County officials have hammered out the details of an upcoming public workshop to address Humboldt County’s shortfall of state-mandated homes and housing for the lowest wage earners.

In a follow-up to a meeting on April 1, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to approve the workshop scheduled for June 16, from 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Wharfinger Building in Eureka.

County staff is expected to provide a synthesis of the workshop discussions and information presented to be brought back to the supervisors at a future date for possible county policy changes.

The supervisors, as well as the Humboldt County Planning Commission will attend the event and listen to the information and discussions.

Kirk Girard, Community Development Services Director, said the workshop will consist of three moderated panel discussions of existing constraints, incentives for builders to provide affordable housing and regulatory approaches to boost low-income homes.

“Inclusionary zoning would be amongst the topics,” Girard said.

It was a discussion of a possible inclusionary zoning ordinance that would require developers to include low income housing as part of new developments, which sidetracked a previous affordable housing workshop held by the supervisors on March 11.

The board had been looking at solutions to address what Planning Department staff said would be projected shortfall in the county’s jurisdiction of approximately 282 very-low-income and 85 low-income units.

Supervisor John Woolley said it is important this time to make sure there isn’t too much expectations from participants at the June meeting to find solutions for everything and that more workshops or meetings might be necessary.

And Woolley said it is important to let participants know how the workshop would lead to future decision-making.

“I think this is an introduction to the Housing Element process,” Girard said.

Board Chairwoman Jill Geist cautioned about mingling the county’s general plan and housing element discussions with the low-income housing workshop.

Geist said the goal, in her view, was to have a discussion to narrow down the options and tools and to see if they are viable to increase affordable housing.

“If they aren’t, they need to be taken off the table,” Geist said.

Supervisors Bonnie Neely and Jimmy Smith said they thought it would be important to use the workshop for educational and outreach purposes and to invite the seven incorporated cities and community service districts.

Planning staff are also expected to produce a map that shows the county’s surplus land that could potentially be developed for housing.

Julie Williams, advocate for the North Coast Home Builders, cautioned against only inviting those developers who already build low-income homes.

William said all area developers, builders, contractors and subcontractors should be invited to discuss what she said should be a relaxation of the building standards and streamlining of permits.

“If the goal is to provide affordable housing,” Williams said. “A lot of things are going to have to change.”

Bob Higgons, government relations coordinator for the Humboldt Association of Realtors, said it was his impression that the panelists were weighted heavily in favor of government agencies.

He requested that an HAR representative be included on a panel because the group has an interest in inclusionary zoning.

The board approved adding a private sector representative to all of the panels.

McKinleyville resident Dennis Mayo said the rigid and structured format Girard recommended for the workshop isn’t good for the public to interact.

“They are a horror,” Mayo said.