Strike three

A staff-proposed timberland production zone revision received literally at the last minute left the Humboldt County Planning Commission at a loss on Thursday on how to prepare a recommendation for the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors’ Dec. 11 meeting.

Commissioners commented at the meeting’s start that they had received the amended staff report minutes before....

The staff report on Thursday included a change in the permitting dynamic, as well as suggested creating the zones “TPZ exclusive” and “TPZ.”...

“The Planning Commission was going to continue the matter; there wasn’t any question about that in the beginning,” Deputy County Counsel Carolyn Ruth said on Friday.

She said in retrospect it might have been more productive to let everyone know that at the beginning of the hearing.

Ruth said the staff’s amendment “happened literally yesterday.”

“To a certain extent this has to be a dynamic process of responding and creating,” she said.

Some objections had been made that the new information wasn’t properly noticed.

Ruth said state law requires a notice “contain a general explanation of the matter to be considered.”

The commissioners agreed to consider the topic again on Dec. 20, the date for which a general plan update workshop had already been noticed but will be continued.

Ruth said the county counsel and planning department will recommend to the supervisors they continue their hearing until the commission can finish its deliberations.

Last-minute revisions stall Planning Commission's TPZ decision

This makes the third time that residents and property owners have been received little or no notice about decisions which have dramatic effects on their properties.

Though the Board of Supervisor's prior acts may have been technically "properly" noticed, the first came to light over a weekend through an article in the paper with a Monday holiday preceeding a Tuesday Board meeting, making it impossible for residents to contact Board members prior to the meeting IF they even received any warming about what was about to transpire, and the second agenda became available before 5:pm on a Friday before a Tuesday meeting.

This stands in stark contrast to the process that took place when the TPZ plans were initially considered and then put in place, where every affected resident and land owner was notified and contacted.

Property owners no longer trust the County's planning staff or the Board. This is very clear from the testimony at the hearings.