News

A couple weeks after the matter spilled cantankerously into public view, Humboldt County and Building Department staff is recommending the Planning Commission approve the permits necessary to allow a local developer to continue construction of his family home, with some revised conditions, at its meeting tonight.

The issue arose after Travis Schneider violated the terms of a coastal development permit needed for construction of his 8,000 square foot family home Walker Point Road near Fay Slough, south of the Indianola Cutoff and east of U.S. Highway 101. Specifically, Schneider began construction on the home with a slightly different footprint than what had been listed on an approved building permit, cleared brush and native blackberry in areas deemed ecologically and culturally sensitive, including one identified more than a century ago as a historical Wiyot village site, and cut an unpermitted temporary construction road on the property. The county issued a stop work order in December and, some weeks later (more on that in a bit), Schneider complied and work has remained halted since.


Schneider and planning staff were optimistic a resolution had been found during an Aug. 2 meeting with the Wiyot area tribes — comprising the Wiyot Tribe, the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria and the Blue Lake Rancheria — and the California Coastal Commission when the matter was set for a hearing at the Planning Commission’s Aug. 18 meeting. But the day prior to the meeting, the Wiyot Tribe, Blue Lake Rancheria and California Coastal Commission submitted letters urging the commission to reject the permit, saying details remained to be ironed out on generally agreed upon mitigation measures, including who would pay for tribal monitoring efforts and who would hold a proposed conservation easement.