Communications and Park Updates
Check here for updates on topics of interest surrounding the Park and for our efforts to provide responses to comments and questions. We hope that this format will allow us to present greater detail than an exchange of letters to the papers permits.
As new information becomes available we will post it here. This will allow those with an interest in a particular topic to gain more information, and generally more quickly, than by engaging in a sequence of weekly letters to the editor.
Updates:
(March 2010) Community Park Financial History
Community members have requested a comprehensive accounting of the Park's income and outlays. Now that this task is at last done we are pleased to place it in the public record.
This SHCP Financial History provides a general accounting of the use of Southern Humboldt Community Park funds from inception through 2008. Our IRS 990 tax forms have been online for a number of years, but have not provided the accessibility and detail sought by community members. This accounting contains more detailed information than the park is required to provide--above and beyond the scope of what most non-profit organizations release to the general public.
It is our hope that this financial history makes it easier for our supporters to see clearly how SHCP funds have been used to further SHCP's non-profit purposes.
SHCP Financial History (pdf - 208 kb)
Frequently asked questions:
- Why is it important for the park to request a public recreation zoning classification?
- Why did the Community Park need a lotline adjustment?
- What is the park's organizational structure and how does that relate to public participation in SHCP board meetings?
Why is it important for the park to request Public Recreation (PR) zoning classification?
At the present time, the majority of the Community Park is zoned Agriculture Exclusive (AE) and most of the activities that we have come to enjoy at the park are outside of the AE zoning regulations. This includes activities like hiking, bicycling, birthday parties, weddings, memorials, bike races and clinics, painting workshops, nature walks, picnicking, baby showers, exercise classes, Hospice Barnyard Brew, and other non-profit benefits are not permitted at the Park as they do not relate to agriculture. In order to fulfill our mission to become a fully operational Community Park, it is necessary to rezone the park to a classification that includes recreation, education, civic, and social activities. Even Tooby Memorial Park is currently zoned AE. This is the reason that the Board of Directors of the Park has been working to rezone the Park since its initial purchase.
What Is Allowable Under the Current Agriculture Exclusive?
Under current AE zoning regulations the only activities that can be allowable at the Park are those activities that are related to agriculture. In addition the zoning regulations states the following are allowable with a permit:
Hog farm, turkey farm, animal feed lot, frog farm, agricultural and timber products processing plant (mill), animal hospital, labor camp, and sales of irrigation equipment.What is the Best Zoning Choice for the Community Park?
The County Planning staff recommended Public Recreation for Park land. Public Recreation is the zoning classification for Benbow Lake and Richardson Grove. PR zoning would allow a much wider variety of activities than the current AE classification. In addition, PR zoning is a good choice because watershed management and the protection of valuable resource lands and wildlife habitat is a strong element in this zoning classification.
Why Did the Community Park Need a Lotline Adjustment?
When the Park was originally purchased, the property consisted of four patent parcels. The sizes and shapes of the parcels were not ideal for a Community Park. We wanted the Park to consist of the prime bottom lands plus the forested hillside. As with many of the parcels that were sold as part of the Tooby Ranch and other similar Bob McKee subdivisions (like the Briceland Ranch and Whale Gulch), the parcels of land that were sold were initially divided up on topo maps and would need to have their boundary lines surveyed and realigned. It was a fairly standard practice when many of us bought land in Southern Humboldt in the early seventies and eighties only the process with the County Planning Department was less onerous in earlier decades.
In the case of the property the Community Park purchased from Buck Mountain Ranch, we took into account the lay of the land and the logic of a usable parcel, rather than defaulting to the original and antiqued patent parcels that didn’t make much sense on the ground. The lotline adjustment was simply the necessary process that took the Park land that we purchased and gave the Park clear title to it. Many Southern Humboldt homestead owners have gone through a similar procedure when they purchased their land.
The purchase agreement divided up everything west of Highway 101. There were originally four patent parcels. Of those four parcels, the Park has two, Stephen Dazey purchased one and Buck Mountain Ranch retained one. If you’ll look back over the original Park donor letters, you will clearly see the mention of the need for the lotline adjustment before the purchase was completed. You can find those documents our website at www.sohumpark.org.
Through a four-parcel de minimus lotline adjustment (a standard process through the Planning Department), surveys have been completed, property lines have been identified, and deeds and titles have been clearly established. This process is now complete and secures clear titles for the Park properties as well as the two other parcels involved.
As we all know, Stephen Dazey was the driving force in raising the money for the Park purchase, and when it became clear that the initial campaign would fall short of the required down payment, Stephen solicited various members of the community to help purchase the additional property beyond the amount that was raised for the Park. When no one could be found to do so, Stephen then used his own resources to close the deal.
The Park purchase would not have been possible if Dazey had not been willing and able to purchase the remainder property. As part of the escrow it was agreed that the land he would receive for this sum would be a 70-acre parcel adjacent and to the west of the Park. This parcel was never intended to be part of Community Park and was never represented to the community as such. For years following the purchase, Stephen continued to offer that piece of property to the Park Board so the property could be included in the Park, but the Board was unable to raise the additional funds.
Pending the completion of the lot-line adjustment you might consider the property assignments that were initially established as equivalent to holding property as collateral. In effect, the Park held title to the Dazey property in collateral until the Park could receive clear title to the hillside property that we wanted. Similarly, Dazey held the title to the Park property in collateral until he could receive clear title to the property he purchased along Kimtu Road. This final property transfer has resulted in a net gain of 10-acres in favor of the Park.
Now with the completion of the lotline adjustment, Buck Mountain Ranch holds title to the property they originally retained, the Park holds clear title to the best available acreage that it can afford and Stephen Dazey holds clear title to the property he had to buy in order to make the dream of the Park a reality.
Click here to download a pdf showing the current completed parcel configuration.
What is the park's organizational structure and how does that relate to public participation in SHCP board meetings?
Public benefit entities qualifying for 501(c)(3) non-profit status may be structured as “membership” or “non-membership” organizations. Some examples of the former would be KMUD, RRHC, MCC, and MRC. These organizations maintain a roster of current members in good standing and hold elections in which these members get to choose among a slate of candidates for their boards of directors. This approach provides a comforting feeling of democratic participation for all, tends to weight boards with people who have broad name recognition or effective campaigning personas, and sets the board up for potential disruption by minority factions or mischievous outsiders.
A “non-membership” structure permits an organization to select its board by inviting potential directors specifically for their commitment to the organization's goals, the energy they have available contribute to its service, and the mutual compatibility of their various personalities as participants in a smoothly-functioning, effective cooperative group. Local examples besides the Park that have chosen this structure include Friends of the Eel, Hospice, ISF, RFFI, Sanctuary Forest, Trees, and WISH. So this structure is nothing unusual, and in fact Humboldt Area Foundation is now recommending it, except in cases when special conditions make the “membership” framework desirable.
A “membership” organization is obliged to give due notice of its board meetings and to make them open to the public. “Non-membership” status doesn't carry that requirement and so permits meetings on short notice and at irregular intervals, as the actual requirements of the organization may necessitate.
However the park board is committed to holding regular public community meetings and public board meetings to facilitate both community participation and community access to information about the park.
PO Box 185
Garberville, CA 95542
707-923-2287