Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) was topic #1 at Tuesday’s Humboldt County Board of Supervisors hearing on the Housing Element of the General Plan Update.
Kay Escarda, a veteran of two Housing Element plans, encouraged Supervisors to adopt Inclusionary Zoning.
About 20 citizens spoke during the public comment portion of the hearing, many voicing support or opposition to IZ, which the Planning Commission approved by a 4-2 vote.
Proponents believe IZ will finally address the need for affordable housing in the county, while opponents — mostly Realtors — want the market to solve the problem.
Humboldt County has one of the worst housing indexes in the state, said Kay Escarda of Eureka’s Housing advisory Board. IZ is “the best chance of actually producing some housing for lower income people,” she said.
John LaBoyteaux of the North Coast Growers Association said 4 of the 5 homes he’s owned were zoned IZ, and all have been in nice neighborhoods with a variety of housing types.
Brian Mitchell of the pro-development group Humboldt Economic & Land Plan (HELP) said IZ would concentrate low income housing in McKinleyville, Cutten and unincorporated Fortuna.
But Jon Zaiglin of Healthy Humboldt said IZ does the opposite by demanding affordable housing that doesn’t segregate economic classes. IZ would prevent “ghettoization,” he said.
The hearing was continued to August 18.
Not all Realtors oppose inclusionary zoning. Realtors come in all stripes, sizes and political persuasions. Some are even *gasp* liberal. Many are moderate or not political at all.
Humboldt County has misread the Patterson case and their plan will go down in flames. Typical, County Council gives bad advise when she said that Patterson has “nothing to do with IZ”.
and many feel that if you want IZ then buy some property and develop it all low income or part IZ or just do nothing with what you own—- IZ advocates need to help change attitudes about welfare,entitlements and job creation and retention—–government will solve all your problems,just pass another ordinance they’ll all worked so well in the past
Of course, if the private sector/market forces had solved the problem, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
No, but many who spoke against IZ at yesterday’s hearing were Realtors.
Humboldt County and those 180-some other places where IZ is working. But thanks for your legal expertise.
Affordable housing does not work right now partly because of the political gerrymandering. Here is how it “really” is. If you are a builder who has already built a house which is “affordable”, the county tax appraiser (prior to a sales transaction, if any at all) will value it to super-inflated values (my very accurate figures show a 40% mark-up). I know, because I am the builder who has proven this scenario out in government’s own paperwork. Then, the county tax appraiser sends the builder a letter revealing his or her pissed-off nature that you sold the house too low (in their tax fraud minds). I know this too as I have several letters. Then, when the builder catches the fraud and files for a property tax valuation assessment appeals, the County does not give you the hearing (they are supposed to by state law) because they know that their minions get caught. Then, the county usurps their own process and the State mandated process by inventing “illegal new processes and illegal amendments to the one hot on their tails. Then, what the County ventures to do is to create a radio commercial to have people go directly into Linda Hill’s office to sign up on a “request list” so she can determine whether or not the value is “adjustable” downward. Well, guess what, this is illegally done so that the County does not have to fall victim to their frauds when an internal and external audit is done regarding certain financial disclosures and processes that are tied to the Property Tax Assessment Appeals filings. We should all know by now that Stephen A. Strawn was running a fraudulant financial scheme which just got exposed in an op-ed piece in the T-S a little over a week ago.
For those folks in the community who are really concerned about their financial future and the future tax base on your homes (don’t become another elderly person who loses their home due to improper tax bases), think about this example: how CEQA would not really work if the process was not followed correctly, legally, etc… when it is “CHANGED” to appease government or certain property owners, builders and developers over other property owners, builders and developers. This is exactly the type of situation with “NON-SALES TRANSACTION BASED PROPERTY TAX VALUATIONS” which occurs in Humboldt County. This is not the fault of anyone except county officials and their knowledge that the General Fund is slammed when property tax valuations go down. Think about it, what property owner, builder or developer would not want to pay lower taxes. The differences is the “flip over”. Most developers and builders sell their product right away, therefore they do not “financially realize” the excessive and over-inflated values. So, there is evidence of “financial punishment” levied by county appraisers in order to extract as much extortion and fraud monies to subsidize a General Fund which is being “raked in” by state coffers.
For those who want verification of exactly how the process is to be implemented, contact this person below,
Board of Equalization – District 1
Betty T. Yee
455 Golden Gate Aveneue S.F.
Suite 10500
(415) 557-2100
Then, make sure to get an e-mail from her as well (State employees are not at all “fully trustworthy” either since the State is “hard-up” for money and uses counties as “the middle man”). Create the papertrail network.
This issue is morphing into a “timing bombshell” for Humboldt County elected officials – past and present.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
IZ doesn’t prevent “ghettoization.” The term is ghettofication anyway… as in the cities bordering IZ cities in the Bay Area are ghettofied.
Brian Mitchell is correct. McKinleyville, Cutten, and the outskirts of Fortuna will be like East Pally Alto. The proponents of IZ in the 1970s said that IZ in Palo Alto proper was going to provide homes for all the low income people living there… but what really happened? All the people who couldn’t afford the new inflated IZ taxed housing rates moved to EPA and the average home price in Stanford-land skyrocketed to over a million bucks.
Reason did a study on IZ showing that Palo Alto has produced an average of 9.1 IZ units per year since 1973. The same study estimates that IZ covers 4% of the affordable housing problem and that it would take 100 years to cover just 5 years of housing needs under this program. IZ costs the government, developers, and home buyers millions but barely any low-income folks come out ahead on the deal. If 9 families benefit from this situation per year in a city of 60,000 people, how many other people are just saying fuck it and moving to EPA?
These overpaid politicians don’t give a damn if the airport and Sequoia Park turn into ghettos. They don’t live there, so their houses will go up in value. This is just a smokescreen to round up all the poor people into ghettos while pretending to have compassion for them.
Link for above comment for reading purposes
Tax Appeals
T-S article from E.R. Op-Ed below:
Snoozing watchdogs?
Posted: 07/19/2009 12:50:19 AM PDT
Last week the county’s outside auditor, CPA Donald R. Reynolds, made public his report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008. The report spotted several violations of standard accounting procedures and recommended remedies. Among these:
The County has no written policies covering accounting, fraud prevention, purchasing, or petty cash;
Millions of dollars of federal and state grant revenues and expenditures were not properly tracked;
$11 million, plus $400,000 in related interest, from Community Development Block Grant loans was not recorded in financial statements;
The County’s Headwaters Fund was not properly monitored;
Fund balances were not reconciled with the General Ledger, including Accounts Receivable and voucher Payables;
A County official–the elected Treasurer-Tax Collector–used unauthorized funds from a revenue stream not covered by the County’s approved budget;
The County allowed “other government agencies” with county cash accounts to overdraw these, by as much as $450,000. The audit recommended adopting a policy that requires signed notes and collateral for such draws. It cautions, however, that “many of these governments have little collateral and the loans of this type may never be paid.” Who are these “other government agencies? The people deserve to know since it would be their tax dollars taking the hit on any defaults; .
The County Auditor-Controller’s office should add an internal auditor
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to its staff. The lack of one led the Health and Human Services department to set up its own system several years ago. For cost efficiency, the County Auditor-Controller could fulfill this recommendation by hiring the H&HS internal auditor to handle the function for all county departments, thus “recentralizing” the function.
In light of the shortcomings, the report recommended that the County provide “public officials with financial management training on an annual basis.”
Upon hearing an oral summary of the critical report, the supervisors should have readily agreed to the recommendations. Instead, they were largely passive. Alarm bells, if they rang, were inaudible. They acted only on Reynolds’s recommendation that an Auditing Committee be established by asking staff to recommend its composition. Next, will they shoot the messenger by getting a different outside auditor next time?
In short, these watchdogs of the public purse listened, asked some questions and voted unanimously to receive and file the report. RIP.
Copy and Pasted
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Many people prior to Brian Mitchell explained the same ghetto style standards that COULD OCCUR in McKinleyville, Cutten, Fortuna, etc… It is a wonder why Supervisors let the continual concerns fall on deaf ears. Another argument was why are areas like Garberville, Redway, Willow Creek, Trinidad, Orick, etc.. not being considered for equal percentages based on population figures for the implementation of affordable housing and IZ (infilling debate?). In fact, several years ago, Jack Durham at the McKinleyville Press ran an opinion piece about E.Z., I.Z. and other stuff. Thanks Jack!
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Link to property Tax Assessment Appeals procedures below,
Tax Appeals Rules
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Tax Appeals Rules did not uplink, I wonder why?
One more time.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
You added a period.
At least these new ghettos will provide some good jobs for hustlers. Perhaps a new liquor store or two can open up as long as they are well-stocked with lottery scratcher tickets and glass tubes.
Thanks Mr. Nice! I must not have had my finger on the “shift key” properly.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
At least these new ghettos will provide some good jobs for hustlers. Perhaps a new liquor store or two can open up as long as they are well-stocked with lottery scratcher tickets and glass tubes.
Gosh. Who can save these lower income trash types from their own weaknesses? Aren’t we so superior?
Sorry, I forgot check cashing and payday loan spots.
Dearest Heraldo(s),
Have you read Patterson? Also, show me where IZ is working. The only community in Humboldt is Arcata, clearly not a role model for affordable housing or the number of new units to meet housing needs.
Liberal and a lawyer, don’t you feel superior.
It works very well. Anywhere where you want to increase the cost of new houses and thereby increase the value of existing homes, IZ works flawlessly. Look at how well it has worked in Portola Valley, Palo Alto, Tiburon, Mill Valley, Sunnyvale, and Petaluma. People in these places can feel good about being rich, selfish bastards because they are pretending to help people through pipe-dream progressive policy.
It is very smart of the wealthy progressives in this area to support an illusion like IZ. It gives a warm and fuzzy government is handling it feeling while simultaneously gutting the evil developers’ profits and keeping new “transplants” out by artificially increasing the price of housing.
Heraldo, If IZ was really working then why did HCD pen a letter stating the reasons why it doesn’ really produce the housing numbers needed to meet housing element opportunities? Cite the source for your 180 communities.
One reason is because HCD knows what sells and what does not based on the permit applications, assumed costs of construction and types of buyers purchasing those homes? Yet, I can only imagine that if home prices were lower, that more renters would shift over to become home buyers. This area does not have enough higher paying jobs in the “private sector” to allow for this currently. Now that Fannie, Freddie and others have been caught giving out loans to those who could not meet their financial responsibilities, there will be more financial scrutiny, thus furthering the divide between those who can buy and those who can’t.
Home prices can go down if material costs go down, labor costs go down (workers comp., employee/employer taxes paid, liability insurance premiums, etc..) or home sizes get really, really small. Yet, with all the debt accumulated and the interest on that debt, not to mention economic inflationary impacts, I doubt that materials will go down in price. So, the only sure-fire thing that I see at helping the situation out is for government to REDUCE it’s size and cut costs; then, reducing costs to the employer and employee. This allows for hiring and raising wages if the business is honest and forthright. If not, then this won’t work either. Then, we are right back to the same issue which has been the main problem – overpopulation and the battle for dwindling resources!
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Wikipedia on IZ
Here’s a more detailed analysis.
This one focuses on California.
Nine lessons for inclusionary zoning
Subsidizing homes so that low income people can qualify for a loan to purchase a home increases the prices for everyone else. So how is that affordable housing? 10 folks get a break, everyone else pays. One of the results of this social engineering = people that own a home can’t afford to move to where there are jobs. If you need a cheap house move to Detroit where homes are under $20,000.
There’s a solution for poverty. Move to Detroit. Got it.
Debt versus income spread – ouch!
Ascent of Money and ChiAmerica
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Posted on July 29, 2009 by The Humbug
Remember Faust? No, sillies. The other Faust. Goethe and Marlowe’s Faust, that German fellow with the awkward syntax who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for–well, something. We forget what. Knowledge. Power. An extra two inches. Does it matter?
The story itself is your standard-issue dog turns into a devil, offers to serve Faust on earth if he promises to return the favor in hell, and after the deal is inked in blood our protagonist commences the illicit banging of a hot chick who kills her mom so as to facilitate additional banging before getting predictably pregged and her brother dies defending her honor and she drowns her baby in the river, etc., etc.
Bo-ring, really, but the arrangement clearly turned out none too well for anyone, including Faust, who after that odd jumble of plot elements still had to follow through on the whole burning-in-hell end of things.
But the story has been notably cheerier for the other Faust–Ralph, whose narrative goes something like this: A lawyer of enormously so-so abilities is recruited by Bonnie Neely to Humboldt County where he is named Interim County Counsel and advises the board during the drafting of the General Plan Update, after which he is appointed by Mark Lovelace to represent the Third District on the Planning Commission while it considers and revises the General Plan Update, while at the same time providing legal counsel to the Northcoast Environmental Center, an organization which, on its own and as part of the Healthy Humboldt Coalition, actively lobbies both the Board and the Planning Commission to achieve its preferred outcome to the–you guessed it–General Plan Update.
That Mr. Faust as Interim County Counsel generously if improperly released dozens of GPU-related documents to Mark Lovelace–before the latter was elected, before he was even a candidate to be Faust’s future appointer–well that’s just another thread in the web.
But here’s one important difference between the two Fausts: No one’s suggesting ours sold his soul to anyone.
Honestly. Who would buy it?
He suits me not at all, our new-made Burgermeister!
Since he’s installed, his arrogance grows faster.
How has he helped the town, I say?
Things worsen,—what improvement names he?
Obedience, more than ever, claims he,
And more than ever we must pay!
-Goethe
Filed under: Humboldt County | Tagged: a JD–not a real doctor, an extra two inches, appointment and disappointment, Bonnie Neely, Burgermeister Meisterburger, enormously so-so abilities, general plan update, Goethe and Marlowe, Healthy Humboldt Coalition, Mark Lovelace, Northcoast Environmental Center, pretty busy for a retired dude, Ralph Faust, Third District, tragical history, tres dramatique
olphart at 9:10: that’s just the point: Those people that you say ‘get a break’ DON’T get anything other than a glorified rental program!!!!! They have to pay the same insurance, maintenance costs, BUT: if they want to sell, they don’t get to pick the buyers, the Management Program does, and if you think they, as the sellers, would realize any equity or income on the sale: your are sadly mis-informed! Same holds true if you die (you can’t leave it to your family, no sir, the management company re-sells to whom it likes), or if there is a divorce the same applies. WAKE UP!!!!! IZ ONLY gives you the right to live there and not a whole HELL of alot else. Get it????
Heraldo – you DID represent Mr. Laboyteaux’s comments accurately (for once). However, when Mr. Laboyteaux spoke to several people at the break, he offered that what he considers Inclusionary Zoning is neighborhoods that have/allow different housing sizes and types on different sizes of lots. Period. When asked if he had ever signed a contract/agreement for affordability, or had to go through the rigorous financial review for qualification that includes DISCLOSURE. Nor, when he sold these properties, did he have to give the main portion of equity earnings to anyone else, and he could pick who purchased the homes. He apologized and said he did not know that with formal Inclusionary Zoning programs that all of these things are required. Atleast a couple of board members know that John’s idea of what IZ is is mis-guided, however well intended.
Please Begin Your Path to Credability By Telling the TRUTH in your blog. Please – some of us are about OUT of charity for you. Thank you.
Mr. Nice at 3:31 needs to check with all of those Jurisdictions again —– the collapse in the market (you know, Suppy and Demand???) have prompted many jurisdictions in California (yes, even the 100+plus ones that Saint Connor mentioned at the hearing) to ELIMINATE their programs all together because they are not working; as a matter of fact – some cities are forced to BUY the units at great expense to their ‘housing programs’.
Know this about Saint Elizabeth Connor: She does not always want to represent the truth down the road from the original information —- she knows damn well the jurisdictions with IZ are dropping like flies – if she doesn’t THAT’s not a good reflection on her research skills. She ought to check the times at local churches for CONFESSION.
HERALDO – why aren’t you representing the group/s that REALLY benefit from Inclusionary Zoning in this discussion: The Non-Profits and their employees that managage the programs??? They may be nice folks, but COME ON!!!!
I admit that I’ve not researched the latest news on IZ. I’m not surprised that cities are dropping the program, it costs way too much money. For the amount they spend on that, they could just build some cheap ass apartments and get it over with.
anonymouse, with no factual basis you’re just looking to find a whipping boy. The REAL beneficiaries of IZ are the folks who live in houses that they can afford and would otherwise not have been constructed.
Your misdirecting allegations make no more sense than alleging that the “real” beneficiaries of imported goods are the shipping companies and truckers.
You seem to resent the need for activities to be supervised and managed at all. But supervision and management is very necessary for complicated and longterm projects, like equitable provision of housing, to be successful and honest.
Anon at 8:05,
Developers have been stacking planning commissions with their folks for years, and I’m sure you never complained.
I’m glad Ralph is there looking out for the good of the community, instead of looking to line the pockets of the few.
3.5 acres in bayside for me, second floor studio downtown for you.
Connors is a poverty pimp. Faust is a corrupt and nasty little troll. God, I’m sure glad the left is in control.
THE STORY OF Faust is the sad story of the human who is not free. It repeats its self. Little people, not in physical stature, will do what every is needed to feel like big people. Power is a growth hormone. Freedom is the greatest growth hormone. People like our new planning commissioner,several supervisors,a bloger want their herd of sheep to follow blindly on to slaughter. While they feast on false power. Their end and ours will repeat Fausts.
Goethe would be pleased to have Faust discussed here. If Ralph is Faust, who then is Mephisto?
Connors IS a POVERTY PIMP!!!!!!!
Housing Head Fake?
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Scientific research proves you suck
Da Man
There are several qualified candidates. However, one applicant for the job might well be Mephista.