The Samoa Boulevard could, one day, look like this!
Arcata had a pretty hefty city council meeting last night, touching on everything from improvements to pedestrian infrastructure, the Arcata Police Department’s community ambassador program, the Annie and Mary trail, with, of course, a little Middle East-focused international relations sprinkled in there.
The SAMSIP Project
Bereft of a sidewalk, protected bike lanes, or (really any) traffic calming measures, the Highway 101 crossing on Samoa Boulevard is scary to cross on foot or bicycle. However! Sometime in the next five years, it might not be. Two staff members from GHD, the design firm working on plans to modernize the road, presented a dense, 30-minute report to the council.
The South Arcata Multimodal Safety Improvement Plan (SAMSIP) aims to improve pedestrian and cyclist access to and fro Sunny Brae and around the Samoa Boulevard in a few different ways, such as adding some kind of protected lane for human-powered transport on that overpass. There also will be measures for slowing traffic down and for beautifying the roadways.
During their research, GHD found that the current infrastructure around Samoa Boulevard encourages speeding, is difficult to ride a bicycle or walk on, and also plays host to lots of minor fender-benders. The staff members presented several different configurations for the project to mollify these woes, but the one they’re most bullish about involves combining several roundabouts with a trail on the bridge, separated from vehicle traffic by a concrete median with plants. Off the bridge, cyclists and pedestrians would each have their own paths.
Constructing these upgrades will take a lot of time and money, and GHD said they’re angling for both federal and state grants to fund the project. However, Arcata may be able to make some low-cost improvements in the near future, such as adding “flex posts” to bikeways, speed bumps to South G Street, and improving the roundabout on Union and Samoa Boulevard.
If they can get the funding, the project may be completed in December of 2029.
All of the council members praised the project and said they were excited to make it happen.
Community ambassador update
If you’re ever out walking around downtown Arcata and you see a green-vested someone picking up trash or talking to the homeless, they’re probably one of the Arcata Police Department’s community ambassadors, appointed to be “kind and compassionate individuals,” who “take pride in connecting visitors and locals to all Arcata has to offer,” as Lead Ambassador Royal Hunter put it. Although they don’t directly help out people in need, they do put them in touch with organizations and people who can.
APD Lt. Luke Scown, who presented an update to the council on the ambassadors, clarified that they were not a security force.
“They’re not there to tell on people,” Scown said. “They’re there to build relationships and build that bridge.”
Scown shared some statistics (collected by the ambassadors) with the council on their doings. This year alone, they’ve talked to unhoused people over 4,000 times and have collected almost 3,000 5-gallon buckets of trash. Since the program started in 2022, they’ve picked up almost 12,000.
Statistics from the community ambassador program from 2025.
All-time statistics from the community ambassador program.
“The things they do matter,” Scown said. “I’ve seen it. I genuinely believe that. They have a connection with the community. They know the people out there…they trust them. We have a cleaner city because of them. We have a reduced need for police services in this city — like, genuinely.”
Scown said that after the first year they started work, he compared how often the police had to be sent out to the area they work in to what it was like before, and the difference was large; “some types” of calls dropped by a third.
He’s working on hiring three more ambassadors (making nine total) and expanding out to Valley West.
Annie and Mary Trail
The council members voted unanimously to approve a $7,111,503 contract with the Granite Construction Company to build the long-awaited Annie and Mary trail from downtown Arcata all the way to the Mad River on West End Road. City staff said they wanted to get the section from the skate park to the new Hinarr Hu Moulik dorms done quickly.
$3.6 million is from the Active Transportation Program grant, $2.3 is from CalTrans, the Yurok Indian Housing Authority is contributing $1 million, and Cal Poly Humboldt is kicking in $500,000. A little more is coming from the city’s Measure G.
Construction is expected to start this month and be completed next year.
One public commenter raised concerns about what any homeless people living on the corridor will do when construction commences, but all of the city council members were excited and lauded city staff for their hard work.
CalPERS Divestment
After the Eureka City Council passed a letter urging CalPERS to divest from companies making money by war profiteering, the Arcata City Council has faced increasing public pressure to do the same. Many residents during the public comment sections asked them to consider it, and during the council reports segment at the end of the meeting, councilmember Sarah Schaefer said she had written something up and was working with other councilmembers on the best way to proceed.
Stacy Atkins-Salazar said she also didn’t agree with investing in war, for-profit prisons, or encampment centers.
Schaefer also took the opportunity to lambast some louts.
“I know, us up here as women, we get our intelligence insulted a lot,” she said. “We don’t understand budgets. Numbers are scary for us. We don’t understand city planning. How can we know how a fire department works? Just to remind the public — we are not ignorant. We understand history, wherever we fall. Specifically, I was a history major in college! Religious studies minor, with an emphasis in decolonization. So — that. Just that. And I’ll leave it there.”
This is obviously not an image of Arcata Friday Night Market, but you get it | Photo: Zach Lathouris
2025 was another successful year for the Eureka Friday Night Market brand, with tens of thousands again opting to end their summer weeks in Old Town sipping beer, enjoying local bands and mingling with their neighbors over the event’s three-month run. But with Eureka’s season concluded, Arcata is ready for its turn now.
As we’ve previously reported, Arcata officials were able to charm the folks at Humboldt Made into moving the party to their city for three Fridays in September, the first of which falls on this week.
Get all the details in the Humboldt Made press release below:
Humboldt Made, in partnership with the Arcata Chamber of Commerce and the City of Arcata, is thrilled to announce the first-ever Arcata Friday Night Market this September. The market kicks off Friday, September 5, from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM and will continue on September 12 and 26, bringing Humboldt’s unique culture, creativity, and community spirit to Arcata Plaza.
This new market was inspired by a simple idea: create a space where locals, students, and visitors can gather to celebrate the heart of Humboldt. Mayor Alex Stillman explained, “The inspiration behind this market was simple—create a space where our residents and students can gather, enjoy local music, support our artisans, and celebrate everything that makes Arcata unique. We hope this becomes a beloved community tradition for years to come.”
The Arcata Friday Night Market came together in record time when Mayor Stillman approached Rosa Dixon, Executive Director of Humboldt Made, about launching a September market. With the support of the City of Arcata and Glo from the Arcata Chamber, the project quickly became a reality. Rosa Dixon reflected, “It truly shows the power of choosing Humboldt—supporting local, celebrating community, and creating something magical together.” Glo added, “I’m so excited to bring a new event to the city of Arcata and I look forward to this becoming another tradition for our community!”
Music, Vendors, and Local Flavors The market features an exciting music lineup:
September 5: The Undercovers | 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
September 12: DJ Deaf I | 5:00 PM - 6:15 PM | Blacksage Runners | 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
September 26: HISPanic! at the Disco | 5:00 PM - 6:15 PM | Northern Highbush | 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Over 50 local Humboldt Made vendors will be on hand, offering handmade goods, artisan crafts, specialty foods, sweets, and beverages. Attendees can shop unique products, meet the makers, and support Humboldt’s thriving small-business community, a celebration of talent, innovation, and the heart of our local economy.
Guests can enjoy a full bar featuring locally brewed Humboldt Made craft beer, regional wines, and weekly signature cocktails created just for the market. Whether you’re sampling flavors from Humboldt’s culinary artisans or sipping a market-exclusive cocktail, the Arcata Friday Night Market is designed to delight all the senses.
Attendees are encouraged to explore the new Humboldt Bay Bike Trail, connecting Cal Poly Humboldt to Arcata Plaza. A bike valet provided by CRTP makes it easy to ride in, enjoy the evening, and leave the car behind.
Thanks to Bright and Green and the Cal Poly sponsorship, every vendor will use reusable dishes, helping students and community members experience Humboldt’s culture of reuse from day one, building habits that last and setting a standard for waste-free events in Arcata.
The fun doesn’t stop when the market closes! Each Friday, after-parties at local Arcata venues give attendees a chance to dance, connect, and celebrate long into the evening.
Follow Humboldt Made and Arcata Chamber on Instagram and Facebook for updates on performers, vendors, and other event details. Join us this September for the first Arcata Friday Night Market, an evening full of music, local flavors, community magic, and celebration that lasts well beyond the market!
A Ridgewood neighbor who witnessed the alleged bear killing made a sign to alert the public. | Submitted.
WARNING: This post contains a photograph of a dead bear cub.
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Residents along Ridgewood Drive, just south of Eureka, say one of their neighbors shot and killed a mama bear and her cub in the pre-dawn hours over Labor Day weekend, and state law enforcement officers are now investigating the alleged crime.
Lt. Matthew Renner with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told the Outpost this afternoon office personnel received a call reporting illegal bear poaching, and officers with the department have conducted interviews with witnesses and other neighborhood residents.
One local resident, Lori Ball, emailed the Outpost on Wednesday, saying, “A mama bear and her baby were tragically shot and killed alongside a busy road within a populated neighborhood. This illegal act not only threatens our local wildlife but has caused distress in our community.”
Another local resident, who asked to remain anonymous, sent us the photo below, showing the fatally injured bear cub.
Submitted anonymously.
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Eureka resident Alison Brewer reported on Facebook Tuesday evening that she’d heard three gunshots around 4:30 a.m. a couple of days prior. Another commenter said the poacher hauled away the adult bear’s body.
Lt. Renner said shooting a bear in a residential neighborhood is not legal unless you are defending your life or property.
Image via the California Department of Cannabis Control
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A bill currently working its way through the state legislature aims to provide a bit of tax relief for California’s legal cannabis industry, which has seen nearly four straight years of declining revenues in both wholesale and retail sales. Industry professionals and their advocates in Sacramento say this tax break is necessary to salvage the state’s regulated marketplace at a time when the black market still accounts for roughly 60 percent of the weed consumed in California.
Here in the Emerald Triangle, where the post-legalization “green rush” sent property values and grow shop receipts through the roof, the legal weed industry has crumbled. Those who remain in business say a higher tax bill will only send consumers to the black market, prompting more bankruptcies and thus fewer taxable sales.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that the legal market is not doing well,” said Ross Gordon, a policy analyst with the industry nonprofit Origins Council. “For most businesses, I think they’d characterize it as a state of collapse.”
On July 1, the state’s excise tax jumped from 15 percent to 19 percent as part of a political bargain struck in 2022 to help stabilize the fledgling marketplace. The deal, passed via a budget trailer bill, AB 195, eliminated the state’s $161-per-pound cultivation tax, which had generated $166 million in state revenue the previous year.
In order to make up for that lost revenue — which financed childcare programs and youth groups; environmental, wildlife and conservation programs; law enforcement and justice organizations; drug treatment prevention centers and other Tier 3 programs — AB 195 allowed state regulators to increase the excise tax after three years. That’s what happened on July 1.
A new industry-sponsored bill, AB 564, would suspend this tax increase for the next six years at least, and while industry professionals say this lifeline is necessary, critics argue that it would come at the expense of children and the environment.
Jim Keddy, executive director of the Sacramento nonprofit Youth Forward, is among the people working to keep the bill from passing.
“What we’re trying to do is protect these funding streams that are crucial to child care, to youth services and to the environment,” he recently told the Outpost. As a member of the state’s Prop 64 Advisory Group, Keddy helps determine which programs receive cannabis tax revenues, and he argued that this tradeoff — taxing a vice to finance a public good — is exactly what California voters approved when they passed Prop 64 in 2016.
“Voters supported an initiative they believed would provide funding for kids and for the environment,” he said. “That’s what the legislature and the governor need to respect. And if the cannabis industry wants to get out from under paying taxes, they should put a statewide ballot measure together and ask voters to approve it.”
Tax benefits
The North Coast has benefited disproportionately from Prop 64 tax revenues. In the 2024-25 fiscal year alone, Senator Mike McGuire’s district received more than $38 million in state Fish and Wildlife grants for a long list of environmental projects including watershed enhancement, cleanup remediation, research and more.
Meanwhile, the district has received almost $29 million in youth and child care grants since 2022, providing financing for programs from Humboldt County’s Department of Health and Human Services, the Yurok Tribe, Cal Poly Humboldt, McKinleyville Family Resource Center, Two Feathers Native American Family Services, Centro del Pueblo and other local organizations.
These tax revenues are the state’s only just one funding stream for Alternative Payment Programs, which provide vouchers or subsidies to help eligible low-income families pay for child care. [CORRECTION: While these cannabis tax monies do go toward the state’s AP programs, they represent just a fraction of the state’s $7 billion annual child care budget.]
Terry Supahan is the executive director of True North Organizing Network, which was the recipient of a $600,000 Prop 64 grant to provide wraparound support services for Tribal and Latinx youth while addressing adolescent risk factors for substance use, misuse and disorder. He’s incensed by the prospect of reductions to such funding for the sake of propping up the state’s weed marketplace.
“The cannabis industry is trying to get some tax rebate at the expense of our kids and our futures,” Supahan said. “It makes me insane to a degree.”
He has found his work with Tribal youth immensely rewarding. He said it provides kids with a kind of spiritual, moral and disciplinary shield that he didn’t have growing up.
“The best thing I’ve ever done is be part of expanding and strengthening tribal ceremony and language and culture upriver,” he said.
Supahan doesn’t think much of the cannabis industry. Its embrace of the term “green rush” offends him, given the cultural upheaval and violence that accompanied the gold rush. He recently confronted one of his own adolescent grandchildren who’d been smoking cannabis, telling them that they’re too young; their brain is still developing. And he views legalization as a Faustian bargain.
“If we’re going to make this pact with the devil, then the devil should adhere to what they said they were going to do when it was legalized,” he said. “If we’re gonna trade legalization for taxes then by God they should honor what they set out to do.”
The legislature’s elimination of the cultivation tax in 2022 has resulted in more than $600 million in lost revenues for environmental and child care programs. Keddy said the only reason youth and environmental groups didn’t oppose AB 195 was because both the legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom pledged to replace that lost revenue through the excise tax adjustment that took effect July 1.
‘Just a PR campaign’
Many others agree. In an April letter to San Francisco Assemblymember Mark Berman, a coalition of 98 organizations, including True North, Friends of the Eel River and the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), wrote, “If the promise made in AB 195 is not kept, we risk losing at least $150 million per year for childcare, youth, and environmental programs.”
Keddy said that by pursuing AB 564, the state is going back on its word. A spokesperson for Newsom recently told the L.A. Times that if the bill passes, as seems likely, the governor’s office will work with the legislature to ensure there are no cuts to child care. Keddy’s not sure how the state will manage that in the midst of a $20 billion budget deficit. And he’s not convinced by the industry’s pleas this time around.
He pointed to a recent report from the Department of Cannabis Control indicating that legal cannabis production has increased by 70 percent since 2020 and the number of units of cannabis products sold increased by more than 5 percent last year.
“There’s a lot of wishful thinking that goes on where the cannabis industry tells everybody that, you know, if you give them a tax cut they’ll be more profitable and there will be more revenue,” he said. “That’s what they said in 2022, and it’s just a PR campaign, in my opinion.”
Far from it, according to Chrystal Ortiz, owner of Arcata dispensary Herb & Market. She noted that the recent state tax hike came on the heels of Arcata’s recent sales tax increase from 8.5 percent to 10.25 percent, which took effect on April 1. This double whammy, in conjunction with our region’s anemic economy and the rising costs of everything from groceries to PG&E bills, is having “a huge, huge impact on our customers,” she said.
Quarterly units sold by product. | Chart via DCC.
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While the legal market may be selling more flower and derivative products than ever before, as Keddy points out, Ortiz said the market is being saturated with sub-par weed produced by deep-pocketed interests that can tolerate tiny profit margins, or even losing money.
Given the increased tax burden and declining demand, “Really the only place you can budge is on the purchase price, which encourages [dispensary owners] to support these kind of corporate entities that are financially backed [and] that are intentionally operating at a loss because they’re the only ones who can afford to shoulder some of that [burden],” she said.
When July 1 rolled around, some companies took advantage. “Big corporations started immediately offering tax incentive deals, like, ‘Oh, we know you’re struggling with this huge tax increase. We’re going to give you X, Y and Z of a discount,’ Ortiz said. “Whereas, for the average small farmer or small product maker, there already isn’t the margins [for such incentives].”
Gordon, the policy analyst, agreed.
“More and more of the legal market is composed of commodity products produced by large companies at a low cost, and small farmers and craft products are being edged out of the market,” he said.
Pointing to that same DCC report that Keddy cited, Gordon noted that while legal production continues to increase (licensed cannabis production grew 11.8 percent to 1.4 million pounds in 2024), lower retail and wholesale prices are driving many licensees out business while the black market thrives. (An estimated 11.4 million pounds of illicit cannabis is produced in California each year, according to the DCC report, though much of that gets exported to other states.)
Chart showing California’s wholesale and retail prices and markups. | Via DCC.
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Gordon said small-scale operators were betrayed from the outset of the legal market by the elimination of an agreed-upon one-acre cultivation cap for the first five years of sales, and they continue to be disadvantaged by a lack of legal access to tools that support small craft businesses in any other sector, such as direct-to-consumer sales.
“So I don’t think it’s surprising that if you build a market that doesn’t include those pathways that are appropriate for small producers [then] the market becomes very challenging for small producers,” Gordon said.
He acknowledged that returning the state tax rate to 15 percent won’t solve all of these problems but said he thinks it’s “one necessary piece of having what I think most people want, which is a sustainable and viable legal market.”
Keddy agreed that the game is rigged, to some extent.
“The legislature has been terrible to your part of the state, in my opinion,” he said. And he granted that corporate growers with massive Central Valley greenhouses are undercutting traditional growers in the Emerald Triangle, as is the emergency of THC-boosted hemp as a competitive product. But he also noted that it’s impossible to save every operator.
“You see it with restaurants and all kinds of retail — things open, things close,” he said.
And Keddy sees it as a bit hypocritical of the industry to call for a reduction in taxes when some of those that money goes toward law enforcement efforts to eradicate black market operators, though he also sees such operators as a fact of life.
“Frankly, I don’t see the illegal market going away anytime soon,” he said. “It’s been part of California for decades, and you know, there are all these other factors at play here.”
Ultimately, Keddy returned to the concept of public relations.
“I think the industry has had the advantage that they can point to taxes, and nobody likes taxes,” he said.
A viable market
But Gordon argued that there are plenty of indicators that California’s legal weed marketplace could be operated more effectively and more profitably, which would benefit everyone.
“I don’t agree with the framing of this conversation as zero-sum,” he said. “Look at states like Oregon and Michigan and see that they’re getting dramatically higher tax revenue per capita because they have legal regulatory structures that support that. It’s not because they’re putting a bunch more money into law enforcement. It’s because they are trying to create a viable market.”
Humboldt County is officially in support of AB 564. In February, County Administrative Officer Elishia Hayes sent a letter to the bill’s author, San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney, expressing “strong support” for the bill and describing it as “a critical piece of legislation that supports the sustainability and growth of the cannabis industry in California.”
The Board of Supervisors approved this stance in January as part of its annual legislative platform adoption.
AB 564 has already been approved by the Assembly, and last week made it out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. As with all bills in the Legislature, this one has until Sept. 12 to be passed. Newsom would then have until Oct. 12 to sign the bill into law, which he has vowed to do.
The Dillon Fire grew moderately to the west Wednesday, while firefighters held the eastern line, keeping
fire from advancing into residences and structures along the Highway 96 corridor.
The Dillon Fire grew to 9,100 acres, but containment also climbed to 21 percent containment. The fire
continued its methodical downslope progression into the drainages around Dillon Mountain. Firefighters
are assembling a network of forest roads and previous fire lines to halt the fire’s advance toward the
Siskiyou Wilderness.
The spot fires north of Dillon Creek put up some smoke, but had limited vegetation to feed and grow off of
inside the footprint of the 2023 Elliot Fire. Across the Klamath River, firefighters conducted a small
burnout operation to remove vegetation and halt the spread of the spot fire east of Dillon Creek
Campground. Handline and hose lays reinforced containment efforts along the spot fire’s eastern flank.
Firefighters installed pumps, hoses and sprinkler kits around homes along the Highway 96 corridor, as well
as added depth to firelines up to 250 feet.
Crews continued to go direct where possible along the fire’s southern perimeter, which reached the bottom
of the Rock Creek drainage. Contingency lines along Beans Ridge down to the Klamath River were
widened and reinforced with hose lays in the event the fire makes an upslope run over Rock Creek.
Clearer skies and temperatures near 100 could produce smoke columns and wind gusts, which could fuel
active fire behavior throughout today. Air quality can change quickly during a wildfire. Health and safety
information from wildfire smoke can be found at www.airnow.gov/wildfires.
Evacuations and Closures:
Intermittent closures of Highway 96 are possible, particularly near Seiad Valley. Road updates can be
found on the Caltrans’ website at https://dot.ca.gov/travel.
The Six Rivers National Forest has issued a forest closure order in the vicinity of the Dillon Fire. More
information can be found at www.linktr.ee/srffirepio.
The Ti Bar area have been placed in a level 3-GO status. Dillon Fire evacuations and warnings can be
found at https://protect.genasys.com:
Evacuation Orders: SIS-1402-A, SIS-1405, SIS-1503-A, SIS-1506, SIS-1509-A and SIS-1509-B.
Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
On Sept. 3, 2025, at about 7:30 a.m. Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies conducted a probation search at a residence located in the 1600 block of Hyland St., in Arcata and arrested the resident 71-year-old, David Eugene Flocchini. Flocchini is currently on formal felony probation in Humboldt County for operating or maintaining a drug house.
During the search of the residence deputies seized approximately 238 grams of Methamphetamine, a digital scale, and packaging material. Flocchini was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on the following charges:
H.S. 11378(a) Possession of a Controlled Substance for Sale
P.C. 1203.2(a) Violation of Probation
This case is still under investigation.
Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.
Humboldt County must plan for 5,962 new homes over the next decade to meet state housing mandates. About a third of those — up to 1,855 dwelling units — must be located in Eureka.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Eureka City Council got its first look at the state-issued Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) for 2027-2035, which would nearly double the housing targets set in the city’s current planning cycle, which began in 2019.
Every eight years, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) calculates how many new homes cities and counties must plan for to accommodate population growth and meet housing needs across all income levels. The HCD looks at the current number of units in a given jurisdiction and compares it to population estimates and various other factors to determine the total RHNA, as shown in the table below.
Graphic: City of Eureka
Eureka’s RHNA could be anywhere between 1,530 and 1,855 new units, depending on the allocation methodology selected by the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG), said Development Services Director Cristin Kenyon.
“If Eureka receives the RHNA of 1,740 units, that’s an assignment of 218 net new units per year, which is almost double what we had last time,” Kenyon said, noting that the 2019-2027 cycle required the city to plan for 952 new units. “For the past six years, we’ve been averaging 44 dwelling units per year. … We still have sites that are vacant that we’ve outlined in [the current housing element], but if those haven’t been built on, we can’t carry them over. You can, but there’s a limit on it, and [the state] asks for more evidence if it’s a site that’s been used in a previous cycle.”
Before taking questions from the council, Kenyon emphasized that the RHNA doesn’t require the city to build a specific number of units. Rather, it requires the city to plan for new housing.
“[The state’s] focus is on whether we have an adequate plan — an adopted and certified housing element — and whether we are completing our plan’s implementation measures,” she continued. “In enforcing housing element law, the state’s focus really isn’t on the number of units that actually get built, since that’s out of our control. … We are really relying on others to finance and construct the housing.”
If the city fails to comply, it could lose its pro-housing designation and grant funding opportunities, Kenyon said. Persistent noncompliance could result in fines of up to $100,000 per month.
“Holy cow,” said Councilmember Kati Moulton. “Thank you for that informative and terrifying report. Terrifying is not the right word, but boy howdy.”
Councilmembers Scott Bauer and G. Mario Fernandez agreed, each noting that Kenyon’s presentation was “overwhelming” and “intimidating.” Councilmember Bauer asked if the city even has the physical space to build 1,740 new housing units.
“We don’t have very many vacant, unconstrained parcels … so we need to rely on non-vacant sites, and there’s a higher bar for those,” Kenyon said. “You have to prove there’s a realistic and demonstrated capacity for redevelopment, and we don’t have the type of market demand that other built-out cities like Berkeley might have to really demonstrate that acceptable evidence.”
Kenyon added that Eureka’s downtown is zoned to accommodate 10-story buildings, but said no one has ever sought to construct a building that tall. Still, it’s an option.
“We do what we can to control what happens, but the market dictates what happens, especially when it comes to median income property,” City Manager Miles Slattery added.
The council agreed to accept the report but did not take any formal action on the item.
Once the HCAOG selects a methodology for local jurisdictions’ housing allocations, the HCD will review the proposal and approve it early next year. The City of Eureka will have until July 2027 to approve a new housing element for the 2027-2035 cycle.
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An aerial view of Dock B. | Image via Google Maps
A little earlier in Tuesday’s meeting, the city council approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Blue Lake Rancheria to assess the feasibility of revamping Dock B as a “regional economic and community asset” for the Port of Humboldt Bay.
While it might not look like much, Dock B — a 7.1-acre site behind Englund Marine & Industrial Supply, near the Wharfinger Building on Marina Way — is the only Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) in Eureka. That zoning allows corporations to import and export goods at a reduced tax or tariff rate when they enter U.S. markets. There are three other FTZs in Humboldt County, including sites on the Samoa Peninsula, Fields Landing and the Humboldt County Airport.
Eureka Economic Development Manager Swan Asbury noted that there’s been an uptick in interest over FTZs in recent months in response to the Trump administration’s sweeping tariff policies, which renewed interest in Dock B.
“[Dock B] is in pretty bad shape,” Asbury said at Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s been condemned, it’s been through a fire, it’s been through an earthquake, but there’s a couple hundred pilings below it that are still there.”
Speaking on behalf of the Blue Lake Rancheria, Director of Strategic Initiatives Ciara Emery said the Tribe has been interested in “maritime commerce opportunities” for some time now, and is looking to apply for a U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) grant to do something with the site. [DISCLOSURE: The Blue Laker Rancheria is a partial owner of the Outpost’s parent company, Lost Coast Communications, Inc.]
“The tribe is viewing these DOT funds as a potential opportunity, in collaboration with [the city], for getting some feasibility study money to determine what a project might look like, what kind of activities might be fruitful and appropriate [at that location], and working together to find ways to advance tribal sovereignty,” Emery said.
Councilmember Fernandez asked what a “success” would look like and if the Rancheria had any specific plans for the site. Emery said, in the short-term, the MOU would help the Rancheria’s grant application look more viable and demonstrate that the city is willing to collaborate in the future.
“In the longer term, there’s a lot of interesting things that we all might think about in terms of how is the city supporting tribal commerce, tribe-to-tribe trade, revitalization of the port, especially in light of recent developments,” she said, likely referring to the Trump administration’s recent decision to pull more than $426 million in grant funding from the Humboldt Bay Harbor District for offshore wind port developments. “I think the MOU is as much as both parties can make of it.”
After a bit of additional discussion, the council approved the MOU — linked here — in a unanimous 4-0 vote, with Councilmember Renee Contreras-DeLoach absent.
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After 14 months of construction, Eureka’s Da’ Ya Park is just about ready for playtime! The city’s planning staff gave an update on the park’s construction at Tuesday’s meeting and shared some progress shots.
A view of the park from the North side. | Photos: City of Eureka
Egret play structure!
A cool ADA spinning thing!
The city will host a grand opening for the park on Saturday, Sept. 13. More information can be found below.
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[NOTE: This post has been updated from its original version to correct a minor grammatical error.]
