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Ballot measure could throw a wrench into Eureka's low-income housing plan

Measure F, before voters this November, would put restrictions on Eureka's plan to turn city-owned parking into affordable housing developments.
Justin Higginbottom
/
JPR
Measure F, before voters this November, would put restrictions on Eureka's plan to turn city-owned parking into affordable housing developments.

In Eureka, a plan to turn parking lots into affordable housing seemed like an idea everyone might agree on. Instead, it has led to a fierce debate about the city’s future and the most expensive ballot measure campaign in the county’s history.

Every eight years, California tells each city how much low-income housing they must build. The process is called the Regional Housing Needs Assessment.

Eureka, a coastal city of just over 25,000 in Humboldt County, was most recently tasked with creating nearly 400 homes affordable to low- and very-low income residents by 2027.

And around four years ago, the city created a plan to do just that. The idea: build low-income housing on 14 city-owned parking lots.

“Really, to the city's credit, it did a good job in this whole process and the plan is actually going to produce housing, which a lot of other cities in the state can't really say,” says Dylan Casey with the non-profit California Housing Defense Fund.

The parking-lot plan might seem like a no-brainer. Eureka gets more affordable housing and a denser, more walkable downtown — a step towards what’s sometimes called a “15-minute city” where basic amenities are a short stroll away. It would be a small win against generations of car-focused building.

But things are more complicated down on the pavement.

“I'm not opposed to a 15-minute city. I just don't know if that's the absolute best thing that can happen to Eureka,” says Michael Munson, local business owner and co-sponsor of the Housing for All and Downtown Vitality Initiative, or Measure F, which goes to city voters next month. It says any new housing on those city-owned lots must also build space for parking, like a ground-floor garage, to make up for what would be lost plus whatever is needed for new residents. If passed, it would be a big red light for the city’s housing scheme.

“We believe that, yes, we need housing. We need it downtown. But we also need to do it smart and we need to provide parking for those units that are coming in,” says Munson.

His campaign thinks getting rid of downtown parking will hurt businesses. Customers use that parking, he explains. After all, the car still reigns supreme in Eureka.

Local businessman Rob Arkley has donated to Eureka cultural institutions in the past. His company, Security National Properties, is also bankrolling the Measure F campaign.
Justin Higginbottom
/
JPR
Local businessman Rob Arkley has donated to Eureka cultural institutions like the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts. His company, Security National Properties, is also bankrolling the Measure F campaign.

On an overcast day in September, Munson drove a tour of the properties at the center of this debate.

“This parking lot right here is ‘5th and D.’ This one's… where the story really started as far as parking lots go,” says Munson.

What’s so important about this parcel is that just down the street are offices for the real-estate company Security National Properties. The business provides a lot of well-paying jobs in Eureka, precious in an area where good timber and fishing careers have disappeared. Employees at Security National use the “5th and D” parking lot.

And the company’s president, Rob Arkley, really cares about parking. His company has sunk over $1 million into the Measure F campaign.

Arkley, who declined an interview for this story, is someone that many have an opinion about in Eureka. He’s donated generously to the local high school, zoo and performing arts center. But he also kicked up controversy after vocally opposing a city plan to return land on the Tuluwat Island, site of a massacre of Native Americans in 1860, to the Wiyot Tribe. And he was a character in a Supreme Court ethics scandal involving Justice Samuel Alito. An investigation by ProPublica reports Alito stayed free-of-charge at a luxury Alaskan fishing lodge owned by Arkley and didn't report the gift, as required.

Soloman Everta, a Eureka bookstore owner and member of the No on Measure F committee, has opinions about Arkley.

“This is some weird vendetta that a multi-millionaire has against the city doing anything that's progressive and moves our community forward,” says Everta, whose group has only raised around $20,000.

Everta isn’t just against a multi-millionaire throwing his weight around in local politics. He thinks Measure F is designed to torpedo the city’s plan for low-income housing due to its burdensome requirement for new parking.

“What it does is it makes the development of those parcels cost prohibitive for anyone to develop and so it keeps them being parking lots, which is not the best use of those parcels that the city has,” says Everta.

He says there could be real consequences if Eureka doesn’t meet its housing goal mandated by that Regional Housing Needs Assessment. The California Housing Defense Fund, which is clear to not take sides on Measure F, released a statement saying that if the initiative passes then the city could fall out of compliance with that housing mandate. If that happens, Eureka could face fines and lose grant money.

“Anybody that follows through the logic of this can see, on the face of it, it's going to be a bad deal,” says Everta.

Michael Munson, co-sponser of Measure F, is seen at the site of the former Jacobs Middle School on September
Justin Higginbottom
/
JPR
Michael Munson, co-sponser of Measure F, is seen at the site of the former Jacobs Middle School on September 18, 2024. His ballot initiative would rezone the area to allow residential homes.

This whole debate around Measure F isn’t just about parking. It’s also about what kind of housing should go downtown, among the old Victorian-style buildings and boutique shops that attract tourists.

Michael Munson, the Measure F supporter, thinks low-income housing will change the character of the city’s old quarter. Those new residents that move into apartments stacked over former parking lots, he reasons, won’t have the money to stimulate the right kind of economy.

“I think there's some people who believe that, ‘If you build it, they will come.’ And I know this, if you build low-income housing, they will come as well,” says Munson.

Measure F would also create new zoning overlays to allow high-density residential building on the other side of Eureka, not far from subsidized housing that already exists. The neighborhood Munson has in mind is decidedly less Victorian.

“I have a hard time believing they're gonna put really nice construction [in]. They're gonna do it as efficiently as possible. And you know, 50 years might just be the lifespan for that. What happens in 50 years when they're dilapidated? What do we have?” says Munson.

Some proponents of Measure F worry that low-income housing would change the character of Eureka's downtown.
Justin Higginbottom
/
JPR
Some proponents of Measure F worry that low-income housing would change the character of Eureka's downtown.

There’s something else that may happen if Eureka fails to build more affordable housing as mandated by the state. That scenario could activate the “builder’s remedy” which allows developers to ignore local zoning, like height restrictions, to build residential projects as long as at least 20% of those units are affordable. The loophole allowed, to the distress of local government, a developer to propose an 18-story complex in Santa Monica recently.

If the builder’s remedy kicks in, Eureka’s skyline could change regardless of Measure F or the city’s parking-lot plans — and that wouldn’t be up to a vote.

Justin Higginbottom is a regional reporter for Jefferson Public Radio. He's worked in print and radio journalism in Utah as well as abroad with stints in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. He spent a year reporting on the Myanmar civil war and has contributed to NPR, CNBC and Deutsche Welle (Germany’s public media organization).