Local developer and business owner Travis Schneider stands on a slope beneath his partially built dream home last October. | File photo by Andrew Goff.

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Ten months after a an inflammatory Planning Commission hearing regarding permits for Travis Schneider’s dream home, the Planning Commission is set to meet again — this time, to remove permission for construction of the 8,000-square-foot home that was supposed to be built there.

To briefly recap the controversy the unfolded from that August 2022 meeting, Schneider, a local developer and owner of Eureka-based civil engineering firm Pacific Affiliates, found himself in hot water after violating multiple terms of a Coastal Development Permit for a massive house on Walker Point Road, north of Eureka. 

County planning staff issued a stop-work order in December 2021 after learning that Schneider had:

  • constructed an un-permitted access road through environmentally sensitive habitat,
  • used a CAT 310 excavator to clear blackberry brambles and other foliage from the property, potentially damaging tribal cultural resources, and
  • misaligned the home’s footprint, causing it to be within 100 feet of a designated wetland.

The Schneider house as partially constructed last year. | File photo by Andrew Goff.

Subsequent investigations revealed more problems: The home Schneider had partially built was more than two and a half times larger than the permit allowed, measuring a whopping 20,817 feet. He had also started construction without a building permit and failed to get a required septic permit for the development. 

A related controversy erupted over former Planning Commissioner Alan Bongio’s racist comments at that August hearing, comments for which he later sort of apologized, though he was still censured by the Board of Supervisors, who requested that he step down from his position as chair. Bongio resigned in December.

Schneider attempted to finesse his way through the controversy despite conflicts with local tribes, warnings from the California Coastal Commission and increased public scrutiny over the entire permitting process.

Finally, in a twist first reported by Thadeus Greenson of the North Coast Journal, Schneider agreed through his attorney to tear down his partially built home as he faced fines of $40,000 per day for the assorted permit violations he’d accumulated.

He also agreed to remove the 15,000 cubic yards of fill soil he’d hauled onto the property, an amount nearly 10 times what was allowed under his coastal development permit. And he agreed to mitigate any impacts to environmentally sensitive habitat areas and wetland habitats onsite and to construct a fence to protect the archeological site on the property.

At the upcoming July 6 meeting, the Humboldt County Planning Commission will consider modifying Schneider’s Coastal Development Permit to facilitate these actions. According to a public notice issued last week, the permit modifications would remove an entitlement to build an 8,000-square-foot home, plus an attached 1,000 square foot cellar and a four car garage.

It would also remove permission for 1,500 cubic yards of grading and grant permission to tear down and remove the 21,000 square foot structure that’s still partially built on the property.

Attempts to reach Schneider by phone and email were not returned.

File image of the project’s footprint via a county staff report.

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