City of Eureka facing potential lawsuit over parking lot housing projects

EUREKA, Calif. — A group of petitioners known as "Citizens for a Better Eureka" are threatening legal action over their parking lot housing projects. The group is made up of commercial real estate firm Security National Properties, along with Eureka residents and business owners.

"The project will impact my business, along with multiple businesses in this area," Eureka business owner Ray Conti said. "There needs to be a different solution, come up with a different plan, besides using city-owned parking lots to build low-income housing."

Ray is the owner of Ray's Old Town auto muffler and worries about the effect the loss of parking lots will have on businesses. The group also claims the city's plans fail to meet the requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

The item was a hot topic during Tuesday night's Eureka City Council meeting. Allison Holland with Security National Proposed a different idea.

"Security National Properties is wanting and willing to buy all three parcels and turn them into a park that will be accessible for all of the residents and visitors to downtown," Holland said.

Given the concerns surrounding car parking, The Northstate's News asked the firm how they would balance that with the idea for a park.

"There could still be an area, it's a large parcel, there could still be an area where parking is existing, it wouldn't have to all become park," Kenny Carswell with Security National Properties Leasing and Operations said.

Eureka City Manager Miles Slattery said that's not an option at this point.

"Unfortunately, this property here has been designated and approved by the state as property that's listed in our housing element and is going to be used for housing," Slattery said. "Not only are we having these public meetings to provide input, but also once the developer has chosen that developable developer will be required to have, I believe it's two public meetings."

Slattery said the city is unable to comment on the potential litigation at this time. Security National Properties went on to say they plan to file the lawsuit on Thursday.