To: Board of Supervisors
From: Planning and Building Department
Agenda Section: Departmental
Vote Requirement: Majority
SUBJECT:
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Consider Including a Housing Element Implementation Measure Requiring Adoption of a Traffic Impact Fee as Required by the Mitigation Measure in the Martin Slough Interceptor Sewer Line Extension
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RECOMMENDATION(S):
Recommendation
That the Board of Supervisors:
1. Direct staff to include a Housing Element Implementation Measure requiring staff to work with the City of Eureka to adopt a traffic impact fee.
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STRATEGIC PLAN:
This action supports the following areas of your Board’s Strategic Plan.
Area of Focus: Housing for All
Strategic Plan Category: 4002 - Increase and prioritize housing development
DISCUSSION:
The Board of Supervisors is being asked to reconsider pursuing a traffic impact fee for the Martin Slough Interceptor sewer service area. The traffic fee is a mitigation measure from the environmental impact report (EIR) prepared for implementation of the new sewer expansion. In 2019 the Board directed Public Works to pursue alternatives to implementing the traffic fee. No feasible alternatives have been identified. The lack of this impact fee has significant implications on the development of the forthcoming Housing Element. In the last General Plan update, the county was threatened with litigation if it did not either impose the required mitigation measure imposed by the EIR or remove all housing units from the Martin Slough Interceptor service area. The Martin Slough service area in the county is approximately 2,300 acres and includes nearly all land in the county jurisdiction surrounding the City of Eureka.
There were approximately 145 parcels to be included in the 2019 Housing Element Inventory within the Martin Slough service area. Inclusion of these parcels in the current housing element update would warrant similar legal challenge. In 2019 these parcels were estimated to have capacity for approximately 370 new housing units. With the adoption of the Mixed Residential provisions, that number would be significantly higher (as much as double). If the traffic fee is not imposed, the service area of the Martin Slough Interceptor could not be used which means the units would need to be dispersed to other locations.
In 2015, the Humboldt County Public Works Department retained TJKM to prepare the Greater Eureka Area Traffic Impact Fee (GEATIF) report. This report was prepared in conformance with the mitigation measure associated with the EIR prepared for the Martin Slough Interceptor Project. The mitigation measure required the implementation of a Traffic Impact Fee program prior to utilizing the Martin Slough Interceptor project infrastructure. The GEATIF report was completed in 2017, and in 2019 the Department of Public Works recommended that the Board of Supervisors adopt traffic impact fees for the greater Eureka area. The GEATIF report was intended to satisfy mitigation requirements and identify fees that can justifiably be imposed on new development. The traffic impact fee allows development to mitigate the cumulative impacts of traffic which would otherwise be unmitigated. The traffic impact fees will collect funds to make traffic improvements needed to accommodate build-out of the greater Eureka area.
At the Dec. 10, 2019, Board of Supervisors Meeting, the Board reviewed the GEATIF report and a motion was made by Supervisor Wilson, seconded by Supervisor Fennel, to have staff come back with alternatives to meet EIR requirements and to consult with the stakeholders and other subject matter experts. The motion passed unanimously.
Public Works has explored options to address the traffic impacts identified by the EIR for the Martin Slough Interceptor project. Unfortunately, without financing, developing projects to mitigate traffic impacts is infeasible. Another option explored is simply to find that the mitigation is infeasible. This would require a subsequent EIR to make this finding, but this would leave the City of Eureka and county in a very weak position if somebody challenged because while traffic mitigation fees may not be popular, they are feasible to implement.
The entirety of Myrtletown and Cutten are within the Martin Slough Interceptor service area and are two of only a handful of areas in the county jurisdiction that have access to public water and sewer services and are mapped as moderate to high resource areas by the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Data Viewer tool. Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) means “taking meaningful actions that… address significant disparities in housing needs and in access to opportunity, replacing segregated living patterns with truly integrated and balanced living patterns, transforming racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty into areas of opportunity, and fostering and maintaining compliance with civil rights and fair housing laws”. AFFH requirements also stipulate that public agencies take no action that is “materially inconsistent with this obligation”.
If the implementation measure is not included in the Housing Element, Cutten and Myrtletown, a significant area of moderate to high resource areas, would be unavailable to low-income housing in the Housing Element inventory. Additional low-income units required by the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) would likely be relegated to low resource areas as mapped by HCD. Depending on the concentration of low-income units assigned to low resource areas, the inventory may be at risk of being deemed materially inconsistent with AFFH obligations by HCD. This could result in the Housing Element not being accepted by HCD.
The City of Eureka is currently working on updating the GEATIF report. Given the renewed interest in adopting traffic impact fees exhibited by the City of Eureka, the Board of Supervisors pursuing Traffic Impact Fees at this time would allow for greater collaboration with the City of Eureka and likely reduce the time and costs associated with preparing updates independently.
To address this, staff proposes to include an action item in the Housing Element to adopt the traffic mitigation fee for the Martin Slough Interceptor service area. This would necessitate the traffic fee analysis be updated, which would need to be done during the planning period for the Housing Element (2028-2035).
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
Financial impacts are anticipated to be minimal. Staff time to include the implementation measure in the Housing Element and coordinate with the City of Eureka regarding the GEATIF update comprises the anticipated impacts.
STAFFING IMPACT:
No staffing impacts are expected.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
This project was referred to the Department of Public Works for review and comment.
ALTERNATIVES TO STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS:
The Board may choose not to include an Implementation Measure in the Housing Element requiring adoption of a Mitigation Measure to satisfy Traffic Impact Fee requirements for the Greater Eureka area. Given the substantial loss to the Housing Element inventory that would result and potential AFFH implications, staff does not recommend further consideration of this alternative. Further, if at a future date the Board did choose to implement Traffic Impact Fees or an equivalent strategy that would satisfy the Mitigation Measure of the EIR, the County would do so without the benefit of coordination with the City of Eureka, and by extension would be responsible for bearing the full weight of associated costs.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Greater Eureka Area Traffic Impact Fee (GEATIF) report
2. Martin Slough Interceptor Service Area Map
PREVIOUS ACTION/REFERRAL:
Meeting of: N/A
File No.: N/A