Almost an hour of my life, I won't get back this evening. Covering government meetings is a bore and in Humboldt, it is torture. I suffered through today's City of Eureka Planning Commission meeting.
It would be nice if the City of Eureka updated the list of current Planning Commission members. Looked at two different places and then finally previous minutes to get the full names. The tiny thumbnails on Zoom with names missing from some staff and Commissioners did not help. No names on the agenda.
To those who don't want to read the entire post; despite concerns, the Commission jammed through this project with an unanimous vote from five members.
The City of Eureka does not care what anyone thinks, including suggestions and concerns from fellow Commissioners. They don't care about your input, they don't care about transparency and they are too lazy to include details or answer all questions in a public format.
I had to stay awake and listen to City of Eureka staff, I assume Senior Planner Riley Topolewski drone on with a presentation. There are already two indoor grows in this neighborhood and the City of Eureka decides a third is fine.
According to city staff, there was only a small group that expressed concerns. How do we know? Just take City staff's word for it! How dare you question the people whose salary you pay for? The gall!
There were two letters from Red Lion and Bridge Neighborhood Watch. One of the Commissioners brought up his concerns about how this project would impact tourism and other industry. Odor issue was raised.
Some guy from the City said there had been no complaints from the other two grows. We have no idea where they are in this mixed industrial, residential and business area but for the moment, let us assume he is correct. How does he know? He drives by to get coffee and he cannot smell anything. Then he says "I haven't kept up with the latest technology" and turns to Commissioner Tiana Arriaga for help.
Commisioner Ariaga said she works with Papa and Barkley and describes their technology and filters. I like P & B but not every cannabis facility is P & B or may have the same standards.
Commissioner Ariaga goes off about cannabis businesses paying thousands in licenses and fines and sweat equity. Commissioner Ariaga, so do other businesses and they have been paying for licenses, fines and taxes for decades. It is the cost of doing business, especially in greedy California that sucks up earnings to support incompetent government with no vision.
Odor may not be an issue at P & B facility but it is bs that there is no odor from all the cannabis related businesses or unpermitted indoor grows in Eureka. There are a lot of grows because this current Council has no clue how to attract, maintain or encourage any business or development besides weed and grants.
I walk by that area near 2nd and S, on 4th Street and I walk all over Eureka and anyone who claims there isn't the pungent odor of weed must have lost their sense of smell.
There are caps on cannabis dispensaries but no caps on other cannabis related businesses and the City of Eureka is planning to update and do away with those caps because they want to be competitive.
Commissioner Steven Lazar brought up that indoor grows had a high energy demand. At first, the applicant representatives said they were using 1,000 but "we may switch to LED." They changed their tune when the discussion was revisited.
I am not going into the details of the discussion. Commisioner Lazar wanted a requirement added for using renewable energy. Twice,the applicant said they were fine with that and already did that at "our other facility Humboldt Indoors" but the other Commissioners and staff hemmed and hawed about it needing to be city wide and an ordinance. Eventually the energy issue was passed as a friendly amendment.
Two people spoke. I don't mean to be cynical but one commenter was fawning over Topolewski personally explaining to him and addressing his concerns. That was a conversation no one else is privy to so who knows what was said.
The other guy was way over the top in his praise for the City and pro anything cannabis. Still they both brought up the odor issue.
The commenter who spoke to Topolewski said "nowhere in the document was tourism and public or mitigation mentioned." He said instead of boiler plates, these documents needed more specifics. He said such projects were better in industrial areas.
Following public comment, one Commissioner said there should be appropriate use of the Bridge District.
https://www.humboldtcountyindoor.com/
Director of Northern California SalesBrandon Doriot's profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-doriot-21b191156
Of his 4 jobs on Linkedin, he has been at three for less than a year; one for less than a year. There is a Southern California contact.
Related post:
https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2021/05/did-you-know-about-indoor-grow-project.html?m=1
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