on the cover / By John C. Osborn and Hank Sims

What’s Measure N For?

The Eureka ballot measure on the hot-button Marina Center looks strong, but does it matter?

(Oct. 21, 2010)  The politicos have been fighting over it for the last six years. The ground underneath it has been a city headache and a constant source of grief for at least a decade. Now, with Measure N on Eureka’s ballot next month, the public will have something to say about Marina Center, the massive waterfront development being proposed by Eureka entrepreneurs Rob and Cherie Arkley through their company Security National. Though even if the measure passes, it won’t be quite clear what message the voters intend to send, or what real-world effect — if any — their vote will have on the actual building of the project itself.

What is Measure N, really? On the one hand, you could think of it as a replay of 1999’s hard-fought Measure J, which would have allowed the retail giant Wal-Mart to build one of its superstores on the same site — the Balloon Track, a roughly 30-acre dilapidated railyard adjacent to Old Town. Like N, Measure J asked voters to take zoning decisions out of the hands of city staff and elected officials. Wal-Mart then, like Security National today, sought for the public to directly approve changes to the zoning map that would have cleared away many (but not all) of the legal obstacles that stood in the way of getting their store built. After a bitter election campaign that drew attention from the national press, Eureka handily rejected Measure J — the final vote was 61-39 percent against — and Wal-Mart was run out of town.

Eureka lawn signs entreat a vote for measure N. PHOTO BY HOLLY HARVEY

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In other ways, Measures J and N are completely different beasts. Part of this is due to the nature of the proposed project: As Security National and its supporters never fail to reiterate, Marina Center isn’t just about a retail superstore, as the Wal-mart proposal was. Yes, a big box store will anchor Marina Center, if it is ever built, but the development will also include space for smaller retail outlets, offices and industry, in addition to wetlands and other public amenities.

But the biggest difference between 1999 and today may be that despite all the dissatisfaction with Marina Center among the city’s progressive wing, no one is mounting an official campaign of opposition to Measure N. Security National crews are out on the streets, talking with voters and handing out flyers and lawn signs; no one is fighting back. Why is this? Unsurprisingly, opinions vary.

“There seems to be a little change of stripes with the opponents who have fought this project from the start,” said Security National Vice President Randy Gans last week. “They’ve always been a small minority in Eureka, and with this election coming up they don’t want to be on the wrong side of this issue.”

On the other hand, Marina Center opponents are likely taking solace in the fact that even if the measure passes, the project is far from a done deal. A lawsuit brought by Humboldt Baykeeper and the Environmental Protection Information Center is currently wending its way through the court; the two groups charge that the environmental impact report for the project certified by the city earlier this year is inadequate. If the suit is successful, the project would be sent back to square one and Measure N could be invalidated. At the same time, since the project lies within the jurisdiction of the California Coastal Commission, that agency must ultimately sign off on any change in zoning to the site, regardless of whether or not such a change is directly approved by the city’s voters.

“It’s a measure to change the zoning,” said Humboldt Baykeeper Executive Director Pete Nichols last week, emphasizing the precise technical and legal nature of Measure N, which could be overturned by higher authorities. “I think that a lot of the public thinks it’s a referendum on the project. It’s not.”

It’s taken a long time and a lot of money to get to here. In the wake of the Wal-Mart battle, Rob and Cherie Arkley offered to purchase the Balloon Track and donate it to the city. The city declined the offer. A few years later, in 2004, the Arkleys made clear their interest in developing the parcel themselves. Eventually they unveiled their plan for Marina Center — a 500,000-square-foot mammoth mixed-use project to be anchored by a Home Depot. A mammoth environmental review of the project was launched, and after several years of study the Eureka City Council quickly approved it, along with a first phase of work that would include an environmental cleanup. This first phase was quickly appealed to the California Coastal Commission, where the matter now languishes.

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