Years in development, the Waterfront Eureka Plan is approved but there’s room for changing it as there’s support for waiving minimum parking requirements in some of the plan’s districts.The plan gained unanimous approval by the city council at its May 6 meeting, closing a formative phase that included many public meetings.Ultimate approval still waits, however, as the state’s Coastal Commission will have to certify the plan as part of the city’s Local Coastal Program (LCP).And as council approached its vote on the plan’s approval, there was talk of changing it to universally waive minimum parking requirements for residential development.During a public comment period, Colin Fiske of the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities vouched for lifting the requirements throughout the plan area.“Eureka’s plans and policy documents acknowledge that these mandates are problematic and restrict new housing supply,” he said. “And a number of years ago, Eureka led the way in loosening parking mandates and providing needed exceptions. Now it’s just time to get rid of them altogether.”Jen Kalt of Humboldt Waterkeeper backed that up.“There’s been a lot of studies showing that this is the single policy that can make the biggest difference in increasing new housing development,” she said.Read More
