INJUNCTION BATTLE WITH CITY DROPPED
CEQA lawsuits will continue, Citizens for a Better Eureka say
Citizens for a Better Eureka announced this week it is dropping its injunction efforts to halt housing projects in Eureka's downtown and Old Town areas, but the environmental, or CEQA, lawsuits will continue.
The announcement came days before the injunctions were set to be ruled on. If approved, the injunctions would have put a halt to several housing development projects.
“Although members understood the likelihood of obtaining injunctions was low, they decided to pursue them to secure more certainty that the city could not move forward with its plan,” a news release from the firm doing public relations for Citizens for a Better Eureka stated.
Michelle Costantine-Blackwell, a group member, said in the news release that “there is currently very little funding for the downtown developments, so it is better not to waste the court's time with these injunctions.”
Asked to further explain the statement, given millions have been awarded for local projects, Gail Rymer, the public relations contact for Citizens for a Better Eureka, stated in an email that, “The grant money that has been received for the developments does not cover the costs of construction of the building(s). It does not seem feasible that total funding will be received prior to the November election.”
Eureka City Manager Miles Slattery, in contrast, states there is funding for the projects.
“We are well into the funding projects on all of these projects,” he told the Times-Standard on Thursday. “We have over $30 million for the EaRTH Center; we have $30 million for the Scattered Site project.”
But Slattery also noted the injunctions did in fact waste time and resources.
“It's extremely unfortunate that they wasted not only the court's time but our legal time in order to have responses for that,” he said, “and getting all of the other people involved from the (California) attorney general to the Wiyot to legal ser
vices to the individuals in legal services representing us as well as Citizens for Responsible Transportation — a lot of people and then a lot of effort and a lot of time to address their claims.”
Citizens for a Better Eureka plans to continue the CEQA lawsuits against the city and is listed as part of the closed session for the next Eureka City Council meeting Tuesday evening.
Citizens for a Better Eureka also created a ballot initiative set for the November election that, if passed would bar the city from removing downtown parking spaces — meaning if they proceeded as planned and leased cityowned parking lots for affordable housing, they would need to build parking spaces for each slot lost — and requiring them to rezone the former Jacobs Middle School campus for housing.
Slattery said the city will continue to move forward. In an ideal scenario, the first of the housing projects could break ground in 2025 and be completed in 2026.
Slattery estimated the housing projects — scattered around downtown at lots at Fifth and D streets, Eighth and G streets, and Sixth and M streets — could be completed by 2027.
Rymer stated Thursday that Citizens for a Better Eureka, “always understood the likelihood of succeeding on the lawsuits was low.”
She also underscored that the purpose of the suits was not to halt development.
“The goal of the lawsuits is to have the city finally start a dialogue with downtown business owners to discuss their concerns about how the modified housing element development proposals in the housing element will impact their businesses and the economic vitality of downtown.
“It is hoped the city will meet and work with the business owners to discuss their concerns and work together on a solution that supports both housing and the economic vitality of downtown.”
With the injunctions being dropped, there are no current hearings set, Rymer said.
And she also accused the city of dragging its toes.
“The parties are currently developing the administrative record, which is expected to take months,” she said.
“It has also been extremely frustrating to CBE that the city has been so slow in producing its records that are needed to complete the administrative record, and this is something CBE will be focusing more on in the coming weeks.”
In another recent legal loss for Citizens for a Better Eureka, a judge tossed a lawsuit alleging election code violations earlier this month.
Also this month, the city of Eureka was lauded by the state for its efforts to create affordable housing.
“All of these projects are much more viable and much closer to being able to get funded with this designation,” Slattery told the Times-Standard earlier this month.
The housing element of Eureka's General Plan — which is also involved in a Citizens for a Better Eureka CEQA lawsuit — aims for around 900 units of housing to be built by 2040, a third of which must be affordable.