothes and bring water. Carpool to the protected site. 444-1397.
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ONE Comments
Comment / By little stinker / Dec. 27, 2009, 5:15 p.m.
let get something streight the governmet dose not give you your rights GOD dose that is why they are inalionable rights. 40,000 laws and all they have to do is protect the first ten. Oh excuse me Im not suposto say the G word. bite me.