As of Tuesday night, Eureka’s Measure F is losing with around 68 percent voting “No” on the update to the city’s general plan. Over 5,000 votes have been counted. Eureka has a population of around 25,000.
Measure F was a reaction to the city’s 2020 plan to develop affordable housing on 14 public parking lots in the heart of Eureka’s downtown. The measure would require those developments to include the same amount of parking lost to construction as well as rezone an area on the outskirts of town for possible housing. Proponents said the city’s original housing plan would get rid of much-needed parking, dissuading tourists, and negatively impact the character of downtown Eureka.
The campaign was the most expensive in Humboldt County's history. Eureka-based company Security National properties, headed by local businessman and philanthropist Rob Arkley, spent over $1.6 million in support of Measure F.
Opponents of Measure F said it would make the city’s affordable housing plan impossible with the requirement for added parking. Not building more affordable housing, mandated by the state, could also lead to a loophole called the “builder’s remedy” which allows developers to construct low-income housing while ignoring zoning laws.
Recently, according to the Lost Coast Outpost, city staff claimed that even if Measure F passed, some of the planned affordable housing developments on public parking lots would be required by law to move forward due to already receiving permit approval. They also pointed to the Housing Crisis Act of 2019 which bans local governments from passing laws to stymie new residential development.
Although whether those legal challenges to Measure F would have been successful will likely never be known with election results leaning toward the ballot proposal failing.
