August 27, 2012
It was a
beautiful day. It was almost a shame to
be inside with the sun out so bright. It was easy to wonder whether our
President, Nancy Dean, who is known to dabble in meteorological
prognostication, had conjured up such day for us to enjoy. It was with this brilliant summer backdrop
that the ninth meeting of the 2012-2013 year was opened by President Dean. Our own
multiple Paul Harris Fellow and President-elect Ziggy Ziegenfuss
led us in the honor of making our pledge to the Stars & Stripes. Not
allowing the solemn moment to linger, Dan Heinen feigned a stumble, mumbling
something about a Presidential stool being in the way, before sharing a
heartening invocation.
While there were
no student guests announced at the meeting this week, being that this was their
first day of school, but we were all happy to learn they helped defend our
club's honor at the annual youth exchange rafting trip the past weekend in
Willow Creek. Doug & Cindy of Arcata Rotary graciously invited our team to
their home near the river, which was much appreciated by all who were involved.
As sunny days
are typically in abundance this time of year, it should come as no surprise how
the cornucopia overflowed with birthdays and anniversaries this week. Adding to this abundance, since next week is
dark (no meeting) due to Labor Day, we also added those from the first week of
September to our list of acknowledgements. So, for birthdays we had Ron Pierre
on August 27th, Jill MacDonald and Tim Gallagher on the 29th, and then in
September we have Bill McAuley on the 1st, Tim Foster and Tom McMurray on the
2nd, Kim Bauridel on the 6th, and Carolyn Crnich on the 9th.
Anniversaries
are always pleasant to announce. First,
we had Aaron Tilch and his charming wife Jennifer celebrating their day on
August 28, Ziggy Ziegenfuss and his better half Ruth enjoying their
day on August 29th. Next, in September
we have Mike Cunningham and his lovely bride Sally sharing their 10th
anniversary on September 1st, Dave Tyson and spouse Patti on the 8th, and Ron Pierre
celebration his marriage to Jan on August 9th.
Finally, after
several weeks without any membership anniversaries, we had five of them this
time around. Diane Cipperly celebrates
her 5th year as a Rotarian, Brad Gibson
has reached his 1st anniversary with the club, Matthew Owen has hit the six
year milestone, Russ Harris can proudly claim his 11th year, and Susie Smelser
is now a 2 year member.
Announcements,
Announcements, let's all hear it for Announcement!
President Nancy
Dean got us all up to speed on Gustavo and Santiago who have been bike riding
round trip from Argentina to Alaska, and back.
The have called their 30 month adventure ECOVUELTA, which has involved
them conveying a green message through lectures to schools, businesses and
institutions. They encourage
individuals, especially children to "realize their dreams". There experiences via photo, video and blog
can be shared and viewed via their website at http://www.ecovuelta.com.ar. While they were here last weekend they were
met by President Dean as evidenced by a photo of her and the guys -- the t-shirt they
gave her was so big (or was it that she was so small?) it nearly covered her!
There were some
additional recognitions made that should be mentioned.
Nancy then
introduced our speaker for the day -- Bob Higgons, who aside from being a
Realtor and contractor, is the Government Relations Coordinator for the
Humboldt Association of Realtors, and who mainly came to provide an update on
the General Plan for land development in Humboldt County. Bob indicated that the reason he was there
was that he had been tagged while riding a bike in Old Town by our own Matthew
Owen, and his lovely wife, Supervisor Virginia Bass. Bob wondered, tongue in cheek, whether he
should venture out on his bike in Old Town again!
Bob first gave
us a brief history of the Humboldt Association of Realtors. It was founded up
here in 1922, and was formerly known as the Board of Realtors. At inception it
had 22 members. Now, under its new name, the Humboldt Association of Realtors,
it boasts 318 members and 105 affiliates.
For years they have proudly been giving out scholarships, and now they
give out about $25,000 per year in scholarships, in amounts of $100 to $500 per
year, to local students of real estate
and real estate related courses at CR and HSU.
Humboldt
Association of Realtors is also engaged in other community projects. For example, they host an annual Public
Housing Forum, which tackles topics like expansion in the housing market,
affordable housing, and the like. They
also provide a range of educational classes which are open to Realtors and the
public.
Perhaps the one
service the Humboldt Association of Realtors is best known for is its Multiple
Listing Service (MLS), which provides an online forum for Realtors to post
listings of properties that are available. This online searchable database,
that uses a standardized information format, is a great tool for anyone
interested in or associated with real estate in the county and beyond. This can be found at www.humrealtors.com.
Bob then spend a
fair amount of time sharing some information about Humboldt County real estate
and the General Plan. He shared that at
the height of the real estate market in 2006 the median price point for houses
in the county was $349,500, which also meant that housing was really only
affordable to about 10% of the local population. By contrast, as of June 2012 the median
housing price had dropped to $239,350, and affordability had risen to the point
that 34% of the local population could afford housing. Part of that affordability, he explained was
directly related to low interest rates that had dropped to the 3% range. Higgons thought that the last 6-12 months has
seen a stabilizing of the real estate market, but in counterpoint to that, he
said that in reaction to the housing crisis and lax regulatory oversight,
appraisals were now every conservative.
In his position
with the Humboldt Association of Realtors, Bob and his group have a number of
critiques about the General Plan, most notably the following: (1) with hundreds
of new regulation, this plan greatly adds to the hurdles anyone interested in
development must overcome, (2) these regulations and restrictions discourage
job growth and growth of the local economy, (3) this plan sets aside large
swaths of usable land into wet land protection, (4) the restrictions on the use
of river bed gravel hampers development and increases costs, (5) the plan
design encourages cottage industry and discourages significant industry growth,
(6) the new "impact fees" called for greatly increases the cost of
land development, (7) restrictions on new homes, new businesses, and new
industry sets us on the wrong path, and (8) the call for greater high density
housing within established incorporated areas, and restrictions for development
outside these areas is troubling for the long-term health of our economy. Clearly criticisms of the General Plan
presents a number of compelling and thought-provoking circumstance that have
potential long-term consequences for our community, and these are certainly
items we should carefully consider.
Higgons then
closed with a short Q&A session. One question was how many people have been
laid off by the county Building Department, to which Bob responded, essentially
none. Another question asked about what the percentage of new home buyers were
coming from out of the area, to which he responded, about 25%. Finally it was
asked whether Cutten was being targeted for higher density in it's housing,
which Bob did not have the answer to.
The Rotary Club
was very grateful to hear from Bob and had him sign a book for our library project. Nancy then closed the meeting, reminding us once
again that next week was dark.
Presented in
Rotary Service by Bruce Smith
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