news story / By Ryan Burns

Giant Circus Tent

Developers and realtors are adamantly against the idea. Several spoke up Thursday, saying that making IZ a requirement would be counter-productive because it would constrain development and raise home prices overall. Should the county go from barely encouraging to explicitly requiring this zoning, they said, it would be taking two big steps where one might be more prudent.

Girard wasn’t buying it. “It is a requirement,” he said. “It’s intended to rectify the pattern that’s occurred under the free market in the last planning period.” That five-year period saw the county exceed its minimum targets for moderate and above-moderate housing production while vastly under-producing homes for low and very low income levels. “That was the mix you would get without a requirement,” Girard said. In other words, unless you mandate it, low-income housing doesn’t get built.

In the spirit of tossing decorum out the window, Commissioner Sef Murguia then took it upon himself to vent. “You know, we’re often expected to sit up here like seven brass monkeys — or however many of us there are — and think, hear or speak no evil,” Murguia said. “And I don’t really think that’s a planning commission’s role. I think a planning commission’s role is to not only determine the timing and scope and extent of development but also, based on where the community seems to be going, to incite and in some cases to force a trend.” He declined to specify which trend exactly needed forcing but did request people dispense with the pussyfooting and say what they want already. “Give us your opinions,” he suggested.

“Thank you for the opportunity, and I’ll be happy to do that,” responded Julie Williams, representing the Northern California Association of Home Builders. Murguia’s rhetorical leg-stretching and Williams’ eager reciprocity (the NCHB is against opportunity zones, she said) spoke to a developing consensus: This town hall style is pretty cool. As the topics moved on to the rental market, emergency and transitional housing and land inventory, the microphone traveled from one end of the room to the other, points and counter-points bouncing off the paneled beige walls. Representatives of environmental group Healthy Humboldt called for energy-efficient homes in proximity to transit. Estelle Fennell, executive director of the Humboldt Coalition for Property Rights, spoke up for the rights of rural landowners. A man who traveled through Europe suggested youth hostels or elder hostels be used for the homeless — “Or how about a giant circus tent?” he said. (Girard wrote that one down.)

On other topics there was either agreement or no point in debating. Encouraging more secondary units was an idea everyone seemed to like: It provides low-income housing in established service areas with little risk of zoning disputes. Girard mentioned the possibility of allowing more rental property development in commercial zones. He also addressed a new state law that requires all jurisdictions to identify zones in their housing elements where emergency shelters and transitional housing are allowed without the usual permitting process, NIMBYs be-damned.

As the meeting was winding down, Kay Backer of pro-development group Humboldt Economic and Land Plan (HELP) echoed the sentiments of many in attendance. “We would really encourage you to have more town halls,” Backer said. With all the discussion, the commission ran out of time to address the final item on their agenda (very and extremely low-income housing) and the meeting was continued to Feb. 19, when the usual rules of order will be restored. That meeting and one more on Feb. 26 will be the last opportunities for public input on the housing element.

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