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A group of Fickle Hill residents will have to endure the effects of larger guest lists and overnight stays at a neighboring wedding and events venue following yesterday’s decision by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors to deny the group’s appeal of recent permit changes.

The owners of Ridgefield Weddings and Events, a rental venue located 2.3 miles up Fickle Hill, east of Arcata, recently got approval to level-up their operations. Early last month, the Humboldt County Planning unanimously approved their request to modify the property’s conditional use permit to allow:

• an increase in the maximum number of events per year from 30 to 40 (though only 30 of them can have amplified music and voices),
• an increase in the maximum number of guests per event from 120 to 150, and
• up to 14 guests to stay overnight in the existing residence for one to three days.

But a group of neighboring property owners cried foul, saying the Planning Commission failed to adequately address their concerns about noise, property values, water usage, the venue’s septic system, public safety, fire, increased traffic and drunk driving.

They brought their grievances to yesterday’s supervisors meeting, with neighboring property owner Kenneth Stumpf as their spokesperson. 

After setting up a prepared PowerPoint presentation and trying to negotiate extra speaking time (to no avail), Stumpf said he and his neighbors worry that “the future commercialization” of their forested hillside has never been thoroughly studied.

“We fear that there’s an apparent pattern of permanent venue expansion through the incremental permitting process without there ever being consideration for the planned future venue as a whole,” Stumpf told the board. “We do not want a commercial resort in our area.”

He spent the next 10 minutes detailing his objections to Ridgefield’s expansion plans, largely focusing on what he described as “loud amplified music and DJs and crowd noise — cheers, chants [and] so forth.”

Regarding the overnight stays, Stumpf said, “They created a weekend package where they actually would take three events and convert them into one event.”

In effect they’re turning Fickle Hill into a slippery slope, he argued.

“We don’t want Ridgefield Events to morph into Ridgefield Destination Wedding Resort,” Strumpf said. “What other amenities are they going to next be petitioning for? A restaurant? Bar? Spa? Permanent shuttle service? Laundromat? Swimming pool? What if they apply for a cannabis dispensary … ?”

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Scott Davies, who owns the wedding venue with his wife Kristsa Duarte Davies, painted a more idyllic picture.

“Ridgefield is a destination wedding venue located in Arcata, bringing couples and guests from around the country and the world to visit the redwoods, celebrate some of the most tender moments of their lives and vacation in our beautiful corner of the country,” he told the board.

Davies touted the economic benefits of tourism dollars and insisted that he and his wife have taken a thoughtful and thorough approach toward permitting, carefully measuring sound impacts and hand-delivering notifications to neighbors. 

“We have built a successful tourism-based wedding business, delivering vendor partnerships, tax dollars and a very substantial economic impact on our local economy,” Davies said.

The heart of the recent permit modification request, he said, “is the ability to host weekend retreats where a small group will stay with us from Friday through Sunday with a single wedding on Saturday.”

As for the noise complaints, Davies said, “The Planning Commission weighed the concerns of neighbors against clear evidence that we’re operating well below our sound threshold” before granting the modification request. 

Meredith Matthews, executive director of the Humboldt Lodging Alliance, spoke in support of Ridgefield and its owners. 

Neighbor Kevin O’Brien spoke about the nonprofit water company that supplies eight parcels on Fickle Hill, including Ridgefield, and said that while the company recently changed its monthly fee structure and made plans to purchase more water for delivery, “Scott Davies has been a valued member of our company.”

But another neighbor, Joanne Olson, said that a neighborhood water agreement says water is to be used only for single families and gardens. She noted that Davies and his wife don’t currently live on the property, though they plan to return to it soon. And Davies now challenges the legality of the water agreement, she said.

Yet another neighbor, Dave White, urged the board to reverse the Planning Commission’s approval.

“He’s putting a commercial enterprise in what is a residential area, and it’s not fair to all the neighbors,” White said. “So I’m asking you to revoke the modifications and let us have some peace and quiet in our neighborhood.”

Several other neighbors also spoke out against Ridgewood and its owners plans. 

When the matter came back to the board for deliberation, Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson asked planning staff a variety of questions and then said he’d like to add a condition of approval for the permit modifications: that the Davies contribute to the county’s transient occupancy tax, a fee typically imposed on hotels and vacation rentals. 

Planning and Building Director John Ford said a fundamental problem in resolving this type of dispute is that “noise is subjective.” Strumpf had made this point earlier by noting that a mosquito doesn’t register high on a decibel scale but still makes an annoying sound. Ford added that sound can be affected by a huge range of factors, from temperature and humidity to topography and trees. 

Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo asked Davies if he’d be willing to limit pre-wedding brunch and rehearsal events to 14 guests instead of the 20 currently being advertised on Ridgefield’s website. He said he would. 

First District Supervisor Rex Bohn said he hadn’t heard anything during the day’s testimony that would compel him to override the Planning Commission’s unanimous vote. 

Wilson and Ford discussed the debate about whether wedding party sleepovers, with brunch and rehearsals, are more akin to three separate events or a single event, in terms of noise and disruption. Ford said the Planning Commission concluded that the overnight guests are less disruptive than separate events, which would require more setup and teardown. 

Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell pushed back on Wilson’s proposal to demand transient occupancy tax of the owners, and the two supervisors went back and forth on the matter for a bit. 

After some more debate, the board voted unanimously to deny the neighbors’ appeal, but to modify the conditional use permit to allow a sign identifying the location of the business; to apply the transient occupancy tax to overnight guests; and to require annual reports of sound measurements from all events.