The smoke damage was clearly visible from Q Street, looking across the Gilardoni property which was recently proposed as a site for a goat dairy. KLH | Eye

Kevin L. Hoover
Eye Editor

IVERSON AVENUE – Just weeks after rebuffing a proposed goat dairy on neighboring property on grounds that it would harm the neighborhood, the residents of Iverson Avenue awoke last Wednesday morning to find that industrial agriculture of another form had brought unexpected fuss and bother to the ’hood.

An APD officer outside the fire-damaged house. The fire wasn't in the room with the smoked window; it was in a windowless warren of concealed grow rooms. KLH | Eye

At about 4:30 a.m., a structure fire was reported at 1748 Iverson Avenue, a house owned by Grant Kimbell of Arcata. Arcata Fire personnel arrived within four minutes to find the two residents, Sonja Marie Bush, 28, and Darren Joseph Weeth, 34, standing outside with their two dogs. All were unharmed.

According to Fire Chief John McFarland, Weeth was covered in black soot from an unsuccessful attempt to extinguish the fire. He refused medical treatment.

Firefighters quickly located the source of the blaze in a hidden warren of rooms upstairs, and put it out. The fire had broken out in one of eight rooms in the house that were dedicated to cannabis cultivation and processing. The grow rooms were concealed behind a built-in bookcase in a bedroom suite.

A view through a side door revealed one of the processing rooms, this one used for drying. KLH | Eye

“The bookcase magically moved on a track to a reveal a three-room grow,” McFarland said. “It was nicely built as a grow room, and well designed.” The upstairs grow rooms were windowless, and the smoke eventually billowed from a window in an upstairs back room.

McFarland said a grow light and box fan which had been suspended from the ceiling “both ended up on the floor, burning.” Weeth told firefighters he had been awakened by a smoke alarm.

With the fire put out and electricity disconnected, police were notified of the large-scale cannabis grow, the residence was secured and a search warrant obtained. Come daylight, officers returned and discovered a “sophisticated” indoor marijuana cultivation operation inside the home and in a detached garage.

A well-used air filter was among the industrial cannabis growing apparatus hauled away for evidence by APD. KLH | Eye

Nearly 800 growing marijuana plants, 80 pounds of dried marijuana in various stages of processing, three firearms and nearly $2,000 in cash were discovered and seized.

A second unit attached to the house was used for processing. Some 21 grow lights were seized, with the total wattage far in excess of the 1,200 watts allowed under Arcata’s Prop 215 guidelines.

Bush and Weeth were arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on felony charges of cultivation of marijuana and cultivation of marijuana for sales. They were released the next day, and were seen removing personal property from the darkened house.

The firearms, a shotgun, hunting rifle and 9mm pistol, were all legal. However, it is illegal to possess firearms in the context of illegal drug activity, and Police Chief Tom Chapman said it will be up to the District Attorney’s Office to decide whether to add weapons charges.

Property owner Grant Kimbell, who once maintained an office in Jacoby’s Storehouse as a property manager and handyman, was contacted out of town and notified of the blaze. He did not return a phone message.

McFarland said the house had been remodeled in 2007, with the grow rooms likely installed at that time. “I’m sure that this is not a surprise to anyone involved,” McFarland said of the secret rooms.

Along with the building code violations from the illegal modifications, the house suffered further damage when water from the fire response in the upstairs grow rooms saturated the living room ceiling. KLH | Eye

Chapman said the electrical service for the cannabis grow was relatively professional, compared to the usual slapdash rigs APD finds at grow houses. But it was nonetheless unpermitted and dangerous.

The City has issued Kimbell a Notice of Nuisance listing multiple violations of the Uniform Housing Code, California Electrical Code, California Mechanical Code, California Building Code and Arcata Municipal Code.

The eventual grow house back when it was being built in 1947. Merle Shuster photo courtesy HSU Library Humboldt County Collection

Building Official Dean Renfer said that in addition to code violations involving the electrical system, the hidden rooms may have structurally compromised the home. He is concerned that the extensive modifications may be placing an excessive load on a joist.

Kimbell must have a licensed electrical contractor make an inspection and list violations. In this case, inspection by a structural engineer is also being required.

Housekeeping wasn't the central priority in this grow house. KLH | Eye

An illegal ventilation system installed to service the cannabis crop will have to be removed, and a tent canopy in the backyard must be removed. All the violations will have to be corrected before the nuisance designation is lifted.

Even more repair work will be required because of water damage during the fire response. Water could be seen through the home’s open door seeping through the living room ceiling and staining a beam.

The residents were apparently living in and around areas of the home dedicated to cannabis growing. As with many grow houses, housekeeping appeared not to be a priority, with trash and debris strewn around on the floor and grow-related items stacked up on counters.

APD heaped grow equipment in the living room prior to hauling it off for evidence. KLH | Eye

If you suspect illegal drug activity in your neighborhood, contact the Arcata Police Department at (707)-822-2428.

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City of Arcata

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HOUSE FIRE LEADS TO THE DISCOVERY OF AN ILLEGAL MARIJUANA GROW

On July 27, 2011, officers from the Arcata Police Department responded to the 1700 block of Iverson Ave for the report of a structure fire. The officers were alerted by fire personnel that the orgin of the fire appeared to be associated with a large marijuana grow inside the home.

Based on this information, the residence was secured and a search warrant was obtained.

Upon the service of the search warrant, officers discovered a sophisticated indoor marijuana cultivation operation inside the home and in a detached garage.

Nearly 800 growing marijuana plants, 80 pounds of dried marijuana in various stages of processing, three firearms and nearly $2,000 in cash were discovered and seized.

Twenty-eight year old Sonja Marie Bush of Arcata and 34-year-year old Darren Joseph Weeth of Arcata were arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for cultivation of marijuana and cultivation of marijuana for sales.

City of Arcata building inspectors discovered numerous building code violations at the Iverson Avenue location, necessitating the immediate disconnection of electrical service.

If you suspect illegal drug activity in your neighborhood, please contact the Arcata Police Department at (707)-822-2428

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OK, call me guilty for being slow to publicly speak my horror over how a wonderful business like Cypress Grove was treated at a community meeting in our City. I care deeply, and have been contemplating the concern. I admire Cypress Grove Chevre, both the company and the product.

I wholly support local agriculture, and Mary Keehn has only been more than gracious over the years with donations of cheese for agriculture education promotion.

After the community meeting, I wondered if maybe there was a site out there, farther from houses, where this new model for a dairy could be built with out too much neighbor influence. I have been working with Cypress Grove employees to try and identify sites – but the awakening thing is – they just aren’t out there. I have kept my focus on northern Humboldt, but the company has also been looking south to Loteta.

On Wednesday, July 20, the Arcata City Council has as an agenda item to discuss the 23-acre Gilardoni parcel. Basically, while some citizens want the City to purchase the land, currently the City does not have the funds, or know of a funder for the property. If citizens want to see an educational project on that site – there needs to be a small group of committed citizens, as Margaret Mead said, working to promote the project, find the funding, etc. Maybe the City could help, but it can’t take the lead.

The dairy system Cypress Grove was suggesting would have been an educational project, that was one of their goals. Cypress Grove employees have been researching goat dairies around the world for years; and they want to build a modern goat dairy in Humboldt County that other dairymen would admire. I support that goal.

I know there were legitimate concerns of neighbors. If we had acted with civility, we might be discussing how these concerns would be addressed. Instead we are trying to repair a bungled attempt at community development. There were errors on all sides.

It is not up to the City, the neighbors or the Community as to what Cypress Grove’s next step should be. I just hope we can let them know how much they mean to us, how much local jobs mean to us, and how we respect them as neighbors.

Susan Ornelas

Mayor, Arcata

Include us Iversonians

July 8, 2011

Mark Lovelace, Chair

Humboldt County Board of Supervisors

825 Fifth St.

Eureka, CA 95521

RE: Emmi/Cypress Grove proposed dairy: need for conditional use permit

Dear Supervisor Lovelace:

My husband and I live in the Bloomfield subdivision of Arcata. Our backyard abuts the “Gilardoni” pasture into which Cypress Grove Chevre hoped to expand. There are, in fact, 39 houses along Iverson Street, which borders the pasture. [Note: It's Iverson Avenue. – Ed.]

On June 14 of this year I appeared before your board and objected to County Planner Steven Werner’s pre-determination, before a project proposal had even been submitted, that the Emmi/Cypress Grove goat dairy would be approved as a principally permitted use. Since then, Cypress Grove has announced cancellation of its plan and the neighbors with whom I have lived peaceably for 35 years have been much maligned in the press.

In the July 6, 2011 edition of the Arcata Eye, you commented that you would support a “do-over” plan. There are rumors afloat that Cypress Grove/Emmi is again considering the “Gilardoni pasture” and, in meetings with public officials like yourself, is trying to negotiate a “creative,” collaborative process that would exclude most of the public and avoid a use permit.

Therefore I renew my message to you and other public officials that the Emmi goat plan should be considered in an open, transparent process involving public hearings and environmental review. A conditional use permit should be required. The next time around, if there is one, Emmi should present a permit application with a full project description, not simply the vague assurances and unanswered questions that the neighbors were given by Mary Keehn and Bob McCall at the Emmi-sponsored June 13 neighborhood meeting.

Although we have been ridiculed by Kevin Hoover and others in the Arcata Eye, my neighbors and I are not rude and simplistic nimby-ites. We like goats and have long enjoyed the cows in the “Gilardoni” pasture. We would welcome productive, profitable and sustainable agriculture there.

However, with its multiple buildings and high density of goats (up to 1,400 on less than 23 acres) the Emmi “factory farm” plan raised red flags. We were legitimately concerned about drainage, traffic, smells, chemicals, bacteria-laden dust and other issues. Emmi’s efforts to clinch the land sale before the neighbors discovered it and its determination to slip by without a use permit understandably left us feeling angry and at risk.

We could only conclude that Emmi/Cypress Grove had something to hide and knew its plan would not survive public scrutiny. Surely an international conglomerate can afford the cost of the democratic process involved in obtaining a use permit.

I ask your help in assuring that if Emmi revisits the goat plan, our Bloomfield neighborhood receives the respect, information and input into the process that it deserves.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Frances Ferguson

Arcata

cc: Wesley Chesbro

Arcata City Council

Chevre requires goats, folks

I was so glad to see I was not the only one upset by Cypress Grove’s decision to find a new dairy site. I was planning on attending the neighborhood meeting, but alas one of my children were sick.

Yes, I live two blocks away and have kids and I still do not fear for our families safety living near a goat farm. I too walk out of my house to the smell of manure and the site of reclaimed (yes manure) water being sprayed into the air onto cow fields.

This is just a classic case of “not in my backyard.” Some Arcata folks proudly bring bread and chevre to a dinner party but don’t want to sit down and think about what it takes to get there. I couldn’t believe CG would back down to people hyped up on misinformation, but I wish they would reconsider and if that means getting a petition started I know many who would sign!

What a sad loss of opportunity, jobs and education. Think about the waste of resources to transport milk from off site, and the additional traffic of those trucks transporting it! Plus, now I can’t look forward to daily walks with my kids to see “those cute goats,” ha!

Adrienne Arnold 

Arcata Bottoms resident

Incubate solutions

Our community’s land and its resources affects everyone.

This was acutely demonstrated a few weeks ago when the Emmi Roth USA and its Cypress Grove Chevre subsidiary entered escrow for the Gilardoni property just west of the City of Arcata’s boundary.

The community south of and surrounding the 23-acre parcel voiced its strong opposition; and the company halted escrow and plans for expansion onto the site for its intensive goat dairy. For the short term, the property is in limbo; but in the long term we must take action to preserve, in perpetuity, this rich agricultural heritage and its uniquely rich treasure of topsoil.

The Gilardoni property is prime agricultural soil sandwiched between a subdivision to the south – along with four schools and two churches – and to the north some small holdings and vestiges of the old Simpson Mill now occupied by Sun Valley Floral.

This land has resisted change over the years including Janes Creek West in the mid-90s, where it was included in a “smart growth” proposal to build 964 houses and a commercial plaza west of the city limits. In spite of this growth pressure, the parcel has retained its agricultural use as grazing land for an average of 25 to 40 dairy cows for nearly 100 years. And it quietly serves the community as a breath of fresh air every time we take the turn at 17th Street and transcend from our daily grind to venture out and enjoy that precious place we all know as the Bottom.

This parcel’s rich topsoil, the best in Humboldt County and in California, drains well, holds nutrients, and grows fine crops. And yet, to the surprise of many, there is not much left of it on the Bottom. The further west we go, soil quality diminishes becoming less suitable for row crops and other farming.

Beginning in the 1970s, the City of Arcata’s visionary leaders educated themselves about the remaining prime agricultural resources left in and surrounding the community, and took steps to try to preserve it for future generations.

The current General Plan 2020 has furthered this commitment by retaining protective Agricultural Exclusive zoning, and shrinking our urban services away from these vital resources. The current City Council recently approved the following goals:

1) Evaluate and recommend open space funding mechanisms and options to generate revenue, and develop a management plan for the West Arcata greenbelt and open space and agriculture property purchased during the past five years.

2) Explore opportunities to acquire property or secure easements from willing sellers around the community forests and other open space lands.

As a member of the City’s Agriculture and Open Space Committee I have hoped that someday an opportunity like this might come where the community would see this particular property as significant and vulnerable, and endeavor to take action to preserve it for future generations of farmers.

Agricultural incubators that assist start-up farmers are becoming more common in communities that hope to assist young farmers. Sonoma County’s Open Space District Small Farms Program leases land in its greenbelt to farmers who grow vegetables, flowers, herbs, and berries – these are farmers who would not otherwise be able to find property to farm.

In the 1990s, UC Cooperative Extension at the Humboldt County Agriculture Department ran a similar program called the Farm Incubator Project on Dow’s Prairie. This project provided first leases to some of our favorite farmers who now sell wholesome fruits and vegetables at Farmers’ Market. This very successful program was discontinued due to the loss of their lease in 1996.

When asked to evaluate the effectiveness of the program, all participants were positive and thankful for the experience. Earth and Sky Garlic owner, Liz Kinnaman stated, “As of the end of this year I can graduate from the incubator project to my own piece of farmland because the past five years has given me the confidence and experience to buy farmland and increase my efforts.”

When asked if a program like this is currently needed, Deborah Giraud from UCCE, who started and maintained the incubator until its closure, said, “most definitely!”

The Gilardoni land is a prime candidate for such a project. The soil is excellent, the terrain flat, it has ample water, and requires no fencing for deer. It would be an excellent next step for farmers who manage the Bayside Community Farm who want to continue to farm, as well as for others who have difficulties finding land.

My hope is that the city, the neighbors and the community will embrace a project like this.

This Wednesday, July 20 at 6 p.m., the Arcata City Council will consider whether or not to direct staff to seriously explore possibilities for acquisition and/or a conservation easement for this property.

It is my hope that the community will come out and encourage the council to move forward with this exploration and implement its own goals and policies and those of previous councils, so that we may secure a western agricultural greenbelt, which will be preserved for future generations.

Lisa Brown

Arcata

Don’t screw this… oops

As a long-distance subscriber (Chico), I get the news a week or so out of date which makes my rare responses a bit anachronistic. Still, this business with Cypress Grove has got my blood boiling.

I just received the July 6 issue so, no doubt, your letters have ebbed toward the defense of the local citizens who didn’t want a goat herd in their backyards.

Let me add my voice to the legions of supporters of Mary Keehn and the whole Cypress Grove operation. I worked at the location in Dows Prairie as a packer and occasional welder while in graduate school.

That was over 10 years ago but I still use Mary as a model for the best business can offer. She cares deeply for every one of her employees and the environment. She is a rare breed who always had a “maximum” revenue and not a goal of “more.”

The employees knew this and we worked hard for the success of Humboldt Fog and the other varieties because we believed in Mary.

My point is, if you want to grow local businesses, you will not find a more conscientious, caring, and compassionate company than Cypress Grove. I simply cannot imagine that she would sign off on any project that would compromise her values. And good on you, Mr. Hoover, for writing an excellent piece on the realities of civic engagement.

Don’t screw this up, Arcata! Work with the true heroines like Mary who go to bed each night thinking about how to make this world a better place.

Russell Shapiro, Ph.D. a.k.a “Tattoo Russ”

Chico

Arcata’s hostility to investment

Regarding the truncated Cyprus Grove expansion I would like to address the damage done to the City’s expressed strategy of increasing production businesses and jobs in Arcata.

Production, whether agricultural or industrial, brings cash into our local economy by selling value-added goods produced from our know-how, labor, creative entrepreneurship, private capital and personal financial risk. The payroll and other local expenditures of production businesses circulate many times in our local economy, contributing to our local economic health.

While the strategy was correct, in this situation the City failed to walk the talk. This was a unique opportunity for Council and staff to actively promote the conforming use of the agricultural parcel for expanded production of goat milk for local production of award-winning cheese.

However, rather than following expressed strategy by taking any position in favor of this significant private investment of millions of dollars of capital and increasing payroll into our economy, the City’s most visible position was the inappropriate and overtly hostile expressions by an individual employed by the City.

Parameters within which private enterprise needs to operate are established by the General Plan, the zoning and local regulations. Private parties then have the civil right, have the FREEDOM, to invest their sweat, their creativity and their capital in whatever they decide to do within those established parameters. If any element of the Cypress Grove private land purchase and private development was not a principally permitted use or did not conform to regulations, there are established procedures for addressing those issues in the public arena.

Mob-like behavior, disseminating misinformation and verbal hostility is NOT an acceptable civic process regarding conforming private uses. The position of “not THAT kind of agriculture” is untenable in regards to a parcel zoned for agricultural use.

In my opinion, the City has demonstrated not just devaluing of their own economic strategy but also disregard for the fundamental civil right, the FREEDOM, to establish and run a business that conforms with the General Plan, zoning and regulations.

Any entrepreneur considering production business investment in and around the City of Arcata will now think twice and seek other options before investing here.

I hope to see the City Council, City Manager and staff focus efforts on recovering the City’s production business strategy from this debacle.

Bruce LeBel

Arcata

Use the Arcata Bottom appropriately

I wonder how long it is going to take for people to acknowledge what the old timers knew: The Arcata Bottom is best suited for grazing and dirt farming.

Sixty years ago, Bloomfield’s developers did not foresee the problems inherent in paving over and building on this historic flood plain. They failed to acknowledge its high water table: This land does not perk. That fact makes it unsuitable for development.

Sixty years of efforts to remediate the damage have not convinced Mother Nature that she must not overrun her stream beds or periodically flood her historical plain; but Bloomfield residents still pump their basements and struggle with molds year around.

Peggy Richmond, who operated Creamline Dairy with husband Wally, lives on high ground along 17th Street. Peggy remembers that they and the Gilardonis, always moved their cattle to higher ground across Q Street to the barn during seasonal rains. There were no barns or shelters where cattle grazed; but every inch of that land was dirt-farmed or put into hay during the season.

The Bloomfield neighbors and farming friends heartily support young farmers’ efforts to find ways to keep this land productive and sustainable – just as Olga and Ray, and Wally and Peggy did. We can do it with a preservation easement.

The land has the capacity to give the next generation of farmers a start. It can serve as a model for sustainable agriculture, and it can be used for generations to come with no alterations to its contours or to its natural proclivities to flood, and with no harm to its tilth and continuing productivity – if we can set it aside for the farmers of tomorrow.

Let us begin the process: To preserve and keep this land healthy and productive for the future!

Don Nielsen

Arcata Bottom

Goatgate and Peter Cottontail

Last week I wrote about the difficulties that can arise when people form an idea and won’t budge from it, even when all the evidence points to them being badly mistaken. The Goatgate controversy in the Arcata Bottoms provides another example of the phenomenon. In case you’ve managed to miss the story, here are the basics.

Cypress Grove Chevre, the locally founded maker of specialty goat cheeses, wants to build a dairy to secure a steady supply of goat’s milk for its operations. Now owned by Swiss dairy cooperative Emmi, Cypress Grove can afford to invest in land, improvements and animals. The company located a parcel of about 23 acres, zoned for agriculture and just a mile or two from its main location on Q Street in Arcata. [Note: It's just around the corner, way less than a mile. – Ed.]

Cypress Grove settled on a price with the owners and entered escrow. Then the deal took an unexpected turn. Neighbors found out about the plans, which some regarded as appalling, and they threw a tizzy fit of considerable proportions.

They demanded hearings, insisted the county should require a conditional use permit and generally made nuisances of themselves. They mobbed an informational meeting held by Cypress Grove and were so rude and unwelcoming that the dairy canceled its plans and is now seeking property in the Loleta area, where there is a presumption that agricultural land can be used for agricultural purposes.

The former Gilardoni dairy may have looked like open space in recent years, when it seems to have mostly been used for growing hay, but some Arcata residents remember the dairy and its products fondly. The parcel is in the county, but surrounded on three sides by the city; Wes Chesbro spoke up to remind Arcata residents the Gilardoni parcel and others had specifically been protected to preserve and promote agriculture in the area. County planners noted no conditional use permit is needed for a principally permitted use.

The anti-goat neighbors who protested were opposing a project consisting of a sale, at market price, between willing sellers and buyers, which was perfectly legal and aboveboard. Cypress Grove intended to use its own money to build a dairy, creating jobs and adding value to the local economy. The protesting neighbors do not own the property, but they convinced themselves they had the right to pass judgment on the project, which they said would be noisy, dirty, smelly and would draw traffic to their bucolic area.

Some people criticized the protesters and said they had discouraged investment in the community–exactly the wrong way to grow the economy. In defense, the protesters have come up with their own proposal; they want someone to buy the property and turn it into an incubator farm. Such plans are helpful to prospective farmers, especially young ones who can’t afford to buy land; they lease small plots for a few years to get started and receive advice from experienced farmers.

Many of the farmers selling at our Farmers’ Markets got their start in such an incubator sponsored by the University of California Cooperative Extension program in Dow’s Prairie in the 1990s. The key word is sponsored. Incubator farms are heavily subsidized, in order to help beginners get started.

It seems to me the anti-dairy folks expect a fairy godmother to provide the funding to buy the property, assuming the owners would consider a sale to anyone associated with the protests. Then they expect someone – they had the nerve to suggest the City of Arcata take a lead role–to obtain grant money to make the project happen. I suspect they would expect the farms to be picturesque, a few rows of organic vegetables, some pretty flowers and a little fruit.

The workers would walk or bike to work and use hand tools to cultivate the soil. They’d wear overalls with peasant shirts and straw hats, not jeans and tees and baseball caps. In short, the whole thing would be a theme park.

Maybe they could call it the Peter Cottontail Farm. I don’t know if there’s a market for such a place, but neither do they, because they have done no market research, they just decided what they wanted on land owned by someone else, and now expect someone else to make their vision real.

I’ve done my share of working through the system to prevent an adjacent property owner from gaining permission to put 129 homes on a parcel zoned for five, and block public access to the coast, but we were pikers compared to the strike team mobilized against Cypress Grove Chevre. A few of the protesters have admitted getting a little carried away by the moment, but most of them remain proud of themselves for derailing a project which had potential for benefiting the community.

Arcata’s leaders are concerned that once the dairy is located elsewhere, the cheese-making operation will follow, and why wouldn’t it? Cypress Grove Chevre many not be a saintly company, but it was painted as the moustache-twirling villain in a melodrama of the protesters’ invention. It has no reason to think fondly of Arcata.

 Elizabeth Alves 

McKinleyvillle

Dangers or whatever

Iverson and Foster Avenue residents have something anyone would want – a vast expanse of quiet open space just over their back fences. The goatroversy was about keeping that, period.

The neighbors replicated the same tactics congressional leaders in Washington are using re: the debt ceiling – reframing expiration of tax cuts for wealthy people as “job-killing tax hikes on job creators.” Scare and confuse. No shared sacrifice.

The opponents of Cypress Grove Chevre’s goat dairy shotgunned out every vile claim they could imagine – of an invading multinational corporation, environmental destruction, even the tortuous death of children – to see what would stick.

The scare scenarios that didn’t take, like antibiotic runoff ruining the Marsh and big trucks rumbling through residential neighborhoods (not to mention the infamous “lying to the priest” gossip), were dropped to make way for fresh alarmism.

Right up to last week’s council meeting, the opponents continued to dish up dealbreakers. The latest was chronic drainage problems on the Gilardoni property. But that’s exactly the kind of site issue that big projects like the goat dairy correct with grading and contouring. Guess the neighbors didn’t really want the drainage put right.

The lazy hearsay was comically exemplified by one speaker deriding the dairy project for featuring “CAPOs or whatever.”

That, folks, is what passes for reasoned argumentation in our university town these days – regurgitating half-heard distortions, in this case about “concentrated feed lot operations” known as CAFOs (not CAPOs),promoted by the loudest opponents.

These people not only didn’t know what they were objecting to, they didn’t even bother to get their smears straight.

That’s because you can’t remember what the British press charitably calls “mistakes” (lies). The half-baked, shapeshifting objections’ real purpose was to stave off the buildings and associated activity that would have intruded on their present backyard view. But since no one could admit that, we were treated to the sorry parade of apocalyptic visions of destruction, disease and death. Or whatever.

If the objecting Bloomfield/Foster neighbors cared so much about ag policy, they would have participated in the county General Plan update. They didn’t, and won’t.

Nor will they follow through with the arduous process for securing the land in perpetuity and creating an ag incubator. We all know this. They’ll wait for the next crisis – maybe a move by the beleagured land owners to rezone their property so they can use it for something – and start conjuring up bogeymen and doomsday scenarios. Or they’ll demand someone buy the land for them.

Scare tactics killed a massive, almost heaven-sent investment in Arcata business and agriculture. Narrow self-interest triumphed, expedited by the lackadaisical response of our political leaders. Nevermore should they issue proclamations extolling entrepreneurial success, food independence or local manufacturing, because they don’t know what these things are when they’re handed to them on a $3 million platter.

Apart from all that, you know what the worst thing about this is? The total lack of confidence in Arcata demonstrated by the opponents. Didn’t they know that we would have taken the progressive European dairying concept and made it our own?

At the fateful Bloomfield School meeting, CGC openly invited the neighbors to participate in shaping the dairy project. CGC, like other Arcata companies, has a documented history of approaching what they do with an ethic of quality and elevating the form.

It would have done that with this project, partnering with the town that invented the world-leading Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary  and Community Forest. Arcata and CGC – now there’s an unstoppable combination.

This facility would have evolved into an appropriate technology model for 21st century dairying. Schools would have been involved, ag promoted, skills learned, jobs created, tours given, cheese served and our town further distinguished and empowered.

Instead we made cute posters depicting mounds of feces. We denounced longtime neighbors as ruthless exploiters. We screamed about what couldn’t be done, and didn’t do it. We thought small and shrank from opportunity. And in a way, we redefined Arcata.

This was a multidimensional debacle of historic proportions, and a loss Arcata will always remember. But there are a few upsides.

For one, the sweet Arcata Bottom view remains intact for the neighbors.

And miraculously, throughout this whole thing, no one called anyone else a Nazi. Yet.

Kevin L. Hoover

Arcata

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Redemption doesn’t mean approving the project. It might mean rejecting the goat dairy for good reasons – but at least doing so after a rational public process.

You’d think a town so committed to freedom of thought could have a frank, adult conversation that includes people being allowed to finish their sentences.

As all-too-briefly described by CGC, the proposed dairy was an appropriate technology, animal-centered facility. Impacts were well understood and mitigatable. The dairy would be a showpiece for CGC to display to customers. It would be under heavy public scrutiny and thoroughly regulated by multiple agencies.

Given all that, what would Cypress Grove’s motivation be for maintaining the kind of squalid hellhole opponents made it out to be?

May 13, 1947: The Bloomfield Acres subdivision moves in on the Arcata Bottom. The Gilardoni dairy is at lower left. Merle Shuster photo courtesy HSU Library Humboldt County Collection

How to do it right

Last Thursday at a dinner party in which the goat debacle was the main topic, someone wondered aloud whether a petition might convince CGC to reconsider the Gilardoni site – or somewhere else nearby – for the dairy project.

I have no information that CGC is interested in giving Arcata another shot at hosting the goat dairy. The company has identified one new potential site, which, we are pointedly told, is “not in or adjacent to Arcata.” And certainly not as good.

But we can dream, can’t we? Yes, and in detail.

The first step to revisiting the issue is really starting over. How about we look for some common ground?

Opponents: Think honestly about the basis of your opposition. Then, if you still feel that way, bring your best facts before your neighbors.

Right up to the end, talk of clouds of ammonia, antibiotic runoff polluting the Marsh and E. coli killing neighbor children dominated the discussion, along with other preposterous claims.

I’d really like to see what the opposition would look like without the blatant fictions that formed its forefront.

Advocates: Show up and address the opponents’ factual concerns. Acknowledge any serious objections. Don’t let a few yelling people define the discussion.

Cypress Grove: Don’t wilt if one or two people wig out.

Politicians: Do something.

With a huge ag proposal at hand and tensions escalating, who is better positioned than our elected officials to act as a go-between for the advocates and opponents, setting a purposeful direction and clarifying basic issues such as process?

Supervisor Mark Lovelace visited the Gilardoni property and was researching goat waste issues. Yet, for weeks, little was done to allay the concerned neighbors’ worst fears, real or imagined, of their lives and property being ruined. It seems they were on their own, with the loudest, least reasonable voices holding sway.

Even the county process through which the project might have been approved or denied remained murky and in dispute. Why was this fundamental question so shrouded in mystery? A county supervisor interested in open government could and should have made some calls and cleared that basic issue up for his fearful constituents right away.

If we could turn back time, one has to believe that our elected representatives would play a more constructive role in shepherding a possible $3 million agriculture project through an orderly process.

But maybe not. They haven’t done any salvage work for us in the month since the project’s withdrawal.

Follow-through fail

Neither our mayor or supervisor has asked CGC to reconsider the cancelation. Basically they’ve offered perfunctory words of support (“hopeful,” “sincere wishes”) and offered to take the company’s phone calls. Impressive.

It’s clear now that any serious action to fight for Arcata, reverse this shameful loss and at least give the project a fair hearing is going to be up to citizens.

Who will start that petition, write the opinion column, form the Facebook group or grassroots committee?

Remember the post-cancellation proposal to create an “agriculture incubator” on the Gilardoni property? In the weeks since, no one has contacted the owners, Marla Daniels and Rayelle Niederbrach, to pursue that vision. It was just words.

Nor has anyone offered a simple, straightforward apology to CGC or founder Mary Keehn for the wildly defamatory accusations leveled at her and her fine company, or for the bullying conduct at Bloomfield School.

June 2, 1947: Iverson Avenue homes under construction. Do you suppose the new residents railed against the “industrial dairy” activity all around them? Merle Shuster photo courtesy HSU Library Humboldt County Collection

The end of history

Arcata has a rich agricultural history that spans from Wild West days when bears roamed the Arcata Bottom, through dairy’s golden age and into today’s exciting community supported agriculture/locavore/farmers’ market era.

But history has stopped. When Bloomfield Acres was planted in the middle of prime ag land, the die was cast: 64 years hence, a later generation of subdivision residents would demand that industrial dairying on neighboring farmland be disallowed – on grounds that they were there first!

This goat dairy could have validated so many of the values we espouse, including progressive agriculture, food independence, local entrepreneurship, consensus building, appropriate tech, humane animal treatment and more. It would even fulfill some of the same goals as the ag incubator idea.

Why didn’t we at least find out whether it would deliver all that it promised?

The fact is, impacts would have been mitigated and “dangers” made negligible. In time, just as with the nearby Windsong and Greenview neighborhoods, which have huge cow populations just over their back fences, the Bloomfield and Foster Avenue residents would have found the goats to be a non-issue.

When the gleaming, world-class goat dairy is finally installed elsewhere and the Ferndale City Council (or whomever) holds its ribbon cutting, I want every Arcatan to see that historic photo.

It should run in this newspaper as an obituary for Arcata’s agricultural heritage. It will also be a testament to Arcata’s abject failure to even try to comport with the high-sounding principles it talks about all the time.

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Several such reminiscences were exchanged last Tuesday when about 40 of us gathered at Coastal Grove Charter School as a follow-up to the Monday night meeting in which the Cypress Grove Chevre/Emmi corporation unveiled its plans for “the old Gilardoni” property.

The night before, more than 125 of us had listened while Mary Keehn, CGC founder, and George Williamson of Planwest, answered questions about the plan.

Many in the audience were stony-faced with anxiety while Ms. Keehn, speaking from the heart, addressed their fears.

The audience nodded in appreciation when she traced her roots and explained what it was like to start out with a few milk goats so that her children would have wholesome nourishment.

Within a few years she had begun to make cheese, and in time she developed the exquisitely-flavored product that has made Cypress Grove Chevre a winner here and all over the world.

In the rambling “Q&A” that followed, many worried that Emmi would build the goat farm without the environmental oversights they sought. Finally, Planwest confirmed that they would seek a Principally Permitted Use (PPU) which does not require California Environmental Quality Act scrutiny.

Concerns about runoff, pasture degradation, truck traffic, lights, stench, the noise, the flies, the potential for a variety of biohazards were left unanswered, homeowners said.

Of the many Bloomfield residents with whom I talked, none expressed personal animosity toward Ms. Keehn, nor did they dispute her accomplishments. In truth, I heard nothing but admiration.

But it was Pat Larson who summed up what most of us had wanted to say. Mrs. Larson declared her fondness for Cypress Grove Chevre and its founder; but “it’s about the location!” she concluded. Few seemed to challenge the goat farm as long as it could find a site in a more appropriate location.

Next day, as the neighbors made their way toward the meeting, we learned that Ms. Keehn had announced she would find another location.

Amongst the 40 or so present, I heard nothing but expressions of relief and praise for Ms. Keehn and her decision. Some wondered what would happen to the Gilardoni parcel.

More than one had a word or two about the heifers that used to chomp on their roses, scamper around the pasture, or lean on their fences; and we hoped they would reappear.

One friend took an idea to the Arcata City Council the next night, calling it something she had been “carrying around for the past nine years.”

Her dream was to see the Gilardoni acres preserved as a gateway to the Arcata Bottom, with paths and trails, weaving among small parcels that young farmers could lease from the landowner.

She called it a “farming incubator,” and I thought immediately about a similar, very successful venture at Aldergrove which had launched many local businesses – Mad River Jam, Tomaso, Lacey’s, Fish Brothers and others. The council agreed to place the farming incubator on its agenda.

A farming incubator could return the land to its historical roots, preserve it for farming “start-ups,” and ensure that our agricultural heritage remains a place to begin the future.

Stay tuned.

Carol McFarland and Don Nielsen grow a year-round organic orchard and garden on Arcata Bottom, when they are not herding 60 or so chickens.

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June 13 at Bloomfield School, the Foster Avenue goat dairy's first and last public discussion. KLH | Eye

Kevin L. Hoover

Eye Editor

The premature collapse of Cypress Grove Chevre’s (CGC) goat dairy project is regrettable, even shameful for Arcata on several levels. Experiencing it was like watching a slow-motion car accident, just not slow enough for reason or reflection to intervene.

We didn’t follow the script on this one. We in Humboldt have a routine for processing land use proposals which basically involves milking it for whatever fuel it can add to the culture wars. But this controversy was over almost before it started.

Two things any land use proposal deserves are fact-finding and a public decisionmaking process. This project didn’t get either.

CGC laid the groundwork for the confusion and panic that beset the neighborhood by telling just a few neighbors about the project and then sending surveyors out to mill around at the site. Naturally, this only aroused curiosity. Then human nature kicked in, with neighbors filling in the many blanks with their worst fears –  odor, insects, traffic, noise and so on.

This same neighborhood resisted the egregious Creek Side Homes subdivision on the Bottoms throughout the ’00s, and the citizens’ organizational machinery was still in place to meet this big change to the area. Unfortunately, the neighbors also resurrected the same assumptions of Creek Side-level destruction, which simply didn’t apply to the goat dairy proposal.

Once the neighborhood mobilized, with flyers and websites loaded with dark assumptions and a general tenor of non-neighborly meanness, CGC held its belated Open House event. But by then the residents had firmed up their opposition, so much so that nothing was going to sway them, particularly mere information.

It’s really great that Arcata will rise up against inappropriate developments. Doing so stopped ill-conceived projects like Creek Side Homes, the similar Janes Creek West, and Humboldt State’s original big, dumb Behavioral and Social Sciences Building.

It’s too bad, though, that even reasonable developments are automatically cast as destructive. Worse that a pack mentality set in which made excesses of behavior seem permissible. That happened in this case, for example, when some neighbors clung to falsehoods: that the goats’ waste would be liquefied and sprayed on the pasture; that more big trucks would ply Q Street; that clouds of ammonia would rise from the barn; that antibiotic waste would be funneled into Janes Creek; etc.

At the Monday meeting, neighbors voiced perfectly reasonable concerns about jumbo STAA trucks eventually rumbling down Q Street. But even after being shown the bright red line that delineated the truck route as being K Street to 17th Street – entirely skirting residential Q Street – a few attendees looked, listened and continued to complain that the trucks would rattle their homes. No, not even close.

What is the point of “dialogue” when, halfway through the company’s first presentation, an attendee pipes up with “We will oppose you all the way?” If that’s the case, then facts are truly optional and why did we bother with a meeting? The opponents were more comfortable with the damning hearsay they made up than factual information that negated or ameliorated it.

This is Arcata, a university town. We like ideas, critical thinking and thoughtfulness… right? In practice, when there’s anything resembling controversy, no, we do not. We embrace hearsay and folklore, then stick our fingers in our ears and holler, “YadayadayadaIcan’thearyou!” at voices that challenge our assumptions.

Here we had a company willing to invest $3 million in a dairy facility with mitigations based on proven technology on a parcel of land zoned for that very purpose. (With up to double that figure designated for upgrades to the existing facility to accommodate the new, hyperlocal milk source, plus other improvements.)

Would CGC or Emmi have been so foolish as to cheap out on odor and pathogen containment when those things are so easily remediated, and jeopardize the entire multimillion-dollar investment?

The answer is no. Whatever CGC/EMMI are, they are not penny-foolish.

The new facility would have been a world-class model of humane, ethical and environmentally responsible dairying, right here in Arcata.

With all we do to attract business and investment, we don’t know what to do when a big, fat offer falls into our laps. CGC had the cash, the plans, and wasn’t asking for any special favors like tax breaks. Counties in other areas literally give away the farm to provide a location and appealing tax climate for a new industrial facility. We can’t even listen through a presentation about one without yelling at the representatives.

The Taking Up Space Award

The Hall of Blame begins with two elected leaders who could have offered some helpful direction for this project, located on county land bordering Arcata, but sat on their hands.

Third District Supervisor Mark Lovelace attended the fateful Monday meeting. Deploying only bland platitudes, he said he needed to get “more input” before offering an opinion. “The fact that they’re [CGC] holding a community meeting is pretty great,” Lovelace said. “It’s a great start.”

That’s not going to anger anyone, or lose any votes. But was the meeting “great?” If things like brushing your teeth and stopping at stop signs are “great,” well, yes. Actually though, those things, like communication with neighbors, are what you do. They’re baseline responsibilities, not “great.”

Asked her view before the Monday meeting, Mayor Susan Ornelas responded with an unfocused ramble to the effect that the goat dairy could be good but might be bad:

“This is a difficult situation, as the dairy is principally permitted, but with the proposed density, I am surprised that the County doesn’t think it needs a conditional use permit… The proof will be in the management… Truthfully, I will need to wait and see for myself how the system works.”

I endorsed Mark (who saved the Sunny Brae Forest) and Susan (an  agrarian oracle) for the offices they now hold based on the bold leadership they promised to provide, based on their earlier accomplishments.

Do you see any leadership anywhere above? No, only nervous timidity, not wanting to upset anyone or erode support, stating only the obvious and providing zero direction.

A leader might have said, “This project is a prima facie inappropriate intrusion on a neighborhood. Let’s see about relocating it, updating the zoning and finding alternative uses for the land.” And then they’d really do that. Leadership.

Better yet, they might have said, “This is an interesting project that could bring employment to Arcata and Humboldt, boost the local dairy industry and give Arcata more worldwide recognition for something other than marijuana. Plus it could bring the Arcata Bottoms’ agricultural legacy to life in an eco-smart 21st century way. Let’s find out if we can make it work for everyone.”

Anything other than the mincing equivocations we got, following by annoying expressions of regret for the death of a project that their very passivity helped bring about.

The Short Memory Award

It was surprising to see Iverson Avenue resident Lee Sobo, whose wonderful Naan of the Above business (which he co-owns) just went through a grueling regulatory escapade with the City, forget everything he experienced in terms of fair play and process.

Before the CGC project’s design or scale were verified, or any approval process had been started, Sobo presented assumptions as fact, sent out e-mails laden with rabble-rousing misinformation and established websites emblazoned with a malicious parody logo that skewered Cypress Grove, our acclaimed local manufacturer, as “MILKING THE ENVIRONMENT AND COMMUNITY.”

That’s hard to see. Even harder is how not everyone loves Naan of the Above and its cheery yellow tents. Those who for whatever reason don’t could easily have distorted its logo into something ugly, and could have heaped false accusations on the business prior to the public process. But the skeptics reserved their quibbles for the fair public hearing.

That process resulted in rules and mitigations that fully addressed the concerns. But astoundingly, Mr. Sobo chose not to indulge Cypress Grove with the same consideration to which he was treated.

The Off The Rails Award

This goes to Foster Avenue resident Sean Armstrong, who burned with a hard, gemlike flame over this issue.

Armstrong, during his employ with Danco Builders, was a persistent advocate for Creek Side Homes, a sprawling, 151-unit, 1,500-vehicles-per-day subdivision on the other side of Foster Avenue from the CGC project. By some unfathomable logic, that was a positive for the vast pastureland Bottoms, while a goat dairy is not.

If that’s his opinion, fine. What’s not fine is squealing like a set of worn-out brakes at a public meeting, yelling non sequiturs about E. coli and salmonella just to instill fear, then not listening to the CGC reps’ responses before blurting out more scare terms.

Most beastly was Armstrong’s tailing CGC founder Mary Keehn out to her car after the meeting was over, braying, “You are going to kill my babies! How can you do something like this! You call yourself a good neighbor?” Towering over this retirement-age woman and gesturing wildly, the aggression was so inappropriate that other CGC employees stayed with Keehn in case this bozo lost his last remaining vestiges of self-control. You really couldn’t tell where the boundary breakdown was going to end.

Keehn was able to load her trunk, get into her car and get away from the near-hysterical raver. But here’s the twist: Armstrong is now a City of Arcata employee, working in the Community Development department on redevelopment projects.

Once CGC establishes its goat dairy milk supply in a more rational and less hostile community, it will be submitting plans to the City to upgrade its Arcata facility. Let’s hope the project isn’t assigned to someone who thinks the company tried to kill his kids with poop.

During the ill-fated Monday presentation, the company said that the project could be reshaped and the buildings moved to address the neighbors’  concerns. But that wasn’t good enough – they would be satisfied only with total extermination.

Coincidentally, the county General Plan Update is underway and dealing with the Open Space Element. I asked the goat dairy opponents if they had participated in the GPU to protect this ag-zoned land from being used for ag, as they suddenly desired. Since the response was crickets, I suspect the answer is no. Better to wait for someone to come in with a project designed for the zoned use, then scream about E. coli and “shit tsunamis.”

Opponents of Cypress Grove Chevre’s (CGC) goat dairy on the Arcata Bottom weren't what you might call "magnanimous in victory," continuing with snide derision of the company even after they had defeated the proposed goat dairy by brandishing a distorted CGC logo, with "MILKING THE ENVIRONMENT" and "MILKING THE COMMUNITY." KLH | Eye

The No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Award

Cypress Grove Chevre is a company that has brought nothing but benefit and pride (and incredible cheese) to Arcata. In one week, it became a community-sucking, Earth-killing monster? How convenient – and what a coincidence!

What does it say about us that we are willing to instantly and viciously turn on longtime, close community members over an issue we don’t even have complete information about?

The Ambush Foiling Award

Mary Keehn handily wins this one. For once, when someone asked an ambush question, the would-be victim was able to reply knowledgeably and utterly neutralize the parry. That occurred when Armstrong asked Keehn if she knew what the effects of E. coli infection are. She did, and began to recite them. Oops. That wasn’t supposed to happen. This sent Armstrong into his spiral of interruption, and may have fed his later parking lot frenzy.

This being the real world, there was an esprit de l’escalier moment though. If only Keehn had followed up by asking Armstrong whether he had ever visited the kind of Dutch goat dairy being proposed. But pointed rejoinders aren’t her style.

The Blatant Duplicity Award

The opponents were selling two contradictory ideas, which they toggled between based on the expediency of the moment:

• CGC is going to “ram this project through” without public hearings, as it is principally permitted on the ag-zoned Gilardoni Property.

or

• CGC will never succeed in getting the project approved because it is so fatally flawed.

Which is it, guys? That’s just one example.

One of the goatbusters told me later that county planners and health officials were secretly relieved that the project had been halted, as they didn’t want a battle over a project that would never have been approved. Odd that these unknown, unnamed officials already knew what the project was, since no proposal was ever submitted and the company was saying right up to the end that everything about it was subject to change in response to the neighbors’ concerns. All these naysaying officials could have had to evaluate the project with were the basic outlines proposed by CGC and the overlay of fiction the opponents fogged the picture with.

Another particularly dunderheaded element of the opposition was the invocation of the terms “industrial agriculture” and “corporation” as though they are automatic negatives. They even started calling Cypress Grove “EMMI,” the name of the Swiss company (majority owned by farmer cooperatives) that bought CGC last year, because that name sounds more monolithic and scary, I guess.

Industry has been part of the Arcata Bottom since the 1800s. Cypress Grove was a corporation before its purchase by Emmi.

And of course, it wouldn’t be an All-American Controversy if someone hadn’t lied about lying. Among the mutterings at the Bloomfield meeting and at the initial front gate protest were that CGC “lied to the priest.” This refers to CGC Manager Pam Dressler’s initial visit to St. Mary’s Church, allegedly misrepresenting the project to Father Gerard Gormley. CGC maintains that Dressler never spoke to Rev. Gormley – confirmed by the church secretary who received the CGC visitors. “Father Gormley was out of town when they came by,” she told me.

She said CGC called back weeks later to see if it could use Leavey Hall at adjoining St. Mary’s School for the fateful Monday meeting, but the hall was being re-roofed and was out of commission. Too bad; meeting in a facility attached to a house of worship might – might – have tempered some of the excessive behavior.

One audience member at the Monday meeting left behind notes listing talking points, including the oft-mentioned falsehood that CGC "lied to the priest."

The One Damn Thing After Another Award

Carol McFarland and Don Nielsen have been through hell over the past several years.

When Creek Side Homes was in play, they physically moved their house back away from Foster Avenue to give themselves a buffer from that impending disaster.

Then their house renovation was botched by an incompetent contractor. They had just gotten a settlement and had their home properly restored, and now this. However you feel about the goat dairy, the irreducible fact is that the house relocation would actually have moved them closer to the project’s parking lot and large main structure.

And yet, there is a greater good. A world-class dairy on the Arcata Bottom would have been a real jewel for Arcata. For Carol and Don, it couldn’t approach the ruinous effects of a Creek Side Homes or Janes Creek West. And it would have been dwarfed by the mammoth, sprawling Sun Valley Floral Farms complex just down the way.

Many Arcata Bottom residents live harmoniously in similar proximity to animal-filled pastures, big barns, even abattoirs and other industrial facilities. The impact factor for this project was way overrated.

In the rush and haste of mounting opposition, Don and Carol found themselves repeating some of the misinformation their overzealous neighbors were trafficking in. Unlike many of them, this deeply disturbs Carol, who has been trying to mend fences with CGC. In fact, she’s the only person who I’ve heard express remorse for the smears against this fine, local company.

Now that the CGC proposal has been withdrawn, Carol vows to stick to gardening and reading classic literature, and she and Don surely deserve all the tranquility and abundant natural splendor the Arcata Bottom can provide.

The Due Diligence Award

In this and virtually every land use controversy that occurs in Arcata and environs, Lisa Brown is always the calm voice doing the heavy lifting of  fact-checking and pushing for an orderly methodology. Why it falls on this woman every time to complete the developers’ sometimes-patchy research, give productive direction to citizens and prompt regulators to check all the required boxes is not clear, but we’re fortunate that there is someone around to elevate the dialogue.

At the last City Council meeting, Lisa tried to redirect the momentum over this issue in a productive direction with designation of the Gilardoni property as a greenbelt/farming incubator. How that would come about is not clear, but it sounds like an auspicious idea.

Yet there’s already an ill portent suggesting it won’t happen, since it will take pro-active rather than crisis-driven motivation. Now that the largely imaginary goat threat has dissipated, what is the neighbors’ motivation to participate constructively? During the various discussions, several said they’d help CGC find a different location for the goat dairy. But in the nearly two weeks since the Gilardoni proposal was pulled, not a single neighbor has called the company with any suggestions.

Note too that the Arcata Chamber of Commerce was entirely missing in action from this debacle.

The Taking My Ball And Going Home Award

To Cypress Grove Chevre, for pulling the plug prematurely. On the other hand, with opponents having demonstrated that they have no standards for principled opposition and the situation declining rapidly, who needs this kind of abuse? If Arcata doesn’t want this $3 million sugar plum, someone else will gladly take it.

What have we learned?

This has been an inadvertant case study for potential investors in Arcata and Humboldt County. What have we learned?

If you’re a company looking to inject millions into Arcata with a world-class development, here are some tips:

• Don’t bother with the new whiz-bang online GIS systems that show you the zoning for a project site, because that’s irrelevant. Even zoned uses may be denounced as inappropriate.

After the triumphant goatbusters had high-fived and hugged over vanquishing the nightmare scenario they had conjured, they left this goatsourced calling card in CGC's driveway. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time – especially for the goat. KLH | Eye

• Any public hearing you schedule may descend into barbarity. Your company representatives may be personally accused of child-killing, physically pursued, screamed at and hounded off the site by an off-duty City of Arcata Community Development employee.

• Don’t look to our political “leaders” for any interest in or facilitation of your job-creating investment. They’re focused on avoiding controversy. But once the project dies, expect moving expressions of disappointment.

The Do What I Scream, Not What I Poo Award

For a comic capper, Armstrong and his wife brought one of their adorable goats to the protest the day after the meeting, at which they found out the project had been canceled.

And when they left, there on the sidewalk outside CGC’s front gate was a generous smattering of the dreaded goat poop, because, you know, it’s so dangerous.

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Below, a press release issued Tuesday afternoon:

Cypress Grove hosted a neighborhood meeting on Monday, June 13 to share up-to-date plans with those living nearby the initially proposed site. After a brief presentation of the plan, the overall tenor of the meeting convinced Cypress Grove management to look for another property. “I’m proud of our standing in this community, not only for our cheesemaking, but as excellent neighbors,” said Mary Keehn, founder of Cypress Grove Chevre. “It’s clear that many of our neighbors have deep concerns about the dairy being near their homes.”

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Kevin L. Hoover

Eye Editor

Q STREET – Cypress Grove Chevre (CGC) is in escrow on 23 acres of what used to be the Gil’s Creamline Dairy on the Arcata Bottom. The world-renowned goat cheese company hopes to use the land for dairy goats, which would give it an in-house supply of milk for cheese production.

“We have a large demand and are always looking for new sources of milk,” said Bob McCall, sales manager. The company has at times been criticized for not having on-site goat milk production, and trucking in its supply.

McCall said that in  the company’s early days, founder Mary Keehn kept goats to supply milk for its then-limited cheese production. When the chevremaker opened its Arcata Bottom facility, the volume of milk required could only be satisfied by tapping area goat ranches.

Now, said McCall, “we’re looking into creating some of our own again.”

Though the project has been eight years in the making, plans, McCall said, are still uncertain and tentative. He said the company preferred to complete the land acquisition and nail down other uncertainties before disclosing details.

“We do have a project that we’re formulating,” McCall said. “It isn’t finalized at all. At this point we aren’t really ready to say what it is. When we do we will be very clear and succinct.”

Neighbors react

In recent weeks, Cypress Grove contacted a couple of property owners neighboring the Gilardoni parcel, including Foster Avenue resident Carol McFarland and St. Mary’s Church, where a gift basket of chevre was left.

McFarland said that during a visit by CGC General Manager Karen Dressler in mid-May, the project was described in vague terms as a “goat pasture” which would have little impact on adjacent neighbors. McFarland initially expressed relief that such a project might protect the land against installation of a housing subdivision.

But last weekend, having gotten wind of the nascent project, other area residents grew alarmed at the fragmentary information available. Speculation – some of it apparently unfounded – fed fears of a much more massive installation than had been suggested.

As it turns out, up to 1,400 goats would be housed at the site in a large building. The prospect of that many goats on 23 acres adjacent to residential areas raised concerns about noise, smell, traffic and property value impacts, plus questions about disposition of the effluent the animals will generate.

McCall said the figure of 1,400 goats is “roughly right, probably a little high.” He insisted that “absolutely no misleading information at all” was provided during the “chance meetings” with neighbors.

Another hot rumor was that the goats’ wastes would be liquified and sprayed onto the grounds. McCall flatly denied that. He said the goat droppings will be collected and stored for giveaway as fertilizer.

Q Street resident Karen Davidson (see letters, page 7) listed numerous concerns, and is circulating a petition demanding a public hearing on the project. She called the project a “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation” or CAFO.

McCall denied this. “That’s a term used to describe feedlots for meat animals,” he said. “It has nothing to do with what we’re doing.”

Davidson wondered how many trucks would be required to deliver feed for the goats, as 23 acres of pastureland can only support something over a hundred goats, not more than a thousand.

McCall responded that “at any goat dairy, food must be trucked in. Every goat dairy brings in grain.” Some grazing would occur on the land, augmenting the animals’ diet.

Davidson wondered whether antibiotics the goats might be treated with would, along with their urine, wind up in adjacent Janes Creek, eventually polluting the Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary.

McCall said goats involved with chevre production cannot be given antibiotics, as it stifles the cultures that turn milk into cheese.

Neighbors Lee and Barbara Sobo also have a petition going. Their concerns echo Davidson’s, and they want a rigorous review of the project.

“We need an Environmental Impact Report to fully understand how this is going to impact the neighbors and the City,” Lee Sobo said.

No public hearing

Humboldt County Planner Bev Burks said that while no formal proposal has been made, from what she has heard about the project, it would be a “principally permitted” use of the agriculturally-zoned land and may not require any discretionary permits.

If that’s the case, approvals would be ministerial actions not requiring public hearings.

McCall said any project would be consistent with the land’s intended agricultural usage. “We’re very good stewards of the land here,” he said. “I think we have a good track record for the citizens and the environment.”

Protest planned

As the faint wisps of solid information spread among neighbors over the weekend, so did fear about a huge change in the neighborhood’s quality of life.

On Tuesday, the inevitable Facebook page was born, titled “Stop the Industrial Dairy in Arcata.”

A protest was also planned for Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Cypress Grove Chevre’s Q Street gate.

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ARCATA BOTTOM – Arcata cheese maker Cypress Grove Chevre has been acquired by Emmi, a $2.6 billion Swiss company 51 percent owned by a cooperative of farmers and dairy operators. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Cypress Grove Sales Manager Bob McCall said that the Arcata Bottom manufacturing facility, which directly employes more than 40 people, will continue to operate and even be upgraded soon. He said Emmi appreciates Cypess Grove’s unique culture, and won’t dilute the brand.

“Humboldt Fog will be made in Humboldt County and Cypress Grove stays in Arcata,” McCall said. “We’re kind of the jewel in their crown.”

Cypress Grove’s press release

Cypress Grove is a renowned producer and the best-known brand in the US for fresh and ripened premium goat’s cheese specialties. Emmi has also increased its stake in CASP (Contract Aseptic & Specialty Packaging) LLC in Penn Yan, New York, to 100%. CASP specialises in contract manufacturing of aseptic milk products and forms an important pillar in Emmi’s fresh products business in the US.

As the leading supplier of Swiss cheese and fresh dairy products, Emmi plans to continue its growth, focusing in particular on the Italian, German, Austrian, UK and US markets. The acquisition of Cypress Grove Chèvre with effect from 19 August 2010 (PST) or 20 August 2010 (CET) is an important step in this direction. The company is based in Arcata, California, and is a leading US manufacturer of fresh and ripened goat’s cheese specialties in the premium segment. Since its inception in 1983, Cypress Grove cheeses have won numerous awards at international trade fairs and competitions. Cypress Grove Chèvre employs 45 people and has a turnover of approx. USD 10 million. The company’s founder, Mary Keehn, is looking forward to working with Emmi: “Emmi is the ideal partner for Cypress Grove. The synergies in marketing cheese specialties from Switzerland and the US will help to strengthen the presence of the Cypress Grove Chèvre brand and further develop our site in Arcata.”

Urs Riedener, CEO of Emmi, on the acquisition: “Cypress Grove Chèvre’s premium cheese specialties will be an ideal complement to our US product range. The expanded product line will allow us to strengthen our position in our largest foreign market, the US.”

The US cheese market is around USD 16.4 billion, with the fast-growing speciality cheese segment – in which goat’s cheese plays an increasingly important role – accounts for around USD 1 billion.

One of the products manufactured by the Penn Yan, New York-based company CASP (Contract Aseptic & Specialty Packaging) LLC is the Caffè Latte Emmi sells in the US market. The company employs 23 people and has a turnover of approximately USD 6 million. Thanks to its total acquisition of CASP, Emmi now has its own production facility for fresh products in the US that will manufacture both Emmi Caffè Latte and, in future, the Emmi premium yoghurts already sold in the US market. This will ensure Emmi’s high quality standards for the long term and allow it to achieve additional growth.

Emmi can finance the acquisition of Cypress Grove Chèvre and the complete takeover of CASP using current funds and credit lines. The contractual parties have agreed not to disclose details of the purchase price.

CEO Urs Riedener adds: “In 2009, Emmi generated sales of around USD 175 million in the US. The investments in Cypress Grove Chèvre and CASP are important steps to strengthen our position in the US market in line with our international growth strategy.”

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The owner, a Valley West employee who asked not to be identified out of embarrassment, called the Arcata Eye today and said that she read the story in last week’s paper and immediately recognized her keys in the accompanying photo. “I’ve been having this crazy anxiety attack,” she said, concerned that unsavory characters might be in possession of the keys to her home and car. “You guys saved my ass.”

The key transfer was to take place late Monday or Tuesday, after the keys’ finder, Veronica, got off work and called the woman.

The woman verified the leading theory as to the keys’ loss, and solved one “key” mystery: how the keys could have been placed atop a car which then drove away, only to have the keys fall off. She said her husband drove the car away after she placed her set on the car’s roof.

Intrigue aside, she’s just happy to be getting her keys back.

“It gave me hope that there are still good people in the world,” she said.

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