REDDING, California — Faced with an enforcement warning from Sacramento that could strip the city of local zoning control, a divided City of Redding Planning Commission voted 3–1 on Tuesday to advance sweeping state-mandated zoning rules for homeless shelters, supportive housing, and controversial motel programs housing recently paroled state prisoners.

The Oct. 13 vote on Rezoning Application RZ-2025-01415 exposed growing frustration on the dais over California laws that force cities to permit "Housing First" shelters by right while barring local officials from requiring criminal background disclosures or neighborhood buffers.

"It seems like they're challenging our culture, our goals, our vision, our values, and in some cases our public safety," Commissioner Greg Valkovic said before reluctantly voting to forward the ordinance to the Redding City Council. "It's just frustrating to me that we have to respond this way, and we're losing control of our community."

Commissioner Russ Wenham cast the lone dissenting vote after his motion to delay the item for greater public transparency failed to draw a second. Calling out the lack of public awareness around an ordinance he said carries "transformative" impacts for Redding, Wenham cited a "crisis in my conscience over the state law."

"Old school, we would have had media at these things and they would have written some rather interesting stories about something like this," Wenham said.

*(Commissioner Blake Johnson recused himself from the shelter vote due to his leadership role at the Good News Rescue Mission, which operates local emergency shelters and the Veda Street Village micro-shelter community. Commissioners Emanuel and Miner were absent.)*

Five ‘Parolee Hotels’ Eye State Navigation Center Status

At the heart of Tuesday’s debate is how Redding will regulate commercial motels that have been quietly converted into transitional housing for unsheltered residents and formerly incarcerated individuals released from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

Last fall, Redding city staff identified seven local motels operating as unpermitted residential shelters for roughly 270 people, following widespread outrage over a different provider housing 28 sex offenders and arsonists at the GuestPlace Inn & Suites near East Cypress Avenue and Bechelli Lane. Development Services Director Jeremy Pagan told commissioners Tuesday that the operator at the Cypress and Bechelli property has since discontinued that operation, leaving four to five "parolee hotels" currently operating in the city.

Those remaining motel shelters are run by the New Life Discovery Project, an organization led by Tim Wetherald that generated nearly $2 million in revenue in 2024, primarily through Medi-Cal's CalAIM Community Supports program administered by Partnership HealthPlan of California. Under state Short-Term Post-Hospitalization Housing and Transitional Rent rules, Medi-Cal pays private providers to house eligible individuals exiting state prisons, jails, hospitals, or treatment centers in hotels for up to six months.

Speaking during public comment, Wetherald confirmed his organization operates five motels as shelters in Redding and has been working with city officials to classify them as Low-Barrier Navigation Centers—a designation created under Assembly Bill 101 (California Government Code § 65660) that forces cities to approve service-enriched, Housing First shelters by right without a conditional use permit in all mixed-use and commercial zones allowing multifamily housing.

"The city and the counties have absolutely no jurisdiction to tell the Department of Corrections where they're going to send people—they just don't," Wetherald told the commission, noting that his program excludes violent offenders, sex offenders, and arsonists, but is legally required to accept other qualifying justice-involved referrals.

Pagan explained that once the City Council adopts the new zoning code, New Life Discovery and any other operator will have to apply to the Planning Division to prove they meet the state's strict operational and building code requirements for a Low-Barrier Navigation Center—or face municipal code enforcement.

Why Redding’s Hands Are Tied on Background Checks and Buffers

Prior to the vote, a local resident submitted written requests urging the commission to require a 1,000-foot buffer around shelters, 180-day public hearing notices, written sign-offs from law enforcement, and mandatory disclosures of how many convicted violent criminals or former inmates would live on-site.

City Attorney Mary Wagner and Senior Planner David Schlegel advised commissioners that every one of those proposals would violate state law:

If Redding fails to pass the ordinance—which is exempt from environmental review under Public Resources Code § 21080.085—HCD can revoke certification of the city's Housing Element at any time, Schlegel warned. Decertification would force Redding onto a costly four-year planning cycle instead of an eight-year cycle, jeopardize millions in state housing and disaster recovery grants, invite lawsuits from the California Attorney General, and trigger California's "Builder's Remedy" under AB 1893. As cities like Santa Monica learned the hard way, the Builder's Remedy strips non-compliant cities of their zoning authority, allowing private developers to build high-density projects on almost any parcel regardless of local zoning limits.

Next Up: Sacramento Demands Capacity for 5,160 New Redding Homes

The battle over local zoning control is only just beginning. Earlier in Tuesday's meeting, Schlegel presented HCD's Final 7th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) for 2028–2036, which orders Shasta County jurisdictions to plan for 7,594 new housing units—more than double the region's current mandate.

Despite holding roughly half of Shasta County's population, Redding was assigned 5,160 of those units (68%), a 147% surge over its current 2,091-unit target. According to Shasta Regional Transportation Agency (SRTA) data, over half of Redding's mandate (2,632 units) must be planned for lower-income households earning below 80% of Shasta County's $101,800 four-person Area Median Income.

Because Redding only issues building permits for an average of 170 homes per year, hitting the state's new target would require nearly quadrupling construction to 645 units annually. While cities are not required to build the homes themselves, Redding must rezone enough land by April 2028 to accommodate them—including allowing apartments "by right" at a default density of at least 20 units per acre and navigating conflicts between State Density Bonus parking reductions and strict state stormwater retention rules.

Schlegel noted that city staff tried to negotiate a more balanced share with Shasta County, Anderson, and Shasta Lake, "and it didn't go anywhere." The commission voted 5–0 to appoint Commissioners Blake Johnson and Jim Emanuel to an ad hoc committee to begin the 18-month rezoning effort.