(Eureka, CA) The Humboldt Coalition for Property Rights (HumCPR) announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the County of Humboldt to compel them to stop the practice of arbitrarily and unjustifiably declaring over a thousand parcels of privately-owned land effectively “illegal.” The County refers to this land as “shaded parcels.” The act of “shading a parcel” puts a cloud on the legal status of the parcel, with no legal notification of this act to the landowner. This “shading of parcels” has been practiced by the County for over 20 years and is not authorized by any law.

“This practice requires a landowner, once they become aware of their status, to pay money to the County and prove their land entitlements are in order,” HumCPR President Lee Ulansey explained. “In other words, Humboldt families have been declared ‘guilty’ by the County in many cases, without the County having performed any research or analysis to justify the ‘shading.’ By doing so, the County has declared you guilty and you must pay the County to prove yourself innocent. Anyplace else this might be called extortion, but in Humboldt our County Counsel has blessed the process.”

Typically, when a county legitimately becomes aware that an illegal division of land has occurred it is required by law to follow a specific process. This process is designed to notify and protect the public, especially future purchasers of such land where there is a justified question regarding the legal status of the parcel. The law requires the County to notify the owner that the parcel was illegally created and then give them an opportunity to prove otherwise.

Our Planning Department, instead of timely notification to property owners (or potential purchasers of these parcels), only informs affected people when someone applies for a permit. Then the planners unveil their map and make the “shaded” status of the parcel publicly known. When the property owner becomes aware of this determination by the County, it is the landowner who must undertake a process to prove their parcel is legal (no matter who, when or how the parcel may have been created). In most cases the County doesn’t even have a record of why or when the parcel was shaded or even who did the shading.

“Most of us believe a person is innocent in this country until proven guilty,” said Ulansey. “Unfortunately not all of our County officials got the word. Even worse, they have been told by our County Counsel that this is acceptable. We wholeheartedly disagree”

“We believe that hundreds of property owners have had the value of their property placed in jeopardy and potentially have been harmed through this illegal process,” said Petitioner’s Attorney Timothy Needham, from the law firm of Janssen, Malloy LLP, and Co-Counsel with William Barnum of Barnum Law Office. Both firms have stepped forward to represent HumCPR in a concerted effort to force the county into legal compliance and uphold the property rights of Humboldt County landowners.

“It is unfortunate that it is necessary for a lawsuit to be filed in order to get the county to follow the law,” continued Needham. “We would hope that this will encourage collaborative efforts by the county to resolve the problems that this practice has created.”

“What a shame that private citizens must spend their hard-earned money to force the County to stop this unauthorized practice,” Ulansey said. “There is a process outlined in law to handle situations like these and the County needs to follow the law just like all the rest of us.”

Related Links
HumCPR Seeks Answers for Humboldt County Property Owners

Shaded Parcels – “Sub-Holes” of a Very Deep Hole by Charley Custer

(Eureka, CA) –The Humboldt Coalition for Property Rights (HumCPR) announced today that it had filed a lawsuit against the County of Humboldt to compel them to produce documents sought under the California Public Records Act (CPRA) (Government Code 6250-6277).

The Records Act request by HumCPR to the County was made on December 5th of last year and to date, the information sought has not been provided. “The law provides the documents to be produced within ten (10) days of the written request and we have been waiting for over three months” stated Lee Ulansey, HumCPR Chair. The information sought by this CPRA was to ask the County to provide the amount of taxpayers’ money that has been spent on attorney’s fees to defend itself or pursue lawsuits filed on land use and private property issues. Ulansey added, “Our County Counsel has had the audacity to tell us that they do not even know how much they have spent on these lawsuits. If it was a Humboldt family or business that had spend tens of millions of dollars on lawyers I guarantee we would know exactly who we paid it to”.

“We believe that the citizens should know how much money is being spent on lawsuits on private property issues,” said Ulansey. “Particularly in these difficult economic times the public needs to know how much money is being diverted to often unnecessary litigation and not on programs that the taxpayers desperately need”, he continued. “Our roads are falling apart, our people are out of work, we are cutting public safety staff and are paying lawyers millions of dollars,” he concluded “Not to comply with this request, as they have done, is a violation of the public’s right to know the truth, and moreover is is blatantly against the law”.

As stated in the request, the California Constitution, Article 1, provides: “The people have the right to instruct their representatives, petition government and for redress of grievances. . .and (b) (1) The people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business, and therefore, the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies shall be open to public scrutiny.”

Eureka, CA. ..As a follow-up to HumCPR’s August public information request letter -(pdf file) for the Humboldt County Planning Department to release a list of land parcels considered to have questionable legal status (shaded parcels); HumCPR is now asking the County to release additional information regarding how the State of California views many of these parcels.

HumCPR is aware of communication, going back at least 7 years, between the California Department of Transportation (Cal-Trans) and County officials over the County’s position of classifying remnant parcels created by State acquisition in the furtherance of road improvements projects, as “shaded parcels.” In a 2011 letter the State asserts that “a continuation of this practice might create certain implications for the State, and can also expose the County to claims by property owners …”

A February 2004 letter from the State expressed opposition to how the County was handling remnant parcels created by State highway acquisitions. The State cited several Code Sections and court decisions exempting the State from local governmental control over State acquisition activities. These exemptions ranged from “impairing the State’s sovereign powers” to a State Supreme Court decision which states that “municipal governments –which are created by the State – cannot have superior power over the State …”

“The classification of parcels as ‘shaded’ at the new interchange at Alton, as well as various improvement spots along Highway 36, are just some examples of what HumCPR feels is bureaucratic overreach by the Planning Department and the County Counsel’s office,” said HumCPR President Lee Ulansey.

Local title company officials have also voiced their concerns for the process that the County has outlined to address the nearly 2000 “shaded parcels” currently in existence. They believe that the process the County has outlined to address this problem may “lead to a false sense of security, which may have drastic results…” They go on to say that, with respect to the innocent purchasers of bonafide illegal parcels, “due to the length of time that the County has ignored its responsibility … many responsible parties can no longer be held accountable …“.

Mr. Ulansey further stated that the most distressing revelation in this ongoing fiasco is found in the February 2011 letter, when the State says, “we were under the impression that this issue had been resolved when we did not receive a response to our 2004 letter.”

Is it proper for County officials to ignore, and fail to respond to, issues affecting the property rights of hundreds of County citizens?

It is our hope that the release of this information will help answer the following questions:
1) Why is Humboldt County the only county in the State taking this position on “shaded parcels” and 2) Why is the Humboldt County Counsel’s Office always uniquely interpreting so many sections of the law in a manner much different than the rest of the State, and almost always detrimental to the interests of Humboldt County property owners?

HumCPR will make the results of this information request available to the public when received.

HumCPR is dedicated to preserving the rural lifestyle that has been the historic tradition of Humboldt County. We will aggressively pursue the right to allow all members of our community a broad choice of alternatives for living, working and recreating. HumCPR will actively monitor and oppose actions that erode property rights or diminish the economic viability of our community.

October public information request letter – links to a pdf file

HumCPR Press Release_CPRA – pdf file for this post

Thousands of rural landowners will soon receive a letter in the mail with details regarding their specific land parcels and how they will be designated in Humboldt County’s proposed General Plan Update (GPU).

The first mailing is being sent to over 4,000 land owners whose right to build a home on their legal parcels will be severely curtailed if not eliminated outright, by proposed new restrictions on rural home building.

The letters, which draw their information from current County databases, inform rural landowners of possible changes to their land use designations and what that may mean for their future plans. They stress that even if a parcel’s designation remains the same or similar, they may be forced to merge contiguous parcels. And the rules governing home ownership, lot line adjustments and parcel size are likely to change dramatically if County Commissioners and Supervisors move forward with a plan that would drastically alter Humboldt’s rural way of life.

Simply put, the data in these letters and a close reading of the proposed re-vamp of the General Plan spells out in very clear terms that building a home on one’s own legal property, will be a dream denied to many if proposed changes go through.

“This is a wake up call for rural landowners,” said Estelle Fennell, Executive Director of HumCPR, “We’re very grateful to all the supporters who volunteered time and resources to get this project in the mail so that those who cherish the rural lifestyle will have a clearer understanding of just what’s at stake for them in the GPU”.

Commenting on the fact that, despite repeated requests, the County has failed to send out notifications of the proposed changes to Humboldt County’s resource landowners, Lee Ulansey, founder and chair of HumCPR’s Board of Directors said, “HumCPR has accomplished what the County has not. We saw the need, we did the research and got the job done.” “We hope this information will prove a valuable tool for county landowners and we encourage all to become involved”.

HumCPR hopes to continue with this project as resources allow. In the meantime, we encourage those who do not receive a letter but would like to know their status to give us a call at 707-268-8773 or email us. We’ll help if we can.

HumCPR ran ads on the General Plan Update (GPU) for several weeks in local newspapers. This is that collection.

GPU Quote of the Week Ad Campaign