Companion article: Local Coastal Program – Scoping Meeting – December 18, 2023

Questioner:  Who actually determines the ultimate scope of the EIR?

 

Staff:
The Coastal Commission, I believe, will be the individual ones adopting it. When they take their action to be doing that.

 

Questioner: 
And at what point do they determine that? 

 

Staff:
Maybe we can put that down as a great question. And we can work with you directly. 

 

Questioner:
You don’t need to work with me, you just need to clarify to the public — because the public is super-confused.

On December 18, 2023, the Community Development Department hosted a public workshop to learn about, discuss, and contribute comments to Arcata’s Local Coastal Program update. The workshop was held on a Monday from 4:30 – 6:00 PM, which is not an especially good time for regular working folks to be able to attend. The workshop was not recorded by the City and was not made available as a video.

In attendance that afternoon were about nine City and State staff members and about twelve citizen participants.

There were many interesting discussions between staff members and the public about the Local Coastal Plan contents and process.

The staff of the Community Development Department will be assembling the written comments left by the workshop participants. When this is available, it will be included here as an article on Arcata1.com.

This is a few minutes of an interesting conversation, about what the meeting should be offering.

Public individual:
Okay, a process question, please. You’re talking about this as if the Coastal Commission is doing the analysis of the impacts on the City of Arcata. But the City is doing the analysis, correct?

Arcata staff member:
No. Well, no, I don’t think I don’t think that’s the message. I think David [Loya] mentioned this.

Public individual:
He was a bit muddled about that.

Arcata staff member:
We’re going to give it a try, and I may be sorry for the confusion. But I tried to indicate that we’re going to collect this information here. We’re going to kind of process it, break it down. We’re going to let the Coastal Commission know what we got from our public input. And then, you know, we’re going to strategize with them. They could tell us, Look, you have to do that [not clear] thing that’s been happening before, you know, what is the impact of liquefaction and sea level rise, and things like that.

Public individual (continued):
Who actually determines the ultimate scope of the EIR?

Arcata staff member:
The Coastal Commission, I believe, will be the individual ones adopting it. When they take their action to be doing that.

Public individual:
And at what point do they determine that? In the consistencies finding? In the certification?

Arcata staff member:
You know, I think instead of — I don’t want to speak out of turn, and maybe we can put that down as a great question. And we can work with you directly. 

Public individual:
You don’t need to work with me, you just need to clarify to the public — because the public is super-confused.

Arcata staff member:
We’re here just to gather input about environmental impacts, and not necessarily the process and I’d love to be able to do that. I’m sorry that this isn’t the venue for that.

Public individual:
It actually is the venue for it. But never mind, I get what you’re saying.

Arcata staff member:
Yeah. Okay.

Public individual:
This is precisely the venue for that.