PREVIOUSLY:

• Was Eureka Assigned Too Much Low-Income Housing? Humboldt Association of Governments Will Consider the City’s Appeal During a Public Hearing on Thursday

If you’ve read Ryan’s story, above, you know that tomorrow the city of Eureka will be protesting the Humboldt County Association of Government’s decision to assign responsibility for around 30 percent of the county’s new housing (between the years 2027 and 2035) to Eureka and Eureka alone. We’re talking city limits. Around half of that allocation will be for low-income housing, in particular.

Now, these “housing needs” numbers are a little bit nebulous. It doesn’t mean that Eureka has to make sure those houses are actually built — supply and demand does play a role, here — but the city has to plan for it. And also to permit it if some developer steps forward. And just that planning affects city policy and the city budget and local government generally in its own way, whether or not things actually get built. You have to plan water service, sewage service, police and fire coverage — all that business.

On the one hand: Is that fair to Eureka? The city has just about 20 percent of the county’s population, but it’s expected to absorb 30 percent of the county’s (hypothetical) growth?

But on the other: Is it fair to the people who will be living in that hypothetical new housing? HCAOG cites Eureka’s compactness and relative city-ness as reasons to concentrate an outsized portion of new development within its bounds.

So the HCAOG Board of Directors will hear those arguments tomorrow. What do you think right now?