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After two hours of extensive deliberation, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors today narrowly passed an Outdoor Lighting Ordinance that sets new design standards to reduce light pollution — excessive or inappropriate artificial lighting — in unincorporated areas of the county.

The ordinance, which was approved in a 3-2 vote, with Board Chair Michelle Bushnell and First District Supervisor Rex Bohn dissenting, loosely follows the “Five Lighting Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting” issued by the International Dark-Sky Association that require all nighttime outdoor lighting to be useful, targeted, low-level, controlled and warm-colored. 

The county-issued guidelines limit light intensity, reducing the temperature of light sources to lower temperature bulbs that emit warm, orange light rather than cool, blue light. The new rules also restrict “light trespass” — any artificial light that spills over onto neighboring properties that “eliminates the ability to have darkness on the adjacent property, or shines into or onto neighboring windows, properties or structures” — and encourage light fixtures that point downward to restrict the direction of the beam. Under the ordinance, motion lights would be restricted to a five-minute time limit and cannot be triggered by movement outside of the subject property.

“We are not trying to prohibit [outdoor] lighting,” Associate Planner Reanne Meighan said at today’s meeting. “We are simply trying to minimize unnecessary lighting of areas that transpires onto neighboring properties.”

Why limit outdoor lighting? Meighan explained that light pollution not only limits our view of the night sky, but said it also has “destructive effects” on the circadian rhythms of both humans and animals, especially nocturnal creatures that are active at night and sleep during the day. Warm light, which has a lower lumen output and Kelvin (K) temperature, as seen in the graphic below, has a lesser effect on light pollution.

The original ordinance that was approved by the Humboldt County Planning Commission in May set a 1000-lumen maximum for residential uses and a 3000-lumen maximum for agricultural, commercial and industrial uses. However, after visiting local hardware stores, staff determined the limits should be set at 1100 and 3200 lumens, which are more commercially available. 

Most residents who spoke during the public comment section of the meeting were in favor of the ordinance, with several speakers sharing their own stories about neighbors or local businesses with extremely bright outdoor lights. One woman, who did not identify herself, called out an automotive business in Myrtletown that has “blinding” security lights that threaten pedestrian safety.

“If you are driving east on Myrtle Avenue and are turning left onto Park Street, there is an extremely bright security light that blinds the driver to any foot traffic crossing Park Street or bicyclists traveling westbound on Myrtle Avenue,” she said. “We are very much concerned that someone will be hit by a vehicle where drivers cannot see them because of the serious glare caused by this extremely bright security light.”

Mark Wilson, vice president of Astronomers of Humboldt, also spoke in favor of the ordinance, noting that it would “put Humboldt County in the forefront of protecting the night skies, not only in the state, but nationally and internationally.” 

The board’s discussion largely focused on how the ordinance would be enforced. Planning and Building Director John Ford said the enforcement would largely be complaint-driven, though new construction projects would also be subject to review during the normal application process. 

“If there are violations of the ordinance, then it’s going to be like any other code enforcement matter,” Ford explained. “We are going to have to spend some time talking to the property owner, finding out what they have, letting them know what the solution is and, hopefully, they will voluntarily just make the change to stop the violation.”

Still, Bushnell expressed concern that outdoor lighting complaints would overwhelm code enforcement staff who already have a lot on their plate. “I think it’s really important that we recognize that sometimes complaint-driven can be a pissed off neighbor that wants to deal with something that isn’t even related to a light ordinance,” she said. “How are we going to address that?”

Ford reiterated the process, adding that complaint recipients are generally compliant. “We’ll have a conversation with them, and they’ll say, ‘Yeah, you know, I didn’t adjust that down, I’ll go turn my light down and make sure that it’s focused down, rather than shining out into my neighbor’s yard.’ And if that happens, [the issue] can be resolved that easily. These shouldn’t be hard to resolve.”

Bushnell was also concerned that the ordinance would target the wrong group of people. “I don’t want to make things so much harder for people in unincorporated areas when you have the municipalities that are glowing like a light bulb, per se,” she said. 

The other big point of contention was whether or not athletic fields should be included in the ordinance, even though there is an exemption for such lighting as long as there isn’t any light trespass onto neighboring properties. Bohn felt the athletic fields should be subject to a time limit rather than a lumen limit.

Bohn | Screenshot

“Redwood Acres has a time limit … and if it goes after 10 o’clock, there’s complaints,” he said. “I’ve been involved with youth sports for over 50 years, and there is no reason in the world that a child should be out after 10 o’clock at night playing in an athletic sport. I don’t care if dad thinks he’s going to go pro and makes him stay. … I think we should look at timing [because] timing is a lot easier to enforce. … I do not want to dim it down for a kid having to catch a line drive off a bat.”

Wilson agreed, and asked staff to amend the ordinance to include a 10 p.m. time limit for athletic fields. “I do want to emphasize this isn’t about dimming the field,” Wilson added. “When people are playing ball on those fields, they should be well-lit, and that’s really important.”

Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone and Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo both spoke in favor of the ordinance, with Arroyo noting that the new standards give staff the tools to address longstanding lighting issues. “If there is a persistent problem … it gives people the sideboards for future development and for, frankly, just being a considerate neighbor, whether it’s a residential use or something else,” she said.  

As the board prepared to take a vote, Bohn indicated he would vote against the ordinance. “Is this workable? It … looks good on paper, but there’s a lot of holes in this that I don’t know if it’s actually applicable,” he said. “I don’t think we can pass this right now, because there’s so many holes in it.”

After a bit of additional discussion, the board passed the ordinance in a 3-2 vote, with Bohn and Bushnell dissenting. The board directed staff to look into additional standards for street lighting and bring back an amendment to the Outdoor Lighting Ordinance in the near future.

A group of California Republicans is suing the state to block the Democratic-controlled Legislature from considering the bills that would allow Gov. Gavin Newsom to facilitate a special election on gerrymandered congressional maps.

The legal action could slow down the process by which elections officials, already tight on time, get the maps onto Californians’ ballots for the Nov. 4 special election Newsom wants. But that depends on how quickly the California Supreme Court moves, and whether it suspends the process while considering the lawsuit.

Newsom needs voter approval for the maps because California has an independent redistricting commission that draws election maps after every census. He’s in a hurry to get the measure on the ballot as a response to Republican gerrymandering efforts in Texas that are intended to sway the 2026 congressional elections in the GOP’s — and President Donald Trump’s — favor.

The Republicans argue that Democratic leaders violated the state constitution by bypassing a rule that says with few exceptions legislation must be publicly available for 30 days before lawmakers vote on it.

To get the maps on the ballot, Democrats repurposed two existing bills rather than introduce new legislation that would trigger the 30-day window.

Sen. Tony Strickland, Republican of Huntington Beach and the lead lawmaker on the lawsuit, slammed Newsom and Democrats for drawing up a “backroom deal” with “ “no public input, no transparency, no light of day”

“If they did it right, they would have public hearings, public notice, they would get the authority from the people of California, and then they would draw the maps,” Strickland said.

The bills in question, Assembly Bill 604 and Senate Bill 280, were first introduced and given bill numbers in early February. The new language on the redistricting effort was posted early Monday morning.

Chris Micheli, a longtime lobbyist, said lawmakers “for decades” have viewed a bill’s initial introduction date – often in early January near the start of session – as the date that starts the 30-day clock. For gut-and-amends, the Legislature abides by a different rule added to the state constitution by voters in 2016: the language needs to be published for 72 hours before lawmakers can vote.

“To be fair, it is untested and there’s no court decision on this,” Micheli said of Republicans’ lawsuit. But, “I don’t think it will succeed.”

Lawmakers frequently use the gut-and-amend tactic to skirt deadlines and introduce new legislation late in the season. Rarely, if ever, does the opposition party call on the California State Supreme Court to mediate what is otherwise a wonky game of insider legislative baseball.

But with the redistricting push, Republican lawmakers have doubled down on their defense of the state’s citizen redistricting commission, established in 2010 on a bipartisan basis to prevent politicians from drawing maps that are self-serving.

“The public cannot have a voice if they do not know what’s going on,” said Assemblyman Carl DeMaio of San Diego, who is not party to the lawsuit. “What Governor Newsom and the legislators are trying to do is prevent the public from knowing what’s going on before it’s too late.”

CalMatters’ Jeanne Kuang contributed reporting to this story.

Dustin’ off this silly graphic we made a thousand years ago

It’s been a while, but we’d like to welcome you all to the latest edition of LoCO SPORTS — the only online sports feature powered entirely by proud parents sending LoCO the arguably interesting exploits of their talented children. Let’s get ready to rumble! 

This time out: Mega kudos are in order for 10-year-old McKinleyville resident Calvin Koczera, after he and a turtle named “Flash” bested roughly 500 other competitors during the 62nd annual Nisswa, Minnesota Turtle Races. Can we get a cowabunga? 

To claim the title, Calvin and his swift-shelled sidekick had to speed through three separate heats. We’ve compiled the videos Calvin’s parents sent us into a sporty montage, which you can watch below. (Note: We’ve condensed the action a bit because, as you might have heard, turtles are slow.)

There you have it. Calvin is a big winner and, by extension, one could make the case that makes all of us in Humboldt big winners. CONGRATULATIONS, CALVIN AND US! 

For his part, we are told Flash received some lettuce. 

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* - Comparable to other turtles only

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Calling a statewide special election sounds simple in theory. But executing one with fewer than 75 days notice? As one California county election official put it, that’s a “herculean” effort.

California voting officials are scrambling behind the scenes to prepare for the special election Gov. Gavin Newsom wants this November on his proposal to redraw the state’s congressional districts. But to do so, Newsom needs voters to approve a ballot initiative in an off-year special election that the state has yet to officially approve and schedule.

Democrats want the proposed California maps to offset President Donald Trump and Republicans’ efforts to stack the next congressional election in the GOP’s favor by squeezing more Republican seats out of red states like Texas, Florida and Missouri.

Newsom only released his proposed maps late last week, and state lawmakers — who just returned from a month-long summer recess — are staring down a hard deadline of Friday to greenlight the ballot language before voters in time for a Nov. 4 election.

County election officials are hustling as if the election is happening so they can make sure they lock down everything from vendors to print their ballots, locations for voting centers and election workers to staff those polling places come Nov. 4. They’ve pushed hard for the state to cover the hefty costs of an unplanned special election, and some have noted that without additional appropriations, they might need to cut back on vital public safety and social services.

“It’s difficult for us, just in a regular election, being a smaller rural county,” said Juan Pablo Cervantes, the registrar of voters for Humboldt County, which has just over 85,000 registered voters. Usually Cervantes and his staff have at least five months of lead time to find voting sites, hire staff and procure all the machines, pens and ballots for a statewide election.

“That’s usually a Herculean effort on its own,” Cervantes said.

A mad dash to find ballots and vote centers

One of the biggest challenges for counties is lining up vendors to print enough ballots – including one absentee ballot for every registered voter in the state, as well as a sufficient number to keep onsite for on-site voting at polling stations. California’s secretary of state has only approved seven vendors to print ballots, not including Orange County, which operates its own printing facility.

The other two logistical hurdles are securing enough sites to serve as vote centers, and hiring and training staff to work them.

Soon after Newsom declared on July 31 that he would call a special election, Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page gathered his staff for an emergency planning meeting. He instructed them to identify which supplies they needed to order as soon as possible, prioritizing products like ballot paper, ballot envelopes and toner for their ballot printers – which might not arrive in time to meet deadlines if they waited for official confirmation of a special election.

Should the governor end up abandoning his plan, Orange County would also be able to use those materials in next year’s June primary election, minimizing potential waste of taxpayer dollars.

“I had to make a decision that I couldn’t wait until Aug. 22 to make sure that I could pull this off,” Page said. “I don’t want to be in a position where my county fails in some way to conduct a free and fair election.”

The county also started emailing people with past experience as election workers to gauge potential interest in working at a vote center during the special election.

California’s last special election

California last had a short-notice, off-year statewide special election in September 2021 when Newsom defeated an attempt to recall him from office.

But because the recall campaign was triggered by a signature drive rather than ordered by the state Legislature, Page said counties had plenty of early warning signs to help them prepare.

“We knew when there were enough signatures to require the recall election,” Page said. “We were very involved when the legislature was pitching ideas of trying to shorten the timeline and have the recall election in August of that year rather than September.”

Even then, when the Legislature was hashing out the fine print about when the election would take place, county registrars brought their vendors to testify that they didn’t have enough paper stock to print ballots in time for an August recall election. The date was ultimately set for Sept. 14.

How much will it cost?

The Legislature and the Department of Finance have yet to release official cost estimates for the statewide special election, but experts say that given inflation, the Nov. 4 special election will almost certainly surpass the recall’s price tag.

During that 2021 effort, the state sent counties more than $240 million and an additional $35 million to the secretary of state’s office to administer the election. In the end, the contest cost less than planned — about $200 million in all, with the counties’ costs totaling just over $174 million.

Newsom has repeatedly promised the state will cover the steep cost counties will incur to administer an unplanned statewide off-year election. Yet in the absence of official statewide numbers, county officials and even Assembly Republicans have released their own estimates. The GOP caucus’s budget analysis projected the statewide contest would cost taxpayers $235.5 million.

A voter fills out their ballot at a vote center at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana on March 5, 2024. Photo by Lauren Justice for CalMatters

Page estimated Orange County’s costs will land somewhere between $11.2 million to $12.7 million depending on whether the ballot and county voter information guide will fit in the same envelope or need to be sent separately. Riverside County’s registrar projected upwards of $15 million in costs, and Fresno County was bracing for at least $4 million in unbudgeted expenses.

The counties have implored state leaders to provide them money up front rather than reimburse them after the election.

“The additional expenses tied to a statewide special election would fall almost entirely on counties — imposing a significant and unfunded financial burden on already strained local budgets,” wrote the California State Association of Counties, which represents county supervisors, in partnership with its subsidiary organization that represents clerks and registrars.

H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the Department of Finance, said that the legislation will provide the money to counties in advance, as it did in 2021 before the gubernatorial recall election, although the department has yet to determine the precise amount..

“The state of California is going to pay for it,” Newsom said at a press conference last week, dismissing concerns from county registrars about how they’d afford to administer the election as “deeply disingenuous.”

“There’s no price tag for democracy,” Newsom said.

The governor has also stated that unlike during the recall election, several counties already plan to hold local off-year elections and can add the redistricting question to the existing ballot. As of Monday, only 21 counties are listed as having elections scheduled for Nov. 4, according to the Secretary of State’s website.

But Cervantes, who estimates his county will incur at least $700,000 in additional costs, emphasized that it makes a “massive difference” whether the state pays upfront or requires counties to submit expenses for reimbursement. His vendors won’t allow him to defer payment until he receives the state’s check in the mail.

Cervantes noted that counties pay for elections administration from the same pot of money that funds sheriff’s departments, county jails and the district attorney’s offices, as well as some local wildfire prevention efforts. That’s why it’s so important for the state to cover the costs, he argued.

“You’re talking about taking deputies off the street. You’re talking about reducing social services. Like, it’s a zero-sum game,” Cervantes said. “If I have to spend that money, then other departments won’t be able to.”

Hazel Jean Petty passed away on May 18, 2025.

She was born an identical twin. Jean and Marlene were adopted at the age of three due to the death of their father and the severe depression of their mother. This separated them from their mother and baby brother.

Jean married twice, having two children with her first husband. Marlene always lived nearby, so the first cousins—six in total—were raised together. Both twins were accomplished artists, winning prizes at state fairs.

In the 1970s, Jean struck a couple of blows for women’s liberation. She was featured in the newspaper as the only female coach in the local little league, with a large picture of her and her son on the front page of the Lifestyle section.

Jean and Marlene were the first two female bus drivers of the OCTD (Orange County Transit District).

Jean decided to go to college and was the first member of her family to graduate from the University of California, Irvine, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Several years later, both her children also graduated from UCI.

She moved to Humboldt County to pursue her master’s degree in sociology at Humboldt State University. With her art background and interest in all things self-improvement — yoga, self-hypnosis, creative expression—she became an excellent recreational therapist. She worked for many years at the in-patient psychiatric health facility, Sempervirens. Around town, she would run into former patients who often said she had changed their lives for the better.

Jean had vision issues that gradually worsened and ultimately left her completely blind by her mid-80s. Being a visual artist, this was very difficult for her, but she faced it bravely. Courage was an attribute she exhibited all her life. Her family will miss her dearly.

She is survived by her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, niece, nephew, and their families, as well as great-nieces and great-nephews.

Jean chose cremation in accordance with her final wishes. Her ashes will be spread with immediate family in attendance at a future date.

Jerry Lowitz, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, musician, and friend to many, went home to the Lord on his 71st birthday, June 22, 2025.

A lifelong musician, Jerry’s passion for music was a defining part of his life. He was a beloved member of the Calvary Baptist Church worship team and played in multiple bands over the years, including a popular Humboldt County band, the Roadmasters. Jerry also had a career as a dedicated logger, working for PL.

Jerry had a special way with animals and found great joy in the outdoors, spending his time fishing and hunting. He truly loved his dog, Tank, who now lives with his wife, Kathy. Jerry will be deeply missed by his family and friends.

Jerry is survived by his beloved wife, Kathy Lowitz; daughter, Kimberly Lowitz; and stepchildren, Lynette Smith and Jeffrey Hernandez. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Britney, Colton, Ember-Lynn, Navaeh, Travis, and Waelyn, and also great-grandchildren.

A memorial service to celebrate Jerry’s life will be held on August 30th at 4:30 p.m. at Calvary Baptist Church, located at 3400 F Street, Eureka. The family would be deeply touched if those who knew and cared for him would join them in remembering and celebrating his life.

A potluck and fellowship will follow the service. Please text the number of people attending the potluck to 707-499-3783.

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Joyce Novelo-Clark was born on July 5, 1957, in Eureka. She passed away peacefully in her home in Eureka on August 4, 2025, after a long battle with cancer. Despite treatments and overcoming cancer, it returned in different areas of her body.

Joyce graduated from Eureka High School in 1973. In 1987, she moved to Veracruz, Mexico, where she made many lifelong friends whom she called family. Around 2009, she returned to Eureka to be close to her family again. In 2011, she traveled to Tennessee for approximately two years, spending time with and getting to know more of her family, before returning to her hometown of Eureka to stay.

Joyce was always the person you could go to for advice on anything. She somehow always knew how to word things perfectly to guide you and help you look at situations from every angle, often adding her quick wit and humor. Joyce never judged and loved with all her heart. She always found the good in bad situations.

Joyce was preceded in death by her grandparents, Jim and Eva Markin; her mother, Barbara Clark; her father, Bill Clark; and her nephew, Steven.

She is survived by her two sons, Michael and Donald Pettitt; her brother, Willie Clark; her sisters, Debbie (Don) Smith and Terri (Orval) Crowl; nieces Deanna (Brian) Hopkins and Amber Dominguez; nephews John (Daphne) Taylor, Wayne Bukowski, David (Lorissa) Dias, Billy Clark, Christopher Clark, and Clayton Clark; along with many cousins and great-nieces and great-nephews.

A celebration of life will be held at Trinidad Town Hall on August 23, 2025, at 1 p.m.

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