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At the start of every project, SHN and our clients begin discussing how the project will be successful, paid for, and maintained, but equally important is how it will impact our communities and environment—and how the community and environment will impact the project. Our project planning approach is to identify impacts that may be difficult to permit but, through minor project adjustments, can minimize or even eliminate those concerns. For example, an operational mitigation is limiting construction to daytime hours, so nearby residents are less affected during quiet evening and night time hours. A technological mitigation is our use of horizontal directional drilling to avoid trenching in wetlands during pipeline installation. Clients and regulators know that SHN will approach every project with integrity and with the community’s long-term environmental and economic benefits in mind.
We also provide planning services to cities, counties, tribal governments, and community services districts. We have assisted them in code revisions, general plan updates, strategic plans, and visioning processes. Grant funding is frequently the only way that a small government can plan or implement capital improvements, and SHN has a successful track record assisting communities in obtaining and managing grants.
The Eureka Scattered Sites Project, proposed by the nonprofit Linc Housing Corporation, is an ambitious affordable housing initiative within the City of Eureka, California. The project encompasses three sites on City-owned properties: the southeast corner of Sunny Avenue and Myrtle Avenue (31 apartments), the northwest corner of 6th Street and M Street (28 apartments), and the northeast corner of 8th Street and G Street (31 apartments), collectively providing 90 residential apartments and one on-site manager per site. Each location is designed to foster a supportive community environment, featuring amenities such as bicycle parking, community rooms, laundry facilities, courtyards, and playgrounds. The project’s primary objective is to address the critical need for affordable housing in Eureka while ensuring compliance with all applicable environmental regulations.
To secure funding from the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the project was subject to rigorous NEPA environmental review. SHN planners were engaged to prepare the necessary NEPA compliance documentation. For the NHTF component, SHN responded to the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s (HCD) Environmental Provisions Documentation Review Checklist, addressing topics such as coastal resources, floodplains, wetlands, noise, endangered species, and other environmental factors. SHN delivered a comprehensive response letter with supporting attachments. For the HUD funding component, SHN prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) in accordance with 24 CFR Part 58, utilizing the HUD statutory checklist and integrating relevant materials from the City of Eureka’s General Plan Environmental Impact Report and technical studies prepared for the project.
The technical studies and supporting documentation prepared for the EA included Section 106 consultation under the National Historic Preservation Act, cultural resources assessment, explosive and fire hazard review, air quality modeling, noise study, geotechnical investigation, wetland delineation, biological resources assessment, and environmental site assessment. We also provided assistance addressing public and agency comments during the required public comment periods. Construction began in June 2025, adding 90 apartments which is approximately 25% of the City’s commitment to develop 315 affordable homes.
SHN partnered with Stillwater Sciences to complete CEQA compliance documentation (an Environmental Impact Report, EIR) for the de-licensing of three dams in California on the Klamath River, with the State Water Resources Control Board acting as the lead agency. The de-licensing, formally called the Project Licensing Surrender, allowed removal of three dams and related infrastructure (Irongate, Copco1, and Copco2 dams), and restoration of the reservoir areas. (The EIR also analyzed the cumulative impacts of removal of a fourth dam in Oregon, the JC Boyle Dam).
This project is noted as the largest dam removal and restoration project in the United States. The project restored native anadromous fish access to 300-400 miles of mainstem river and tributary fish habitat and restored riparian habitat along approximately 18 miles of river and tributary confluences that were previously inundated by three-square miles of reservoir area. Dam removal has improved water quality, reduced the incidence of disease among salmonids, and supported commercial fisheries and tribal communities that depend on Klamath Basin fisheries as an important cultural resource.
Over a four-year process, the SHN team analyzed the deconstruction-related impacts of dismantling the three dam facilities. Topics that SHN specifically addressed included Aesthetics, Air Quality, Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Hazards, Land Use, Noise, Public Services, Recreation, Transportation, Utilities and Wildfire Hazards. The Public Draft EIR was 1,800-pages with an additional 600+ pages of appendices. Two sections of the Public Draft EIR (air quality and greenhouse gas emissions) were recirculated. The Final EIR was over 3,300 pages, including responses to more than 2,500 individual comments from 514 comment letters. Completion of the EIR allowed the federal de-licensing to commence, which was completed in 2022.
SHN and Stillwater Sciences were awarded an Outstanding Award for Environmental Analysis Documents from the California Association of Environmental Professionals in 2022. Dam removal construction activities began in 2023 and were completed in 2024 with salmonids migrating past the former dam sites in fall/winter 2025.
The Noyo Harbor District’s Community Sustainability Plan identified ice production as a top infrastructure priority, but permitting, designing, and constructing a functioning facility required navigating complex development conditions. To address these complexities, SHN’s team was comprised of planners, engineers, geologists, surveyors, inspectors, and construction managers, who worked together to create the Noyo Harbor Icehouse.
The completed icehouse is a three-story, 29-foot-tall structure with a 560-square-foot footprint, built from three stacked 40-foot containerized units that produce and store flake ice for direct loading into fishing vessels via a 200-foot aluminum pipe.
During the early feasibility phase, SHN planners and engineers met regularly with the Harbor Master and the Harbor District Commission to evaluate suitable locations across the marina. SHN and the District prepared a grant application that outlined the harbor’s needs and demonstrated how the project met the Sustainability Plan’s goals. The grant was awarded as the first issued under that funding program.
Acquiring a Coastal Development Permit generally takes patience and tenacity, but permitting an ice production facility at the water’s edge would require close communication with local County staff and State Coastal Commission staff since the project is located in their joint jurisdictions. To streamline the process, SHN secured consolidated jurisdiction through the Coastal Commission, which required a resolution by the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors.
To meet tight construction timelines, SHN planners sought to identify the quickest path to getting regulatory approvals. With permit consolidation granted, SHN planners evaluated whether the project could qualify for a Coastal Development Permit Waiver, an unlikely outcome for a three-story industrial facility near the water because waivers require certainty that no coastal resource impacts will occur. SHN biologists updated past habitat studies for the current project and recommended ways to reduce project impacts to coastal resources. SHN planners relied on previous coastal development projects to craft a robust project description that included the avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures consistent with Commission requirements on past projects. By developing a permit application that mirrored what a Coastal Commission approval would ultimately look like, Commission staff was comfortable issuing the permit waiver for the project. By securing the waiver, SHN planners ensured the project would be built in the targeted construction season, as opposed to navigating the full Coastal Development permit process.
The icehouse now supplies the Noyo fishing fleet with 20 tons of flake ice production and storage, bolstering the economic resilience of one of SHN’s home communities.
SHN has offered permitting and entitlement services since the 1980s, but our municipal planning expertise increased significantly with the acquisition of a North Coast planning firm in 2016, which brought us three senior municipal planners. We recruited three more senior planners shortly afterwards, resulting in a planning group that is strong in environmental and municipal planning in all of our California offices. Our planners often work on an on-call basis, ready to assist City or County or Services District staff, as needed. With our experience in permitting and entitlement services, we offer the viewpoints of “both sides of the planning counter” which is helpful to both applicants and municipal staff.
Some of our municipal clients include:
