Arcata Corps Committee targets Eureka waterfront?

Development in neighboring city apparently part of growing mandate

Humboldt Sentinel staff
7/12/09

Arcata

Does the City of Arcata’s Committee on Corporations and Democracy have jurisdiction over development on the Eureka waterfront?

That unlikely question will come into play Tuesday as a special meeting of the Corporations Committee has as its only item of new business the “Proposed Home Depot in Eureka” discussion. This irregularly scheduled session will take place at the Arcata Branch Library behind City Hall at 3:30 p.m.

The idea of a Home Depot outlet as the anchor store of a proposed commercial and residential development of the former railroad yard known as the Balloon Tract has predominated recent Eureka city politics, especially due to the involvement of billionaire Republican fundraiser Rob Arkley through his family-owned Security National company.

Yet while it’s true that the Balloon Tract environmental and developmental review process will extend beyond the boundaries of Eureka if the project is sent up to the California Coastal Commission, the City of Arcata wouldn’t appear to be an agency with any purview over a Eureka development -- and it’s never been publicly suggested by any Arcata official that they were inviting Eureka to review projects in Arcata.

The Corporations Committee, dominated throughout its history by a majority of its members also adhering to the ideology of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County, is seeking to expand its mandate -- a mandate already revised by previous City Councils to give the committee advisory powers over a wide array of economic and political affairs in Arcata. The committee-administered Arcata ordinance banning the operation of new “formula restaurants” is the subject of ongoing lobbying efforts by the Corporations Committee and by other DUHC members to expand this cap to all retail establishments in the city that fall under the Corporations Committee’s “chain” definition.

Officially, the City of Arcata has no position on the proposed Balloon Tract development, with or without a chain hardware store. DUHC does have a position, and a prominent one, and their controversial leader David Cobb has made no secret of his total opposition to any private development on the waterfront parcel in numerous public statements. Before he was fired as a Times-Standard columnist, Cobb accused the Arkley family of demonstrating an “arrogant display of wealth and power,” and likened the Home Depot proposal as akin to developments found in a “third world country.”

Also on the Corporations Committee agenda are proposals to ban bottled water and plastic bags, impose rent control, push federal legislation on government-run health care and continue their “educational component” consisting of an ideology identical to that of Democracy Unlimited.