Votes at a glance: Arcata council adopts consent calendar, fee schedule, appointments and assessment district engineer’s reports

The Arcata City Council on April 16 adopted the consent calendar and approved several routine and legislative items in a single motion, and took separate votes on related agenda items.

Key outcomes:

- Consent calendar adopted (unanimous voice vote). Items included: waiver of reading and reading by title; approval of minutes for April 2, 2025 special and regular meetings; biweekly disbursement reports; adoption of an ordinance amending the land use code to update affordable housing zoning (identified in the agenda as "adopt ordinance number 15 75"); adoption of an ordinance amending municipal code regulations regarding the Board of Appeals (identified as "ordinance number 7 15 77"); and approval of several proclamations and resolutions (including adding a two-spirit celebration proclamation to the city-approved list), ratifying an employment agreement with Tabitha Miller for assistant city manager, and amending confidential class and pay (resolution listed on the agenda). The council did not remove any consent items for separate discussion.

- Appointment: Heather Quarles was appointed to the Parks and Recreation Committee for a term ending March 31, 2026. The appointment was made by motion and approved by voice vote.

- Assessment districts: The council held the required public hearing and adopted the annual engineer’s reports and resolutions to continue levying assessments for three landscape maintenance assessment districts: Mad River Parkway Business Center Landscape Maintenance District (resolution 245-27), Jane’s Creek Meadow Landscape Maintenance Assessment District (resolution 245-26), and Windsong Village Landscape Maintenance Assessment District (resolution 245-25). The motion to adopt the engineer’s reports and declare the city’s intention to continue levying assessments carried by voice vote.

- Master fee schedule: The council held a public hearing and adopted Resolution No. 245-42 updating the master fee schedule for fiscal year 2025–26, including routine CPI-based increases for many fees and targeted increases for building fees. The resolution passed by voice vote.

Several public commenters addressed items in the consent calendar: Rebecca Smith, managing attorney at Legal Services of Northern California, urged the council to reconsider an inclusionary housing approach and said the proposed inclusionary zoning ordinance’s exemption for buildings of 60 units or fewer would make the ordinance “practically meaningless” in Arcata because the city sees few projects at that size. The council left the item on consent and adopted the ordinance as presented.

All council motions described above were approved by voice vote with no recorded opposing votes.