Council wants Chinn housing site ready

The state Coastal Commission could take several months — maybe more than a year — to approve Eureka’s re-zoning of a Hilfiker Lane site for homeless housing, a process several City Council members said Tuesday is far too long.

Citing an order by Gov. Gavin Newsom to identify state lands for emergency homeless shelters, Councilmember Natalie Arroyo suggested that the council launch a full “political push” to see the project finished quickly, even if it means subverting the typical process.

“This is one instance where I don’t mind putting us in the line of fire of a state agency,” Arroyo said.

For two years, notable local philanthropist Betty Kwann Chinn has looked to turn the site, known as the Crowley property, into a transitional housing lot where the city’s homeless residents can build rental history.

Seven trailers at the site could fit up to 40 residents to pay rent, have access to wastewater and other city services.

The project has stalled multiple times due to environmental concerns and neighborhood pushback. At a council meeting earlier this month, Chinn herself pleaded with the council to finish the process as quickly as it could.

But the Coastal Commission, which oversees all ocean-adjacent land on California’s coastline, may take a while to approve the city’s new zoning. Council members at Tuesday’s meeting said the process has been lengthy enough already.

“It’s taken forever,” said Councilmember Kim Bergel.

Multiple council members looked for ways to discuss possible early steps — ways to set up the Crowley site before the commission formally approves its new use.

“Is there a way to do some of the preliminary steps, aside from the actual activity,” Councilmember Heidi Messner asked at one point, “so that when a yes is there, it’s there?”

But the council’s staff, including the city’s attorney, pushed back against the council moving the discussion past the agenda. Eventually, the council called for

a “strongly worded” letter supporting the site’s zoning

completion.

Arroyo said the project’s “scope creep,” or ever-expanding steps, has slowed the process, all while the governor has ramped up pressure on municipalities

to find housing solutions.

“I’d like us, if possible, to keep a fire under our butts,” Arroyo said, before clarifying that staff has already worked diligently to see the site completed. “(We should) push forward with the political will to say, ‘We’re going to do this, even if the Coastal Commission staff doesn’t really like it.’”