Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Mr. Black, are you ready? All right. Kaylee? You guys got it? Good. Everybody on this side? Excellent. All right. Let's do it. We will welcome you to this meeting. Tuesday, August 11, 2026. The Board of Supervisors for Humboldt County. It is just a few minutes after 9 a.m. We'll start with a roll call, please.

Great. This is the time we'll do the saluted flag. You want to lead us, Chuck? There you go.

Okay, good job. Do we have any modifications to the agenda, CAO Hayes?

Okay, fine, fine, good. All right. Let's see, with that, we are going to move, we have some time sets. We have a 9.45 where we'll talk about the Queue Zone and Lower Redway. That will bring us to 12 p.m. when we'll have the report from Fish and Game Advisory, and at 12.30, closed session items. As you can see, that's gonna be on the move, so I'm requesting that both us up here and folks in the audience do their best to get to the point. We wanna hear everything you wanna say, but also let's try and be strategic if we can. And with that, we're gonna move into the consent calendar minus number 3

Yeah, I'd like to, since you're in the front row here and you can't ignore them. The Veterans Transition Training Lines and the Clark Museum, the developers of Veterans Memorial for the California River Coast Humboldt County Airport would like to get up and speak. I know they've given you all a package, and I believe a challenge coin is in there for everybody. You'll each have three minutes. And I... I'll add a little bit, I think Chuck started this project 11 years ago? 15. 15, okay, right when I got on the board, and I remember it's been, and I went up and looked at it on Saturday, as a matt

Before we have class, I just want to make sure that we have other... Do we have more of you that want to talk about this? All right, I'm going to bring it back to Supervisor Bone.

There's a whole proclamation here, and just for the benefit of my... I like the idea of being strategically placed. I'm not going to read this, but it says quite a bit of stuff on here, and it's wonderful, and I suggest everybody go online and look at it. Again, Chuck... Chuck isn't just passionate, he's like a dog on a bone when he gets his mind set into anything. And it's a beautiful, we've had two or three different presentations up at the airport, and we have them upstairs where the whole president, and it's pretty awe-inspiring. And I want to thank you for what you've done for the airport

So, thank you. All right, now. All right, this is the time when you guys get your photo taken. Uh-oh. There he is coming down. This is the moment.

You want to come? Yeah. Let me get on your side. Get better. Yay.

Well, thank you all. We'll get out of your hair. Thank you so much. Thank you. Take care. Nice to see you. Thank you. Grab my bag. OK.

We also have a resolution recognizing the 100th anniversary of Bembo Inn. Michelle, you want to?

Thank you. I already, I'm not going to read it today, but I already delivered the resolution and attended their party down there. It was great. And really value the Bembo Inn and what it brings to Humboldt County and Southern Humboldt and the traditions that they have kept there with their designs and remodels. They do a great job.

I associate myself with all of those comments. Very true.

Well, I didn't work at the Bembo Inn. I worked at the golf course. I mowed grass and cleaned toilets for some time there. All right. Let's see here. The last thing I wanted to just mention is we have a retirement resolution for child welfare services, social services aid, Jane Baker, and also not present to receive it today, but congratulations and we're happy. Was there someone in the audience that wanted to speak to this at all? This is your moment.

All right, the side hustle is now the hustle. Awesome. Nothing like a great smile, thank you so much. All right, with that I'm gonna bring, is there any other discussion for items on consent calendar by the board members? Okay, I'm gonna bring it to, is there anyone online that wants to speak to items on the consent calendar?

And if there are other callers, this is a good time to raise your hand. Callers but this is a good time if you have if you have comments on consent items now's a good time to and you're in the room now's a good time to line up for that so that we can make that happen so there you go please bring in the first caller caller 5588 martinez here can you hear me yes we can hear you thank you

All right, thank you. I'll bring it back to the room. Is there anyone else online that wants to talk on consent items? All right, let's bring it to the room and then go from there.

All right, is there anyone else who wants to talk on things that are on the consent agenda? Consent agenda.

Yeah, at the time certain. Yeah, that's why we do that. Yep, no problem. Anybody else seeing, anybody? Consent? All right, I'm gonna bring it back to the board. I'm looking for a motion and a second to move consent. Minus D31. Okay. Is there a motion? Sure. Oh, yeah. This is your time to comment.

I'll make a motion to accept the consent calendar. And I also want to just reference to the multiple projects from Public Works that are Measure O funded. And across the county, you can see a lot of road work going on right now with those funds. And so I want to thank the public for voting for that and that it's making a difference on our county roads.

Okay, there's a motion and a second, but I do want to ask, we have someone from Public Works, and I want to, do you mind coming up and addressing, there was a question in relation to the ramps, D35, and I didn't get into the details of that to that level, necessarily, but I do know that, well, I just want to ask the question, like, is this a thing that's amendable, or is this not amendable, or can you just give me a, is this, I'm trying to get to the part where if we pull this and ask for an amendment or a change, what does that actually mean? That's what I'm getting at.

Okay, I'm just going to ask this question. So you say oftentimes. Does that also include this time?

thank you so much thanks for covering that appreciate it I'm going to bring it back to the board I think my questions have been answered on that and thank you for doing that just for folks I think just for clarification what the commenters saying is that oftentimes when we have ramps at the corners the old way of designing was that that ramp would go diagonally into the into the crosswalk and that can be confusing for people who are sight impaired or other things and so or just less accessible so Actually having two ramps going in one in each direction is the preferable design. So what I'm hea

Are we changing our stream and pulling things like this now and talking about them without pulling them?

We're answering people at the dais. Anyway, I just. Sometimes we get clarification from staff so that we can keep things on consent or make a decision to choose to remove it. So with that, is there any objection to NAM's consent for consent items except for 31? Seeing none, the consent calendar has been approved, unanimous consent. So the next thing on here is, I walked through a cobweb this morning, it's the time of year. All right. Yeah, no, it's just like those pumpkin spiders. All right, so. Not agenda items, we got it. All right, you guys ready? We're doing non-agenda items now, bringing

You're talking about my hair again? Spiders in my hair? All right, so, there's nowhere to hide, that's for sure. Okay.

This is not where we... We don't have discussions here. You just talk to us.

All right, thanks for your comments. Next.

Thanks, and this may seem like a conspiracy, but our closed captioning has stopped working, so we need to stop for a minute while that gets fixed, and then as soon as that's fixed, we're gonna come back and start this all over again.

Sorry, we're gonna start this back from where we left off, from where we left off. I won't make you do this all over again. I'm being told this could take up to an hour if we don't get it resolved. But this is a requirement. This is an ADA requirement that we provide this closed captioning. So it's either going to be really quick or it's going to be a long time. It's going to be one of those two things. Well.

Hold on one second. I said I'm going to start in what I say. Hold on one second. All right, so the first thing I'm going to do is open a public hearing. Oh, that's right. That's right. Okay. Finishing non-agenda items.

Okay, last chance for anyone who wants to talk about things not on the agenda. All right, we're gonna close that part of the meeting and get into the public hearing. John. I'm gonna just walk through a few things. We're starting a little bit late. It's a pretty substantive item, so I'm gonna ask that folks be aware of that. I'm gonna run it a little differently. I'm gonna ask staff to do their thing and give an explanation. I'm gonna bring it back to the board for questions, but also I wanna make sure, I'm gonna ask the board to give their lean on this a little bit before we go to public comme

We are doing the time set matter for the Q zone and Redway. Okay. Yep, because it's time set and we're past the time set, so I apologize. Yep, got it. Is that all helpful to everybody? You're right, there's no public hearing. I apologize for jumping into that. So, hope that helps everybody and hopefully we can get through this and just trying to be strategic and do the best we can to be as useful as possible.

Thank you. I just want to say that I think the community from the Southern humble area, it's been a long process and you've been very patient and hopefully we can get some somewhere today with this and move forward and you guys feel hurt. So I appreciate you being here again today.

Great. Excellent. Thanks for that. All right. I'm going to bring it back to the board. We'll just start with questions, but then also we'll have a little bit of discussion as well, starting with Supervisor Bushnell.

Well, I hate to buck your system, but I would prefer to hear public comment to get my thoughts around things.

Sure. Supervisor Arroyo, thoughts on this?

I'm fine to hear public comment unless you, you know, I appreciate the, you know, staff presentation. I think it's helpful, and I think, you know, this has been spurred in part by public interest, and so I feel similarly.

Okay. Supervisor Bone, any comments before we go to public comment? All right. Great. Well, I'll just say it out loud. I think the recommendations sound really reasonable to me. And so just putting it out there. The reason it's here is because this board asked for these things to come back for discussion. I think there's a push. I haven't heard anything negative from board members yet on these items. So with that, I'm going to bring it to public comment. And again, there's kind of two layers to this. One is what's happening in Redway, and the other is countywide. And I will say I've had consti

Yeah, so I appreciate this item coming back before the board. I think it's a timely discussion. And I will point out that there's another item on our agenda today that was pulled from consent in regards to a development whereby 79 parcels would be created where houses will be being built within an existing spruce forest. that has 100 to 200 foot tall trees in it. So it's not just old growth that creates hazards, I just wanted to say. I like the suggestion in the staff report about possibly developing a county ordinance and informing people when they're buying property and building homes within

All right, we're gonna take this to public comment online. Anyone wanna speak to this?

I find that hard to believe. I'm waiting 30 more seconds here just to make sure, absolutely sure.

Okay. Raise your hand is your time if you want to talk. All right. I don't have anybody here. Okay, so we're bringing it into the room. Let's do it.

All right, who's next? And if you're here to speak in the room, it'd be great if you could line up so that we can... Keep it moving. All right.

All right. Anybody else want to speak to this item? Again, it's great if you can stand in line.

All right, we're gonna bring it back to the board. I'm first gonna ask John, excuse me, Director Ford, do you have any thoughts on any of the requests or you wanna maybe reiterate back some of the ideas that came from the public comment that you heard today?

I'll bring it back to the board. So really what's being asked of us is a recommendation or a direction on moving forward with modifications and modernization of the Q zone for Redway as one item and the other is for the county. I did hear a request and I want to think about that a little bit, which was a moratorium while the county works on, if there's a decision by this board to do a countywide ordinance, that a moratorium be brought back, a temporary moratorium, so that what you don't want to see is folks trying to jump ahead of an ordinance. And so we did this for short-term rentals. We did

Thank you. So I have a question around the temporary moratorium. My understanding is that the Q zone currently, and I think you've talked with your staff, John, but a special permit will be required. And that my understanding is the moratorium wouldn't need to happen because the process is going to be followed. I know some of the commenters said, you know, there was a disconnect, which I think we all agree. And can you comment on that, please?

Thank you. I think it's really important that we recognize that hazardous trees do happen and that we allow that process. And with the Q Zone in place, the public and the Planning Commission can weigh in and the documentation that's required if there is another application for hazardous tree removal will be followed, correct? Correct. Okay. And then secondly, I wanted to address one of the commenters with the information not getting to you. So we worked really hard to get the information out. It was on KMUD, it was on Red Headed Black Belt, Director Ford emailed. the Lower Redway community las

Okay, so I wanted to ask additionally because I want to make sure that the public input process is going to happen. And so what does that look like for you guys getting the public process input happening?

Let me interrupt because is there an additional item just to really get it out there that needs to be here to make sure that that process happens?

Okay. Well given that, and you know, I, I like this list. I'm going to make a recommendations for, I'm going to make a motion for staff recommendations, a through E including three and add also that we include a working committed, an open working committee to talk about the Q zone in the lower Redway and larger area of Humboldt County.

I'll second. I do want to clarify that last point about the working committee. I mean, I'm sure the folks in Lower Redway have a lot of experience with this and could benefit the whole county, but there may be issues that are separate from Lower Redway that affect the county-wide version, so I don't know. I just sort of would like to give staff the discretion about whether that's two community working groups or one, and then I also want to, of course, mention that we have a forestry committee and see what your thoughts are, John, about how, at what point in the process they would be engaged.

Yeah, the motion maker is a minimal to that, and I don't want to micromanage the process, so I didn't mean to have you use just one committee. I want you to use what you need to get to where the county needs to be with these ordinances.

And then I did just want to understand, just with respect to the recommendation around a moratorium, I mean, I can appreciate that we want to – I can appreciate the spirit of that, and I know we already have, depending on where the tree is located and its proximity to structures and its size and all those things, there are already some rules in place. Is there a way that we can, and I also understand we're talking about old growth, but defining those characteristics needs to be part of the ordinance on a countywide level, which is why we're, giving this direction today. So do you have any thou

Can I comment on that quickly as the motion maker?

Sure, and I'd like to get the rest of the board in this conversation.

So my understanding is that does the Q zone in the lower Redway area only protect old growth, or is it the entire forest down there?

To the rest of the county, but not to the Redway area?

So is that what you're meaning, Supervisor Arroyo? I didn't think that's what she was meaning. Oh, okay.

I was speaking to Supervisor Wilson's request for moratorium. So I thought this was outside of the Q zone in Redway. Okay. Separate from... or perhaps inclusive of the Q zone and Redway, but also inclusive of other parts of the county. I thought that's what you intended.

I'll clarify, sure. From my perspective, Redway's covered. It already has a Q zone. It already has the recommendations to move forward. So this is for the rest of the county. My request would be that if we move forward with the moratorium, and again, usually the moratoriums are like You're moving in the right direction. It's not everything. It's temporary. So I want to really clarify that we should, if we ask for a moratorium that has a time limit to it, that's pretty important. Probably like a year or something to that effect. And in that way, protects a majority of what you're trying to deal

I fully support, and we've got it set in place, and the rules have now been proven, and actually for the people of Redway, for government, It's only been eight months. This is moving pretty quick to get up here and get everything else. I mean, it was said this is taking a long time. It doesn't take a long time. It's eight months. We're rocking and rolling on this. And I think you're going to see. I need to see a definition of an old growth. And then I also need to see what a rule is for a hazard tree. We don't have that. So we're going to have to get four arborists and they all, because there'

Do we have any in the queue at the planning and building, people building on three acres or less and they're going to cut down some old trees? Yes. Is it because of this or has this been in the works for a while?

Okay, because we fought Richardson's Grove and the old growth down there for I don't know how many years and it looks pretty good down there now. I haven't seen a big tree taken down yet, so... Yeah, I'm not in favor of the countywide, because I think it's too enveloping. I think some people are jumping on an opportunity to make it sound like, oh God, they're gonna cut out every tree in the yard type thing, and this is happening all over and everything else. We had a rare incident that may have been taken advantage of, I'm being very generous there, in Lower Redway, and we're addressing that.

Chair, can I ask a process question? I'm sorry, I know.

Yeah, and I think it's a good time to ask that question. I think I know what you're going to ask. Yes, we can have two separate motions, 100%. All right, and maybe we could do that. Maybe I could ask the motion maker to pull back part of the original motion, and just concentrate on the Redway section of this, and then we can get through that, and then maybe we can then talk about the next part. Sure.

Director Ford, I wanted to ask about, so including, so first of all, there wouldn't be, the moratorium wouldn't happen today. It would be to come back with definition of moratorium, right? Correct. So it wouldn't happen today whether we voted yes or no on this. Secondly, I want to know that when or if this board does put a moratorium on the rest of the county, what does it look like for if there is a hazardous tree and if there's intimate danger and we have this moratorium in place, what happens then?

So that's what I was gonna ask. So if we add language to bring back what the moratorium could look like, could it be the moratorium with a caveat that it just is the same, not a moratorium, but it would follow the same process that the Q Zone in Lower Redway does for hazardous tree mitigation for, it just seems to me that we have to allow a pathway because there are dangerous trees at times.

Okay. So if I was to add to my motion to come back with language around what a moratorium could look like with an ability for a special permit to remove hazardous trees, would that be sufficient?

I think that's, I mean, that would be in my expectation anyway, because even in a moratorium, it's not an absolutist perspective. It's like it would, it would have all the cut caveats that we are, that we're under right now. So and process, it just wouldn't have been fully flushed. And that's why you would, that's why you make it temporary and then go through some more, you know effort and process.

Can I ask Supervisor Bone, does that help at all with the ability to have the special permit process?

Have that be part of it, but I'm not going to vote for a moratorium of any sort, because number three on here says direct staff to develop an ordinance based upon the Q zone, which protects old growth trees outside of the lower Redway Q zone. When you write on number three, right below E, when you write that, does that mean all the trees outside of Redway in Humboldt County? Or does that mean close to the Redway Q Zone? Because it's misleading to just say it so nicely there, but it's going to affect Orleans, it's going to affect Petrolia, it's going to affect Honeydew. It's going to affect peo

Fair enough. I'm just saying, John, it's just we have regulated this industry, and now we're finding out now we can regulate it down to country farms to three acres. I'm just...

We're in a conversation with Supervisor Bone and Director Ford, so I wanna just let you, if you have more to say on that.

Okay. I understand this isn't about timber. I understand it's not an industry. I understand that. But I'm also understanding with somebody that lives with redwood trees, they're a giant weed at the end of the day, because I'm getting too old to climb my ladder. Now I'm having to climb my ladder once a year and everything else. They're wonderful and everything else, but my neighbors are asking for trees to come down. So I mean, I guess that would be great. All my neighbors would like it, but I don't have a place to fall them because I'm in too small a lot. So in turn, I'm just saying, this hasn

I'm in my motion to remove three, and we'll split the motion. So my recommendation is staff recommendations one and two through E. and to include the committee as directed.

Okay. And is the seconder okay with that, knowing that there's probably a second motion coming? Okay. And Supervisor Bone, you're, yeah, I'm just saying, just so we're clear, the motion maker has removed the countywide ordinance, and this is only for Redway right now. I got you. All right. You ready? All right. Let's do a roll call vote, please, for that.

Great, all right, I think we're ready to discuss the second half of this, which is a countywide ordinance for the protection of old growth. Maybe we could start with a motion, if you want.

So is the countywide ordinance just specifically around old growth trees, or we had, what are we talking about here?

Can I ask then, currently, with what Supervisor Bohn said, say, I'm just using this as an example, he has a tree that needs to be cut in his house or in his yard, what's the process currently that would happen?

He got you turn on your microphone and yeah through the chair kind of stuff yes my understanding is that a landowner can remove any tree at any time as long as they are not making a commercial use of that byproduct because then that triggers CAL fire permitting processes even if it might be just a zero to 150 foot exemption great

And I appreciate that. I do feel like a lot of those details will come back. We're not being asked in this moment to approve a moratorium or a countywide ordinance. What we're being asked to is to give direction for staff to bring those things back with those details that we can have for discussion. My assumption is that for a countywide ordinance, it would include a similar committee process that would occur. And my assumption also is in a moratorium, it's simpler than that and it's temporary. It's just a holding place while all that stuff gets worked out. And of course if there are emergenci

Does this need to be voted on or can this go through popular consensus? I don't mind directing staff to bring it back if feasible, but we're telling them to bring back, and I know we'll have lots of input. I won't, but.

Thank you. Is there more discussion from the board?

Supervisor Bushnell. With all that that you said, which was a lot, read back what you think John were doing, please.

Can I ask that, do, so I'm sure that when you come back with that moratorium you're gonna have

And thank you. And then before the moratorium comes back, will you engage with our forestry committee and with Cal Fire to make sure that we are including before that moratorium language comes back? Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Thanks. I appreciate that. But I will ask that. The point of a moratorium is to not be too delayed in its return because the longer that gap, the more problematic it can become. So I would ask for a fairly rapid engagement. With that, is there any more discussion from the board on the direction given to staff or could be given to staff depending on the vote? Seeing none, we'll have a roll call vote please.

So I'm gonna vote yes on this, but I am not sure in the future it's gonna be very what it looks like and who we've engaged and what the actual moratorium says, but I am amenable to having that discussion come back.

Okay, so with that, we're ending the discussion on this. I'm just bringing back to CAO Hayes. We have two time sets. Is there anything we can put into the middle of that?

Oh, yeah, it's a public hearing. Let's do that. I was just so engaged in this conversation. So we're going to open up public hearing. What? And the item pulled. I thought it was going to be, it goes to the end of the day.

I don't care. We'll leave it. Is it your call? We're going to do public hearing right now for sure. That's happening. This is what we're doing, yeah. Let's do it.

It is so open. This is one very open public hearing.

Okay, bringing it back to the board, are there any questions about this item? Seeing none, do we have any comments online?

All right, bringing it back to the room. Any comments on this item?

All right. Bringing it back to the board, or is there any comment from the comments by staff?

Okay, great. All right, well, I'm bringing it back to the board. Is there any more discussion from the board? If there is not, it would be great to get a motion for staff recommendation. All right, I'll make the motion for staff recommendation. All right. There's a motion for staff recommendation. Is there any objection to unanimous consent? Seeing no objection to unanimous consent, the item passes and we are on to the next item. It seems to me that D31 is what's left and what's gonna happen with that? Are we ready and prepared to do that? Yes, Supervisor Bowe.

That we would do 31 at the end of the meeting. I do not know if anybody was here for that. And if anybody does have that information, it would be nice to know because when we tell somebody it's going to be end of the meeting and then we want to slide her in, I'm fine with it. I am fine with it, but I'm just thinking. Okay. Okay.

I will refer to council on this. And Public Works. I'll ask Public Works to just come to the table and then we'll discuss how to move forward and what to do. Yeah, you're good.

We have our next time set is at 12, so I think there's a good amount of time to get into this. And so, that being said, it is not a public hearing. And I will just bring it first to the public hearing. I think what I'll do is I'll ask staff to just introduce the item as it stands, and then I'll ask Supervisor Madrone, who asked for this to be removed for discussion, to then start the conversation. I think that's how we'll do it. So, Tom, if you want to take it away.

Okay. Do we have any maps or anything? I mean, they're in the, they're in our stuff right in front of us but do we have any that's like that you can put up on the screen or anything like that is that were you prepared to do anything like that today no we were not prepared to do that today all right supervisor Madrone is your time to jump in there thank you chair

I appreciate this has been a long process, been 15 years since this was the tentative map was actually approved by the planning commissions, had a lot of extensions. It is a bit unusual that there's so many conditions still to be met at last point here, but the staff report details those in good form in terms of agreements being signed to get those completed before any parcels are sold and that kind of thing. Things change over 15 years. I mean, for instance, with Amazon, even though there was an EIR for the entire business part done 20-some years ago, conditions have changed, and they're havi

All right, Supervisor. I'll just offer that as a beginning for discussion at the board for a minute. Supervisor Bushnell?

Thank you. I understand that Supervisor Madron pulled this this morning. I think it's very unfair to the developer and to staff and to this board that we don't have, we don't even have anything to present. And like were we supposed to make all these decisions without even having a staff report? And you pulled that this morning. Is the developer online?

I actually pulled it yesterday in my conversations with the CAO and that started a trigger of meetings and conversations. So I didn't wait till this morning to do that. And as you know, when we get these agendas on Friday at five o'clock and we were on vacation, it can take some time to review all of these things. So I believe I've done my due diligence, but I wasn't the one that chose to avoid doing a comprehensive EIR 15 years ago that put us in this position. So I really feel a bit insulted that you would suggest I'm trying to do something at the last moment. Well, I was told wrong. Excuse

I just said I was told wrong. But I think it is a lot to discuss without having information and presentation.

One of the other options is that we could continue this item until next week. We have the time to do that.

Yes, hold on one second. You are next. Okay, everybody. Supervisor Baum.

In all honesty, this is a ministerial... What was required 15 years ago is exactly whoever the developers are did. They did what was required of our department. Public Works has done an extensive report here, and trust me, Tom doesn't take a road unless he's fully aware he can take a road. He's not gonna put us out on the limb. So what was required 15 years ago, and there was wetlands, there was everything else addressed, and rightfully so, We all, like I mentioned, I've got trees in back of me, I've got trees, we all live in forests. They're gonna be able to fireproof this. And today's buildi

Okay. Is there any more comments from the board before we hear from some staff? All right.

I would be interested to hear what Director Ford is eager to say, if you don't mind, Chair.

Yep, that's what we're going to do right now.

I just have a follow-up question. And so when you say meet the local ordinance, is that meet the local ordinance at the time? Okay, at the time of approval. And so you feel like that this is, without question, meets the ordinance requirements at the time? Yes. Okay. Supervisor Bone? Yes. And then Supervisor Madrone.

So if we change horses in the middle of the race or impose things that we're not supposed to be imposing, does that open the door to us being liable in any way when we change rules. Because the avenue they're taking is basically saying, we will do this because we won't give them a permit to occupy. We will do this once we get the final approval and get this last step, which is bring it to the board, which they are to approve. But nobody wants to spend four, five million dollars on improvements and then have roadblocks thrown up. Would that be a proper assumption or? I'm probably looking at you

Are these big bank developers, are they local? This isn't Toll Brothers or any of those, Brandon, or any of the big home builders, are they local? Okay, so they're house builders.

All right. One more question and then I'm going to go to public comment. And actually I'll let Tom.

That's all right. Well, I would very much like to hear from the developer, you know, from the applicant, because it is unfair to change the rules halfway through. I absolutely agree with that. John, if you could come back up, please. So it'd be really nice to hear from the developer or his representatives in regards to why they chose not to do a comprehensive EIR 15 years ago. Is it not true that even 15 years ago, CEQA does have Regulations requirements that do not allow piecemealing which is exactly what's happening here There was not a comprehensive EIR that was completed now. I understand

So part of that wetlands delineation and inventory included the setting aside of the 30-some acre parcel. It does have significant wetlands within it? And that was one of DFW's recommendations?

Right, so as they build individual driveways or roads and if they have stream crossings, they'd have to do a special management area, SMA, special permit, and also DFW permits, things like that.

So when we talked, you mentioned that each individual parcel would have to do a wetland. Delineation. And yet you're saying that that was done for the entire property.

So it was only done for some portions of the development, but not the individual roads, driveways, and house sites. Okay, so it was just a partial delineation for a piece of the property.

So thank you, John. Thank you, director Ford. So I understood that there was a representative for the developer online on zoom. Is that correct?

And just for process, what I want to do is before the developer comes on, I want to let Supervisor Arroyo go next, and then I'm going to go to public comment, and then we'll... Well, I thought it'd be pertinent for the public to hear from the developer's representative in regards to their willingness to do a comprehensive EIR, for instance. Hold on one second. I... I would like to get through, the public will hear it, those questions, and we'll get. So I'm gonna keep moving with Supervisor Arroyo, and then we'll go to public comment, and then we'll bring it back. Supervisor Bone, you'd like to

My my questions were just about the subdivision agreement term the 12 months is the period for completion inspection acceptance but then it speaks to extension and writing. Is there any limit to how many extensions there can be. I'm not seeing that in the subdivision agreement but I don't know if there are limits.

So only 24 months for all of this to happen? Correct. Okay, okay. And then I'm not quite understanding the difference between the performance bond and the other bond. Could you just help me understand those? One is significantly greater for the public improvements themselves, and then the performance bond is for what?

Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. That's my questions for now.

Those are good test questions for the surveyors exam there. Okay, Supervisor Buon.

Director Ford again, I'm sorry. You're getting your workout squats in. So the home builders we're talking about here met all the requirements. I can't find anything that says they refuse to do this or refuse to do that. Because you guys aren't really big into the refusing business. You make requirements and they have to meet those requirements. They met all requirements 14 and a half, 15 years ago, right?

I just, thank you. All right. We're going to take it to public comment. And I just want to, if the applicant, we're going to give them their own time so they don't need to comment in this moment. So if there's anyone else that's not the applicant online, please raise your hand. Is there anyone there?

I think it's in the application, isn't it Danco? It's Danco.

OK, any more public comment? Seeing none, bringing it back to the board. I have a couple of questions, so I'll take a shot at this if I can. And John, I have a few for you in this. It seemed like there was review in terms of in terms of basically the infrastructure. We're just talking about really the roads, right? That was the environmental review was for that and not necessarily for, and I think what Supervisor Madron's talking about is the cumulative impacts of developing How many? 79 lots. 79 lots and in a forested land and the associated natural resource areas in there. And so I guess wha

It wasn't analyzed at all. Yeah. Okay. It's a big hole. I think one of the questions that's here today is like, well, we wouldn't do it that way today. We just wouldn't happen. So there's concern about that and it's not just about that. I also have a concern about the idea that every one of these 79 lots is now also on septic as well and the cumulative impacts on water quality within those spaces and I'm kind of wondering like where does that happen and there's just no analysis for that as well as the as well as, as we talk about now in some of these larger lots, there's going to be the allowa

Right. So I'm just saying, like, I'm just kind of wondering about, was there any discussion about the sort of the, it surprises me that they're delivering sewer, I mean water and not sewer to this location. And what do we, that seems unusual to me.

Okay. It's interesting to me because we could potentially have a issue, we could potentially have a shelter cove issue here in terms of there could be lots that are unbuildable because there's been no environmental review or PERC or other things.

Well, if they did PERC, then they would have had to have done it in areas that qualify for that and would assume that there was somewhere, there was a buildable, component to that. I mean, would they, did they, each one of these lots was like outlined where the footprint of a structure would go and where that would happen. That happened at all.

And there would, and, From my perspective if I would buyer beware if you don't have a wetland delineation on any of these Lots, I mean it seems like you'd want to do that all up front and then subdivide your do your map based on based on the constraints of the of the situation this is what I'm kind of getting at it's like this reminds me a little bit of Shelter Cove in that way it's like made a subdivision map but didn't consider all the all the constraints and some Lots are having some real troubles so But going back to this, so there's just no cumulative review of 79 septic systems in this a

Okay. All right. I appreciate those are, I mean, those are kind of my basic questions. I really, I mean, I... I appreciate your perspective and what you're saying. It's kind of a little bit, we just wouldn't do it this way today. Agreed. Okay. Supervisor Bone, and then let's get down to some action.

When SQL was brought forward in 2008 when it started, California Department of Conservation, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Eureka Region 1, CDFW, California Department of Parks and Recreation, California Department of Transportation, California Regional Water Quality Control Board, North Coast Region 1 Quality Water Board, Department of Water Resources, State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Water Rights, State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Financial Assistance, the California Native American Heritage Association, And then what was checked also in the EIR w

OK. I was remiss in not having the applicant speak to this, so this is gonna be the time, and the applicants have sat through a lot here, for sure, and so if we could bring in the applicant now, and if they have something to say, or answer some questions, or those sorts of things, and then I know Supervisor Madrone has a question or two, and so if we could bring the applicant in, that'd be great. And again, I apologize for this late in the game.

Thank you, Mr. Dart. Very comprehensive. Really appreciate it. I feel like we need to make a decision on what to do here. We have another item that's time set that we're a little bit late for, and I want to get to that as soon as possible. What's the pleasure of the board in how we do this? Supervisor Bush, no. I'll make a motion we accept staff's recommendation. All right, is there any more discussion from the board? Supervisor Arroyo.

I'm also amenable to it coming back so that we can, I understand that our options are very limited, but I also recognize from the public comment and from Supervisor Madron's concerns that there may, having a more robust discussion presentation may help to assuage some of those concerns, but I'm open to either option at this point, but I do think we need to resolve it ASAP so that we can move on with today's agenda.

Okay, as a motion maker, I thought about that, but what we have before us doesn't matter how robust it is, because 15 and 18 years ago, it was robust as hell to get it passed, and what's before us today is not going to change anything unless we're trying to satisfy, you know, I don't know what. As Mr. Dart said, he's been there since day one. He's the only one of us that has been there since day one. And I think he summed it up in one word. They have done everything that's been asked of them at the time and up to this point. So now we're going to say, hey, we're going to ask for some more stuf

I want to, if I can, Director Ford, for one moment, because you're the one that basically put forward that if this is brought back next week, it doesn't really change the situation. Is that what I'm hearing from you?

Right. Let's talk about the expectations.

And have we received any comment specifically that this hasn't fulfilled those, is there any evidence that we're seeing that hasn't fulfilled those requirements?

No okay according to the county survey everything has been filled okay appreciate that supervisor Arroyo and then supervisor Madrone

I'd just like to clarify that I wasn't suggesting that we bring it back because we would necessarily be asking for anything additional. It was more the opportunity, since none of us were on this board when this action was taken, for us to understand. Mr. Dart spoke to the EIR that has been developed and for us to have a little bit more understanding for the purpose of transparency. But I understand that that wouldn't necessarily change the outcome or wouldn't change the outcome. in this situation, so I'm sort of looking to Supervisor Madrone, given the sideboards, to see if this action today,

Chris, thank you for being here to speak to the development. Yes, I recognize that there's been a tremendous amount of work done. As you mentioned, individual septic analysis as well as parcel development and all the things you mentioned. I recognize that. But there was no comprehensive EIR done looking at the cumulative impact of all that together. And some things change over time, and I agree that it's not fair to keep the developer constrained by those changes in time, like fire danger and things like that. 15 years ago, I don't think any of us really quite recognized how intense the fire d

Okay, so there's a request from the supervisor of the applicant. I'm just going to lay it out, the applicant. can respond. We're having a discussion, so we're not going to interrupt that at the moment. So as the chair, you can choose to say nothing, I suppose, respond affirmatively or not, or ask that this be delayed for a week. If you have thoughts on this, this is the time to push those forward. And I know that some I I would I would probably defer to Chris Dart as the representative because that's who work that's who were here speaking so Chris do you have any thoughts on... The request fro

Yeah. So, Chris, I appreciate that. So would I would assume that maybe a one week continuance would allow you to meet with your partners and see if they'd be willing to make that minimal investment in doing what should have been done in the first place. But if you would voluntarily agree to get that done. And so I'm leaning very strongly towards a continuance at this point in terms of allowing that to occur.

I'm not hearing what you're saying from the applicant.

I'm saying that the applicant just, the applicant's representative just mentioned that this is a partnership and that Dan Johnson cannot make this decision on his own. There are, I think he said, eight different partners. And so it seems to me that a week would be more than enough time for those partners to confer and agree whether or not they would be willing to do the comprehensive wetland analysis for the entire property as a condition of approval of this map or not. It wasn't done.

Hold on, hold on. Chris? Sorry, Mr. Dart will be less informal. Mr. Dart, do you want to respond to that?

Okay, great. We have a response from the applicant. Is there any more discussion from the board in terms of the motion? Supervisor Arroyo.

I appreciate the frankness of that. I'm not hearing that there's interest in incorporating Supervisor Medran's request, and so I'm ready to vote.

I want to say I appreciate, although we went over time, the supervisor Madrone's pulling this off because I had multiple concerns in relation to this subdivision in the way it came down and where it's at. But in the analysis of what's in front of us, I'm just going to have to say I'm inclined to vote with staff recommendation only because I don't feel like bringing it back next week is going to be productive. That doesn't mean that supervisor Madrone isn't right about a lot of things that we're talking about here today. And there will be individual analysis of every parcel as they move forward

So this item requires a four fifths vote. Is that correct? That's a majority. Okay. All right.

Okay. So with that, can we have a roll call vote please?

With that, we're going to the time set. That was supposed to happen 15 minutes ago. So bring them up here. Let's do it. Fishing. Are we guys fishing wildlife or fishing game? I can't remember these days. Fishing game. Fish and Game Commission. Still game.

Is there any questions from the board before we take it to public comment? Appreciate all the work you guys do. I mean, if you look back at the original charter, it was to enhance people that hunted and fished in Humboldt County. And I know the form has changed a little bit, but you still have those values, and I appreciate that.

Excellent news. Good news. Supervisor Arroyo.

Thank you, Paul. It's great to see you here. Great presentation. And it's been a couple months since I met with you all, so I'm just curious, of those things you talked about, what has the most energy and passion right now for the commission? Is there one issue or a couple issues that are really coming to the fore?

Awesome, and just for the board's awareness, we were talking about some of the implementation measures that are appended to the general plan, and I was hoping to hear some input over time from the Fish and Game Commission about which of those, if there are any recommendations on those, because there are so many, so I really appreciate y'all taking a look at this.

Thanks Paul and really the dedication of all the members of the commission are very much appreciated it's always always informative to go to the meetings and just watch the process of grant review or other issues and I know like you said access to the water our ramps that comes up you know our ramps are in desperate need of maintenance and we lost one at big lagoon for access so parks budgets have been really underfunded for a long time. And I, for one, I think other board members are hoping that at some point in the future we might, I don't know if it'd be a parcel tax process or whatever, co

All right. Do we have any public comment online?

All right. Anyone in the room that wants to comment on this? Seeing none, I just have one. I had a... some folks over time that have asked me about this, and then I recently received some correspondence from a constituent about shotgun wads and the plastic that's happening and the plastic pollution from shotgun wads. This is where, when people are shooting shotguns into the environment, there's a plastic what's the wad which holds the shot and it shoots out into the environment. It's about the same amount of plastic as a plastic bag. There is some efforts afoot to move into biodegradable, mate

Yeah, okay. Because again, the... Whole countries have gone to replacing those with biodegradable components. And again, I mean, if I took a handful of shotgun wads and threw them out my car window, I would get fined $1,000, right? So it's like we need to have a, we need to, we're looking at addressing all kinds of plastics in the environment and we have to really, I think this is one of those places where we could improve and I think we'd all be better. So with that, is there a motion to receive and file this report?

I'll second it. So motion is seconded to receive and file. Is there any, oh wait, we only have four of us. Am I allowed to do this with four of us?

Okay. We have like a couple of minutes. Thanks. You did a great job.

Yeah, and we're looking forward to the future. We're five minutes away from the time set, so everyone can stretch for five minutes, maybe take a break, those sorts of things, especially since we're going to really time crunch in the closed session, so we'll be running right in there. So there you go. We have three supervisors in the room, so good enough to read it in.

All right. Do we have any comment online?

Thank you, is there anyone else? Seeing none, do we have a time estimate? A few hours at least, right?

No one count on that. All right, with that, we're heading to conference room A. Please move there as quickly as possible. All right, thanks.

Super then let us reconvene all right we are back from closed session and I will pass it over to county council for a report out of closed session thank you vice chair Arroyo there was no reportable action taken with regard to items K3 through K7 in K9 through K11