Planning Commission to focus on Housing Element
3/11/14
After the Humboldt County Planning Commission’s controversial, two-month review of the General Plan’s Conservation and Open Space Elements, the board of supervisors unanimously decided it was time to carry on.
Fifth District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg said with the commission failing to get through the 13 policy short list as had been instructed by board, the choice was clear.
Coastal Commission expects Caltrans to eliminate signs as part of its Highway 101 safety project
3/4/14
The next round in the battle of the bay billboards may take place not along the 6-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 101 between Arcata and Eureka, but in Humboldt County Superior Court.
CBS Outdoor Incorporated, which in a document filed by its attorneys claims to be the owner of about 20 billboards along the, is asking the court to rule against the California Coastal Commission, which in November of 2013 made the removal of all corridor billboards one condition of its approval of Caltrans’ Eureka-Arcata Route 101 Corridor Improvement Project.
1/7/14
It’s become a familiar experience for Mark Lovelace — being on the short end of 4-1 votes — and in the first Board of Supervisors meeting of 2014 the 3rd district supervisor was again the lone dissenter on two contentious decisions...
The Halvorsen Quarry appeal issue has been convoluted, full of acronym-laden discussions of state agencies, permits, mining law and the like. In a nutshell, the deal is this: The owner of the roughly 70-year-old quarry, Ryan Schneider (who’s usually represented by his father, Dave), has been trying to renew the reclamation plan for the site — that is, the rules governing what must be done once the mine is shut down (in 2025 or later). The application was approved by the county Planning Commission last year, but local environmental groups Humboldt Baykeeper and California Trout objected, arguing that the plan has insufficient protections for coho in the neighboring Rocky Creek as well as osprey, peregrine falcons, bald eagles (the Humboldt Bay Eagle Cam nest is nearby) and other wildlife.
1/8/14
The board voted 4-1 — with Lovelace dissenting — to deny an appeal made by Humboldt Baykeeper and California Trout on the Halvorsen Quarry reclamation plan. The appeal made in March called for the plan to include an erosion and sediment strategy, documentation of appropriated water permits, protections for nearby nesting bald eagles, revisions to the Mitigated Negative Declaration and making independent water quality tests of Rocky Creek available to the public.
1/7/14
Imagine taking a 5-acre piece of hillside in a watershed surrounding Humboldt Bay, removing all of the trees and topsoil down to bare dirt and rock, exposing it to year after year of winter rains, and then expecting downstream neighbors and Humboldt County residents to believe “it’ll be fine.”
That’s what the county supervisors and the Schneider quarry operators are asking us to do.
