David Benda
Redding Record Searchlight
Published 10:28 AM EST Jan 18, 2020
Like many North State residents, Laural Park wants to help the homeless get off the streets.
Park believes she has an answer — a community village comprised of tiny huts that she said can provide safe accommodations for the unsheltered.
“I live here in Redding. I see the homeless. I go for walks and I encourage them all the time,” said Park, who grew up in Redding and returned here 10 years ago. “It’s hard for me to see people struggle out in the cold, and some of them aren’t going to make it in a site like this, but many of them can.”
Park, 70, says there are obstacles to overcome, including money and finding a suitable site. Currently, there is no land in the city of Redding zoned for this type of housing.
Building the shelter Park envisions on property in unincorporated Shasta County would “need to be evaluated … on a case-by-case basis,” Resource Management Director Paul Hellman said.
But Park isn’t deterred. She has talked to city and county officials, including Redding City Councilwoman Kristen Schreder, who’s open to the idea.
On Tuesday, Park and volunteers will build one of the huts at the California Heritage Youth Build Academy on Airport Road in Redding. The demonstration starts at 10 a.m.
She has toured a similar transitional housing village in Eugene, Oregon, and came away impressed.
The village was surrounded by a locked gate, had a common area for residents to hang out, a resource office, community kitchen, toilets, showers and garbage service.
Among the rules in Eugene are no drugs and alcohol use, participants must attend weekly meetings, and each resident must volunteer their time to help sustain the community.
The 60-square-foot Conestoga Huts are equipped with locks and are 6 feet tall. They also have a bed frame, mattress, and smoke detector.
Park said oversight in the community would be done by a nonprofit organization. On-site case managers would act as advisers and help with medical, mental health, education and employment needs.
Redding Development Services Director Larry Vaupel said the City Council has not directed him to research the zoning issues related to the huts.
Schreder, a homeless advocate, would like to see the council take up Park’s idea.
“I hope that we visit this issue and have a conversation about the possibilities at looking at this from a zoning perspective,” Schreder said. “We get a lot of comments from the community that we need to get people out of the woods, off the street, out of our downtown parking structure, and this is a model that has worked in other parts of the country, like Eugene.”
This isn’t the first time somebody has proposed housing for the homeless. In 2015, the Shasta Humanity Project held public meetings to explain its concept for a tiny-house village. But money and the needed land were the issue.
Park said her ah-ha moment came after the Carr and Camp fires, which devastated the North State in 2018 and left thousands homeless. She remembers watching and reading news accounts of wildfire victims living in tents or other temporary shelters.
“If the military can set up an entire town overnight, certainly we can help people who have experienced a natural disaster” or are chronically homeless for other reasons, Park said.
VA clinic developer eyes more property
SASD Development Group, the San Diego-based developer that was awarded the lease to build the $14.4 million Veterans Administration medical clinic off Knighton Road in Redding, wants to purchase two high-profile parcels across the street from Redding Municipal Airport.
Work on the VA clinic started last spring.
The Redding City Council will go into closed session Tuesday to negotiate price and terms of the purchase.
The two properties are on the southwest corner and northwest corner of Lockheed Drive and Airport Road in the Redding Airport Business Park. The combined asking price for both sites, which encompass approximately 10 acres, is $1,565,764.
What’s not known is SASD’s plans should it purchase the parcels.
Redding Public Works Director Chuck Aukland said at this point he could not provide details about SASD’s plans because the matter is in closed session. SASD did not respond to an email.
Property in Stillwater Business Park also will be discussed Tuesday in closed session. The city will continue its negotiations with Pace Engineering, which has been looking to relocate to the business park for more than a year.
However, per the agenda, Pace is now interested in another lot in Stillwater. The engineering firm is negotiating to buy Lot 3, a 5.32-acre parcel.
The engineering company, headquartered on South Street in downtown Redding, had been looking at a 3.33-acre lot, the smallest of the 16 parcels that make up Stillwater.
Final hurdle for planned ARCO?
In late November, the Redding Planning Commission, for the second time, approved plans for a 24-hour AM/PM ARCO station in east Redding.
On Tuesday, the City Council could approve the project, also for the second time. The project must go to council because it needs a general plan amendment.
Jagdeep Singh Randhawa wants to build the station on Shasta View Drive and Goodwater Avenue south of Highway 44. Randhawa also owns the ARCO in the city of Shasta Lake.
The Shasta View project went to the commission twice in 2018 before it was finally approved by commissioners in May of that year. A month later, the Redding City Council approved the project.
But the city rescinded the approval after a stakeholder in the Chevron station on the north side of Highway 44 sued to stop the project because a market analysis had not been done. The lawsuit was dismissed in exchange for the applicant to start over the approval process.
The city adopted a policy outlining when a market analysis is needed. And, ironically, the city’s planning department ultimately decided that a market analysis is unnecessary for Randhawa’s project due to the size of the rezone, which is below the 5 or more acres threshold for such an analysis.
Tuesday’s staff report to council members includes letters of support and opposition to the project, including a letter from Redding attorney Jeff Swanson, who represented the Chevron station stakeholder in the lawsuit against the city.
Swanson now contends the new policy essentially exempts the project from doing a market analysis.
“In fact, this new policy effectively exempts all retail and commercial development, except for large projects occupying more than five acres, from having to perform a market analysis. … I do not think the new policy solves the problem,” Swanson stated in a Nov. 21, 2019, letter to the city.
Stay tuned.
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David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly “Buzz on the Street” column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-225-8219. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.
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