Virginia Graziani

Redwood Times

Four Southern Humboldt volunteer fire departments cleared another hurdle on the path to become full-fledged Fire Protection Districts, which will give them the ability to stabilize their revenue through special parcel taxes.

At a hearing last Wednesday, Jan. 18, staff of the Humboldt Local Agency Formation Commission reported to the commissioners that they did not receive even close to the required number of protests to halt the formation process in any of the four proposed fire districts: Briceland, Bridgeville, Fruitland Ridge, and Palo Verde.

Fifty percent plus one of the registered voters within each proposed district were required to have submitted a written protest either prior to the hearing or at the hearing to stop the formation process at this stage.

LAFCo executive officer George Williamson reported that staff received only two protests out of 401 voters in the Briceland district, 10 out 189 voters in Palo Verde, and zero in both the Bridgeville and Fruitland Ridge districts.

The next step is a special election. Voters within each district will be asked to elect a board of directors for their district and to approve a special parcel tax, including an escalation clause that enables the FPD directors to increase the tax up to five percent each year without an additional election.

County planning staff will work with proponents on the timing and method of election. The Redwood Times will report on the process in a future issue.

Because this is a new tax, a two-thirds majority in each district election will be required for district formation.

One protestor questioned LAFCo's noticing of the process. LAFCo law allows the staff to publish notice of the protest and the forms instead of mailing them out individually to each registered voter if the total number of notices is over 1000.

Although the total number of notices for all four districts was over 1000, no single district had 1000 voters; in fact, Briceland was the largest with 401 registered voters.

In a written reply to the protestor that was included in the commissioners' packet, Williamson cited California Government Code Section 56157(h) but added that although the commission had to vote separately on each district formation, all four formations were considered one agenda item.

"The decision to process and hear the proposals together was based on the fact that the applications for district formation were prepared and filed concurrently by the proponents," Williamson wrote.

".... The nature of the fire district formation proposals, the proposed changes in the organization, and the justifications were identical, as were the application formats," the letter continued. "Consequently, all public noticing for meetings and actions treated to the proposals has been completed together as a single notice."

Williamson also explained to the commissioners and the public that not only were the notices published on line and in newspapers, but there were also "several articles in the Redwood Times, the Times Standard, the Independent, and the Humboldt Beacon.

"Given the number of calls and inquiries our office is receiving, it appears as though the ability to protest is reaching those in the proposed districts," Williamson concluded.

Following the staff report, commission chair Marty McClelland called for any additional protests or public comment. No one came forward, so the commissioners quickly passed four motions directing the staff to move forward to set up the four district elections.

Williamson also reported on the progress of Garberville Sanitary District's Municipal Service Review, Sphere of Influence Report, and potential annexation.

GSD has submitted its draft MSR, essentially a profile of the district including finances, operations, demographics, projections of future growth, and infrastructure needs.

The district's board of directors also approved a revised SOI at its November meeting that removes some land within the current SOI that cannot be developed because it is within the airport flight path or cannot be subdivided to lot sizes requiring district water and sewer because it is designated as resource land.

Taking these areas out of its SOI enabled the district to include other areas, including areas already served by water such as the Caltrans/Renner area north of town and the Kimtu subdivision.

To comply with the requirement for the SOI to have a contiguous (unbroken) boundary, GSD will keep the entire community park within the SOI and add in the area between the park property and the Kimtu subdivision. GSD had previously considered taking the central area of the community park out of the SOI because it is agricultural land that will not need water service.

Because there is no net gain in the size of the proposed SOI, GSD hopes to receive an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act requirements for environmental review.

At its next regular board of directors meeting, which will be held tonight, Tuesday, Jan. 24, GSD will consider whether or not to apply to annex any areas to its current service boundaries. LAFCo will consider all the GSD proposals at the commission's next meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, Mar. 21.

The GSD report was considered an "informational item" so the commission took no action but it did hear public comment.

Farmer and agricultural advocate John LaBoyteaux said that if GSD removes unbuildable land from its SOI and replaces it with prime agricultural land, the district will not qualify for a CEQA negative declaration. Furthermore, he disagrees that the community park needs to have its entire property within the SOI in order to provide district water to park users, since the activities will take place outside the agricultural area.

Regarding contiguous boundaries, LaBoyteaux pointed out that a doughnut and the letter U have contiguous boundaries, meaning that an SOI that excludes the central portion of the park could be drawn without separating it from the rest of the SOI.

Kathryn Lobato, executive director of the Southern Humboldt Community Park, responded that while SHCP might be willing to have a smaller portion of the property included in the SOI, "it would be premature for us to guess where public facilities will be placed."

SHCP has applied for an amendment to the current (1984) General Plan to change land use designations and zones to allow for a variety of uses including multi-family housing and public assembly events like concerts and festivals.

Until that process is complete, the park board does not know what uses will ultimately be permitted on various parts of the property.

Furthermore, Lobato told the commissioners that at GSD's November meeting about the SOI, "The room was packed with supporters of the Southern Humboldt Community Park" who asked for all of the park property to be included. She wanted the commissioners to understand the strength of the park's support with the public in Southern Humboldt, she said.

McClelland said he'd been hearing about "little pieces" of the project for a long while but would like to see "all the pieces put together with adequate environmental review and an adequate public process."

Second district supervisor Clif Clendenen, who is one of the county's two representatives on LAFCo, explained that the GPA was taking a long time because unlike most projects that come before LAFCo, the work is being done by members of the community, not by a major engineering firm.

"The public process will be spirited," Clendenen assured the commission.

During his staff report, Williamson briefly mentioned that he was still working with proponents of "Emerald City," a proposed incorporated city in SoHum, to determine whether "incorporation makes sense."

Earlier last week, Jim Lamport, one of the founders of THECOG (The Humboldt Emerald City Organizing Group), told the Redwood Times that the group had received several bids on the financial feasibility study that must be done before the process continues. "We are considering our options," Lamport said.