County Changes Land Inventory -- Again

By Kay Backer

Less than a year ago, the County's Planning Division and Board of Supervisors certified to the state of California that there was enough ready-to-be developed land to create nearly 8,000 new housing units.

As we all know, housing for working families is a desperate need for Humboldt citizens. Young adults are forced to leave Humboldt because they can't afford to live here.

While this number submitted to the state may not seem important on its face, it in fact drives key decision-making for our local governments.

If a county has ample places to build new housing within existing zoning and infrastructure, then there's no need to change zoning or expand infrastructure to create more housing opportunities. Thus, the 8,000 unit number could be used to justify no changes in development strategy and continual rejection of efforts to develop housing for working families.

In the eleven months since certifying the 8,000 number to the state, Humboldt County officials have vigorously defended it and criticized anyone who questioned what were inherently questionable numbers.

Local real estate professionals who know the truth about housing and people interested in building housing were told the same thing: the County's numbers were correct and there were plenty of places for new housing to be built in Humboldt County .

However, anyone who has tried to build anything in this county knows that the county has almost no place to build homes.

At the State's request, the County took another look at the numbers. The result: last Thursday the County told the state there is room for only 3,692 units to be built in the county - less than half of the units they told the state a year ago.

While it appears the county is finally facing reality by revising the number down dramatically, in fact we believe the numbers are still inflated.

There is no land inventory as required by State law in the update report the County submitted to the State last week...only partial listings of certain parcels. There is no analysis of infrastructure in the update report as required by State law. There is reference made to infrastructure data having been included on a GIS.  However, it is not the GIS which is on the County's website and interactive for public viewing.

In its latest submission to the state, the county says it can meet its mandated goals for low-income housing by hundreds of landowners in Humboldt County building second houses in their back yards - so-called granny flats. Even if those 400 hundred homeowners wanted another house on their property, would there be infrastructure to support them? We doubt it, but we all need to see an accurate infrastructure analysis before we'll know for sure. .

We are encouraged by the County's apparent willingness to continue to do the work necessary to get their land inventory right. And we are ready to help where we can. The citizens of this county deserve no less.

Kay Backer, consultant for the citizens' group Humboldt Economic and Land Plan.