The first draft of a big update to a 1980s-era Humboldt County planning document was released this week.The Humboldt Bay Area Plan Update, which sets the policy direction for land use of 21,500 acres in the unincorporated bay area and over 20 miles of coastline, has new modifications aimed at guiding the future of the region through a spread of projected hazards and opportunities.“Some things have definitely changed in the last 40 years. We’re dealing with climate change, which is resulting in sea level rise and wildfire and other things like that, that weren’t even thought of back in 1983,” said John Ford, director of Humboldt County’s Planning & Building Department.This draft has added guidelines for addressing hazards like sea level rise and tsunamis, and proposes new policies to set a process for approving offshore wind energy support facilities.Along with proposed wind turbines to be attached west of Eureka in the ocean, a wind manufacturing and vertical assembly hub is proposed near Samoa, the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Multipurpose Marine Terminal.A Port Overlay Zone for the proposed heavy lift marine terminal in Humboldt Bay is introduced in this plan, a special designation that would allow for standards to be shifted to accommodate the proposed facilities. Ford noted developers would still need to apply for these projects and there would be an opportunity for community input in the process.“Rather than trying to do a permit or a variance or something like that, this will create an environment whereby they can just define what they need and the community gets to weigh in on it. Then, the ultimate decision maker there will be the Board of Supervisors,” he said.There’s also language that excludes any new or expanded oil and gas development from a “coastal dependent industrial facility” (which Ford noted stems from a Coastal Act change).Keep Reading
