[Humboldt County] Eureka on pace to build more housing in 2019 than past 7 years combined

City looks to multistory buildings, small mother-in-law units to fill housing needs

Despite a recent grand jury report stating Humboldt County is failing to meet its housing needs, the city of Eureka is on pace to build more housing in 2019 than it has built in the past seven years combined.

“Over the past 10 years, the city of Eureka has created an average of 12 to 16 housing units per year,” Eureka’s director of development services, Rob Holmlund, told the city’s Housing Advisory Board on Wednesday. In 2019, the city will be building more than a hundred housing units and in 2020 the city is “seeing a pipeline of 150.”

A February 2018 housing assessment from the state Department of Housing and Community Development found that Eureka had only met 13.9% of its housing needs between 2007 and 2014, building 122 of 880 housing units needed. Over the next eight years, the city needs to build 952 housing units, or 119 per year.

The city is approaching housing from a regional perspective, focusing on building multi-family residences like apartment buildings and promoting the construction of mother-in-law units in people’s backyards rather than constructing single-family homes, Holmlund said. It’s important for Eureka to focus on building housing that is unlikely to be built in the more rural parts of the county, such as mixed-use, multi-story apartments, Holmlund said, creating a more diversified housing landscape.

“Fortuna can do things we cannot,” Holmlund said. “They can expand into ranch land surrounding the city. We can’t do that, but we can build multistory buildings. Some people want to be in a small, urban fifth-floor residential unit. Some people want to have a white picket fence and more space in their yard. For the greater benefit of all in Humboldt County, Eureka can diversify our housing options by providing something the other communities cannot.”

Because the rest of the county is likely to see single-family developments, Holmlund said Eureka’s housing element should focus on a few different strategies that create incentives for current property owners to develop housing units on their property and encourage developers to offer more affordable housing by design (which means they are 500 square feet or less). The housing element is required of each city and county by the state every five or eight years to address how the municipalities will be addressing their housing needs and constraints. The City Council will be voting on its adoption in August.

One of the city’s main priorities is encouraging homeowners to build mother-in-law units in their backyards and to offer perks to developers who construct affordable-by-design units.

“When a residential unit is smaller than average, it is cheaper than average,” Holmlund said.

If developers or homeowners build housing or mother-in-law units that are 500 square feet or less, he said the city offers incentives such as not having to provide parking and waiving fees.

July 10, 2019

Eureka Times-Standard

By Sonia Waraich