After the City of Eureka postponed acting on a wireless network feasibility study, partly, according to Councilmember Mike Jones, because there was no crowd shouting for it (although several speakers voices very strong arguments and only one person spoke in opposition), a bunch of people turned out at the Planning Commissions meeting to speak on behalf of re-instating a free standing Telecommunications Element in the General Plan Update.

Led by Tina Nerat who wrote the initial study that was supposed to be used as a basis for the element, the list of speakers who urged the Planning Commission to reinstate the Telecom Element, included Connie Stewart, special assistant to Patty Berg, Peter Pennekcamp, head of the Humboldt Area Foundation, Sean McLauglin, head of Access Humboldt, John McBrearty from Humboldt State University and yours truly.

The strong showing seemed to work. While it’s not clear exactly what will happen the Planning Commission will be looking at re-instating the Telecom Element. According to this quote from the Eureka Reporter:

Girard said the discussions of how and if a standalone telecommunications chapter might be added to the ongoing general plan update will be brought before the planning commission and possibly the Board of Supervisors in the near future when they discuss possible changes to the general plan’s overall timeline.

You can be sure when the City Council brings back the wireless project for discussion in a couple weeks, we will work on getting the crowd there.