The California Coastal Commission is set to hear the City of Eureka’s request to formally toss an abandoned plan to rezone the Balloon Track — the plan that once aimed for the property to become the Home Depot-anchored Marina Center development.

In a report, Commission staff recommended the body that regulates land use along the coast finally deny the 2011-era application that would have amended the city’s local coastal plan.

The effort, which Eureka voters supported in a 2010 ballot measure, would have rezoned the 43-acre property to support commercial, office, residential and open space uses.

But it sat lingering at the Commission, which must approve zoning changes in the coastal area before they can take effect, for nearly 13 years, with the official status sitting at “incomplete and inactive.”

The city hopes that if the application is officially denied next week, the path would clear for future planning of the site which hasn’t been in use since the 1980s.

The Eureka City Council, with support from property owner Security National, voted to withdraw the Coastal Commission application back in November. Commission staff instead are recommending that it be officially denied, for procedural purposes. The Commission says the proposed changes don’t meet requirements in the Coastal Act.

Coastal Commission staff pointed to language in the ordinances stating “if the California Coastal Commission does not certify these amendments, this ordinance shall be null and void.”

The amendments were never certified by the Coastal Commission.

“The Commission’s denial of this LCP Amendment as submitted, as recommended by staff and without suggested modifications, means no further action is required by either the Commission or City Council, and the LCP amendment is not effective,” the staff report said.

The city is hopeful the move will clear possible issues with the lingering Marina Center application and open up a future for the Balloon Track.

“I think this clears up procedural ambiguity that potentially would have slowed/obstructed future planning for the site,” wrote Cristin Kenyon, Eureka’s Development Services Director, in an email.

She said the city, property owner, and the Coastal Commission are all on the same page about the end result of this determination.

Eureka previously pointed to visioning for the large brownfield site in the 2040 General Plan, with residents hoping for a “mixed-use commercial district, emphasizing retail and service commercial uses supplemented by upper-floor office and residential space.”

In this month’s staff report, Coastal Commission staff pointed to the same issues that stopped the body from adopting the changes over a decade ago. A key resource concern is impacts to wetlands.

“The site may only have a limited and dispersed amount of developable land due to the location and configuration of wetlands, wetland buffer areas, and other constraints across the site. Delineated wetlands total about 8.7 acres of the 43-acre site, scattered throughout different areas of the property, and the proposed land use/zoning designation boundaries do not correspond to identified wetland boundaries,” the staff report said.

Kenyon said wetland fill policies could conflict with development of the Balloon Track — and planning for the site’s future will require “creative problem solving,” she said, alongside the possibility of restoring filled wetlands near Humboldt Bay.

Recent efforts to clean up the site have included scrapping rusty trains and some environmental remediation.

“No one wants the Balloon Track to stay in its current state, and there is a solution that benefits everyone,” she said in the email.

“I for one am determined to find a creative path forward,” she said.

The Coastal Commission will hear the issue Thursday, March 12, in Ventura.

In other Humboldt County items, the Commission will hear zoning changes that would add emergency shelters as a permitted use in the general commercial land use designations and public facility zones in Humboldt County. Staff is recommending a yes vote. 

Coastal Commission Agenda