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At last night’s meeting, the Eureka Planning Commission approved the city’s plans to purchase a half-acre lot at Second and A streets in Old Town for a new emergency homeless shelter. The emergency shelter will host up to 40 prefabricated units, as well as bathroom, laundry and meal prep facilities, as well as other supportive services for people experiencing housing insecurity.

The City of Eureka has had its eye on the vacant parcel at 16 Second Street for a while now, but it hasn’t been able to secure the grant funding needed to buy the site. A few years ago, the Betty Kwan Chinn Foundation bought the property for roughly $300,000 and gave the city the right of first refusal, meaning the city will have first dibs on the property when the foundation is ready to sell.

The city has been working with a private donor to purchase the site, but the Betty Kwan Chinn Foundation would still oversee operations at the shelter.

Speaking at last night’s meeting, Commissioner Deborah Dukes asked Eureka City Manager Miles Slattery to explain the advantage of the city owning the site rather than the Betty Kwan Chinn Foundation.

“The donor is interested in putting a long-term deed restriction on it to maintain the property as a shelter/affordable property,” Slattery explained via Zoom. “That’s something that they felt more comfortable with the city having ownership, so that we can assure that that deed restriction can be placed on the property.”

Commissioner Delo Freitas made a motion to approve the property acquisition, which was seconded by Commissioner Dukes. The motion passed in a unanimous 5-0 vote.

Once funding is secured, the Eureka City Council will formally accept the donation and/or grant funds and set parameters for the emergency shelter project.

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A little earlier in the meeting, the planning commission narrowly approved a permit request for five rental units and two long-term rental units on a single parcel at 1120 J Street in Eureka — but not without some modifications to the original application.

The applicants, Kathleen Stanton and Chris Morse, have been operating five unpermitted vacation rental units (Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.) in a converted Victorian and detached art studio at the J Street property for the last year or so. An application to convert the existing housing units into five vacation rentals was submitted back in 2024, but it was deemed incomplete, and the applicant did not respond to the city’s follow-up request, according to staff.

“During the permitting process, it was discovered that the detached unit was not permitted as a legal dwelling unit, but was being used as a vacation rental. The unit has since been brought up to code and was approved by the building official,” said Taylor Rayburn, an assistant planner with the city. “The applicant has set up a payment plan to repay transient occupancy tax (TOT) owed to the city for prior operation.”

Speaking at last night’s meeting, Stanton apologized for failing to go through the proper channels to get her vacation rentals permitted, claiming she misunderstood the process.

Stanton | Screenshot

“I have two other Airbnbs, one in Arcata and one in the county, and all you have to do is pay your fee, and you’re good to go,” she said, adding that she paid a roughly $1,150 fee for her Eureka rentals compared to $260 in Arcata. “When I got the letter a year later from the planning staff that I was not permitted, it came as a really big shock to me. But thankfully, with staff’s help, we’ve been able to work things out, and we’re now on the right track tonight to hopefully get officially permitted.”

Stanton noted that she and her husband both have backgrounds in historic preservation and had always wanted to remodel a Victorian. 

“We bought the house in March of 2024 and we put $150,000 into it,” she said. “It was a labor of love, but we’re very happy with how the renovation turned out. We think it’s a gift to the street and to the neighborhood.”

One of Stanton’s next-door neighbors urged the commission to approve the permit request during public comment, noting that she’s “never had a problem” with people staying in the rentals. “They’ve been wonderful neighbors,” she said. “When I have friends come to town, I would like them to stay there because it’s beautiful.”

Another neighbor took the opposite stance, expressing concerns that the vacation rentals would take away much-needed housing.

“I don’t believe that changing existing apartments into vacation rental units is good for the city,” she said. “I don’t believe that taking away places within neighborhoods like this from residents and giving them to tourists is appropriate for the life of the city.”

The commission echoed concerns about vacation rentals eating up the city’s affordable housing stock, though they did express appreciation to the applicants for investing in and beautifying the property.

Lazar | Screenshot

Commissioner Steve Lazar took issue with the number of units on site, noting that “this is at least two to three times larger than what we conventionally see” in vacation rental permit applications. Lazar also took issue with the applicant’s claim that she didn’t understand the city’s regulatory process. “These regulations have been in place for a long time by the time this came around, so I am not so sympathetic, frankly.”

The rest of the commission echoed Lazar’s concerns in one way or another, aside from Commissioner Freitas, who didn’t speak up during the discussion. 

“I don’t have a problem with Airbnb units per se, [but] having them in residential areas kind of rubs me the wrong way,” Commissioner Dukes said. “I recognize the support of your neighbor, and I also … worry about taking good housing stock out of what’s a very nice neighborhood.”

After some additional conversation, the commission cobbled together a motion to approve a minor use permit for three vacation rental units at the site, plus two long-term units to provide living quarters for an on-site caretaker. The motion passed 3-2, with commissioners Dukes and Michael Kraft dissenting.

After the vote, city staff addressed Stanton in the audience and said she would have ten days to appeal the commission’s vote to the Eureka City Council. Lazar thanked Stanton and attempted to assure her that the vote was “nothing personal.”