Conceptual design by Dishgamu Humboldt Community Land Trust, a unit of the Wiyot Tribe, for housing at 5th and D streets. This is one of several housing developments that the “Citizens for a Better Eureka” hopes to block with recent court fillings. | File.



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The State of California wants in on the City of Eureka’s fight against the Security National-funded Citizens for a Better Eureka.

The Office of Attorney General Rob Bonta today submitted a request to file amicus curiae or “friend of the court” briefs in support of the City of Eureka and the Eureka City Council, and it says the court should reject the Citizens for a Better Eureka’s efforts to thwart affordable housing developments downtown. 

Last month, Citizens for a Better Eureka filed a series of motions seeking preliminary injunctions that would immediately block the city and its partners, including Linc Housing and the Wiyot Tribe’s Dishgamu Humboldt Community Land Trust, from breaking ground on affordable housing and transportation projects slated for development on municipal parking lots downtown.

The motions – five, in all – allege violations of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), arguing that the city failed to conduct legally required environmental review not only for the elimination of public parking spaces but also for the various planned redevelopment projects, which the group says will impact traffic and air quality. 

The city, meanwhile, says that it fully complied with CEQA when it updated the Housing Element for its 2040 General Plan. The parking lots slated for redevelopment were designated for affordable housing in that document, which was certified by the state in 2019, and those parcels have since been declared surplus property.

In the application filed today, the Attorney General’s Office says the City of Eureka did not violate CEQA; rather, it says, the city’s actions are consistent with state housing and environmental policy, and it used proper metrics to analyze traffic impacts. 

Specifically, the filling argues that by identifying city-owned infill sites for development, “the City is able to actively facilitate future housing, including affordable housing, where it is most suitable, most needed, and results in the greatest environmental benefit.”

Indeed, the filing continues, “The City is actively fulfilling state policies to facilitate much-needed housing development in precisely the areas those policies encourage to reduce environmental harm and improve livability for all Californians.” (Emphasis in the original.)

The A.G.’s request is scheduled to be heard tomorrow afternoon by Judge Timothy Canning in Courtroom Four. The Citizens for a Better Eureka motions for preliminary injunction are scheduled to be heard on Feb. 9.

While Citizens for a Better Eureka mounts a legal battle against the downtown housing development projects, a similarly Security National-funded effort called the “Eureka Housing for All and Downtown Vitality Initiative” is taking the fight to the ballot box.

That measure, which will appear on local ballots in November, would rezone the former Jacobs Middle School property, which was recently purchased by a mysterious buyer who has so far refused to identify themself, and amend the city’s General Plan to allow downtown developments only if existing parking spaces are preserved and additional parking is built for residents.

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DOCUMENT: Ex Parte Application for Leave to File Amicus Curiae Briefs in Support of Respondents

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