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Del Norte County Supervisor Chris Howard hopes a slate of new legislators, and potential support from one of them, will alleviate a problem that’s plagued Hiouchi and Gasquet for years — cars speeding through at 55-plus mph.
Howard, whose district includes those communities along U.S. 199, asked for his colleagues’ support on Tuesday, pointing out that those safety concerns will persist if change isn’t made at the legislative level.
“Legislation was attempted here two-and-a-half years ago and it failed to give the county a voice into our state highway system and, more importantly, setting up speed [limits],” Howard told his colleagues. “So why not get more specific? Why not focus on a specific area where those public lands are impacted?”
Howard and the rest of the Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted its 2025 legislative platform, which includes the more specific approach to setting speed limits on the state highway system that he proposed.
Assistant County Administrative Officer Randy Hooper introduced the proposed platform to the Board in October. On Tuesday, he said Jan. 24 is the deadline for requests to be submitted to the legislative counsel’s office in order to make it into the legislative cycle for this year.
Comparing the county’s legislative platform to its strategic plan, Hooper said it aimed wide, focusing on agriculture, environmental and natural resources, economic development, health and human services, finance and operations, housing and land-use, state and federal lands management and transportation.
Hooper said he and Howard had already spoken with legislative staff of Del Norte County’s new assemblyman, Chris Rogers, on Monday about the speed limit concerns.
“The timing of having this item included in the platform is critical because they can’t carry forward a project in the county if it isn’t included in your platform,” Hooper told supervisors. “This is why the conversation begins in the fall after the previous year’s bills are signed into law. It’s to tee those conversations up over the course of November and December to have something ready to go in January.”
Under the California Vehicle code, the maximum speed limit on a multi-lane highway and a two-lane undivided roadway is 65 mph and 55 mph respectively. Agencies conduct engineering and traffic surveys to set speed limits that are lower based on the prevailing speed, collision history and highway, traffic and roadside conditions “not readily apparent to the driver.”
According to Caltrans information on how speed limits are set, prevailing speed is also known as the 85th percentile — the speed at or below which 85 percent of vehicles travel on a road — and is “the single most influential indicator of what is safe and reasonable.”
Agencies use the 85th percentile by rounding to the nearest 5 mph increment. In 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 43 into law, which gives Caltrans and local authorities the ability to round either up or down 5 mph below the 85th percentile.
According to Tamera Leighton, executive director of the Del Norte Local Transportation Commission, while AB 43 gives communities more latitude for setting speed limits on a local road system, it doesn’t apply to the state highway system.
“It really didn’t mean much to us,” she said.
Howard said he and other county officials are pursuing legislation that’s a “little more pinpointed” than AB 43. According to him, the California Highway Patrol and Caltrans supports the proposal since they’re the ones tasked with curtailing reckless behavior and enforcing state laws on the highway system.
Howard said he hopes such legislation specifically refers to highways traversing public lands, in Del Norte’s case, the Six Rivers National Forest.
“There were a lot of public meetings in Gasquet about this and it appears that Assemblyman Rogers, with his staff input as of yesterday, is willing to consider carrying this legislation for Del Norte,” Howard told Redwood Voice Community News on Tuesday.
Leighton said the proposal focuses on lowering the speed limit in Hiouchi from the Hiouchi Bridge where the highway crosses into the boundary of the Smith River National Recreation Area. In Gasquet, the proposal focuses on the stretch of 199 from the Mary Adams Peacock Bridge to the Gasquet Ranger Station, Leighton said.
According to Howard, residents in those communities want the speed limit lowered to 30 or 35 mph.
“Reckless behaviors cause quite a bit of turmoil and, in a lot of cases, especially in Hiouchi in the last five years, accidents by doing stupid things,” Howard said.
He noted that though the posted speed limit in Hiouchi is 50 mph, based on speed surveys it should be 55 mph under the 85th percentile rule. Motorists often reach speeds of 65 to 70 mph in Hiouchi, Howard added.
The county’s legislative platform also includes a proposal to implement an environmental mitigation credit program for public projects within Del Norte. Noting that since Del Norte County consists largely of public lands, finding land to mitigate for potential impacts that come with development is limited and the cost is high, according to Hooper’s Board report.
The final draft of Del Norte County’s 2025 Legislative Platform has been shared with Thorn Run Partners, the county’s federal advocates, and its state lobbyist, Shaw Yoder Antwih Schmelzer & Lange.
