Editor’s note: This story is the second of a two-part series on rebuilding after the 2021 Dixie Fire. The first part ran Sept. 4, 2024.
On Aug. 4, 2024, the third anniversary of the town of Greenville burning down, Plumas County District 2 Supervisor Kevin Goss reflected on that ominous day in 2021 and those that followed. He was in total shock, he said.
Three years later, Goss continued to feel the loss of his business, one of many historic downtown Greenville buildings destroyed in the 2021 Dixie Fire. His building housed the only pharmacy in Indian Valley along with a two-story office space. Goss, the longest-serving member of the current board of supervisors, led his colleagues in approving several emergency ordinances, including one to remove debris from burned-out lots.
In that third-anniversary conversation, Goss went on to share some good news. He had just gotten word that the new Greenville Post Office was finally opening after three years. And Goss was checking out plans approved for a new bar and restaurant, still known as The Way Station. It will include several apartments in downtown Greenville. Goss also talked about the Indian Valley Community Services District, busy repairing water and sewer lines throughout Greenville. That will be important infrastructure for rebuilding homes, he said.
And that’s not all that’s happening in downtown Greenville, Goss said: “A hardware store is up and running so that people don’t have to go to Quincy for a box of screws.” He touted the pop-up downtown at The Spot, which has a new food truck to add to the Indian Valley Thrift Store and The Valley Grind. Dixie Fire settlements from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. are coming in now, some are higher than expected, Goss said.
”So people are happy and reinvesting,” he said. A federal bill to relieve Dixie Fire victims from paying taxes on settlement money has still not passed, but Goss has been in Washington, D.C., to urge its approval.
Focus on workforce housing
Despite the recent activity, the Dixie Fire left Greenville and surrounding communities with an overwhelming housing deficit. Inadequate before the fire, housing became a crisis after Dixie. Goss and others have made it a priority to create housing for the workers who will build new homes.
“We went from chronic to critical workforce housing needs.”
Judy Chynoweth, The Almanor Foundation chair
“We went from chronic to critical workforce housing needs,” said Judy Chynoweth, chair of The Almanor Foundation’s board of directors.
The Almanor Foundation is one of several agencies addressing workforce housing needs through an initiative and a newly formed housing council, modeled after one in Truckee. After Dixie, TAF joined with the North Valley Community Foundation to develop a housing needs assessment. TAF is also the fiscal sponsor for The Plumas Sun.
TAF partnered with LMNOP, owned by Tyler Pew, and consultants EconNorthWest. Pew, an Indian Valley native, helped his parents in Taylorsville defend homes and ranches while the fire was blazing. An architect and licensed contractor, he also traveled with local residents Sue Weber and Moorea Stout on a self-funded informational trip to several towns that have experienced similar devastating disasters.
The loss of housing in Greenville has countywide ramifications. Before the fire, Greenville supplied affordable housing for people working in Quincy and the Almanor Basin. After the fire, it became evident that the burned communities would have a critical effect on businesses countywide and throughout the region. All had lost employees due to the now critical lack of housing. TAF decided to take on this dilemma and work to find solutions.
In August 2022, TAF funded a six-month project to produce a comprehensive and systematic approach to affordable housing with a Workforce Housing Initiative. Its advisory council is composed of public and private interest groups, nonvoting government agency representatives, and local Mountain Maidu tribal groups who are in desperate need of workforce housing.
Next, TAF contracted with LMNOP to develop a strategic plan. It will recommend designs for seasonal housing in Canyon Dam, where RVs provided it before the fire. The TAF plan will also seek ways to build multiunit housing developments, not apartments, in attached or unattached units. It also seeks to identify developers to build 30 to 40 new housing units. Pew and his team have already produced a systems map for the project.
Building attainable housing
The next phase is planned to focus on single family housing in multiple units, known as zone cycle 7R. These sites will allow additional dwelling units, attached or not.
Pew and Chynoweth explained the distinction between attainable housing and affordable housing. Attainable housing is housing that is affordable to people earning around the area median income. Households living in attainable housing and earning between 80% and 120% of the AMI should not need to spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs. Affordable housing is where the occupant is paying 30% or less of the gross income on total housing.
“There is cultural resistance to affordable housing units.”
Tyler Pew, LMNOP architect
“There is cultural resistance to affordable housing units, which are associated with low-income buyers and renters, so we are working on attainable housing,” Pew said.
Chynoweth said the next phase is funding: “How do we finance <house building> for developers to make a profit?”
She is working with a team of licensed general contractors and builders who came together after the 2019 Camp Fire. Reconstruction and Recovery Advisors does site work, engineering, permits, plans and the complete reconstruction of the home. They offer advice on building codes, upgrades, replacing walls and fences, driveways, trees and irrigation needs. In Paradise, RRA developed a housing calculator with variables that allow attainable workforce developers to make a reasonable profit. Pew and Chynoweth are stress-testing a variety of financial models for application in the Dixie burn scar.
The key, said Chynoweth, is balancing the community demand for housing with affordability. The challenge is to find a way for developers building large housing units to do that in Plumas County. “That’s virtually impossible with the average median income 80% and below,” she said.
TAF is working to contact large employers in the region and ask them what their needs are for building workforce housing, said Josh Huddleston, a TAF board member. “We are looking for a financial model for rebuilding that is attainable for medium-income people,” he said.
Chynoweth said many questions came up when TAF was studying the workforce housing loss dilemma, including building attainable housing. What designs are attractive, affordable and fire resilient? “If it’s not possible for that building model, we need private investment, but from where?”
Pew said that there is a growing interest from developers. Still, designing a vehicle for private investment is complicated, Chynoweth said. TAF’s housing committee involves businesses and organizations — everyone who has a stake in workforce housing. Her goal is just getting some workforce housing built. “I wish we could say that we built 30 homes for attainable workforce housing.”
Current rebuilding in Plumas County
Despite the challenges, houses are going up in Greenville and elsewhere in the Dixie Fire burn scar. Michael Coelho, the Plumas County building official, provided post-fire building permit data for the affected communities:
Greenville: 36 new dwellings, 20 manufactured; 19 commercial; 13 carports; 8 garages; 3 rebuild/repair; 1 storage; 1 apartment
Indian Falls: 1 dwelling, 1 manufactured; 1 garage
Taylorsville: 3 manufactured dwellings; 1 commercial; 3 rebuild/repair; 1 storage
Warner Valley: 5 dwellings; 1 garage; 1 storage shed; 1 commercial
Hamilton Branch: 2 dwellings; 1 garage
Most of the construction of new homes in Indian Valley is being done by local contractors, said Goss and Huddleston. These businesses include Indian Valley Construction, with Ryan Neer and Todd Banchio; Chris Meyers; Eddie Hammerich; Travis Kingdon; and Beatty Construction.
“Although there is a shortage of construction contractors, we want to keep it local,” said Goss.
On a recent visit to Greenville — a beautiful late summer day — the town was bustling with workers. Trees were being planted in the downtown area by Dixie Canopy Project volunteers. A new concrete foundation for the American Legion Hall was being laid on Main Street. A painter and a plumber were putting on the finishing touches on one of the brand-new homes. New water and sewer pipes were being installed on Main Street by Dig-It Construction, hired by Indian Valley Community Services District. The town was in the process of being rebuilt.
“It is wonderful to see the rebuilding,” said Huddleston.
A longtime Indian Valley resident and businessman, he lost a commercial building that once housed Sterling Sage, an antique and jewelry store. Huddleston owns a small home that suffered cracked and melted windows from the Dixie Fire. His father and partner lost the Hideaway motel. Those who built quickly had insurance and had funds come in from settlement money, Huddleston said.
“What is frustrating is that it is not happening fast enough,” he added. “There are a million hurdles to overcome. We have to be patient and wait; it is a long process with many partners.”
Huddleston praised the county offices involved in rebuilding and the contractors, too. “Everyone is licensed and has good working relationships,” he said.
But there are many pieces to put a town back together. Thirty percent of homes in Greenville were rentals and landlord owned, said Huddleston. “They don’t intend to rebuild,” he said. There are some exceptions: Neer has rebuilt two rentals on Hot Springs Road, and the Greenville Rancheria has built three rentals, he said.
Still, said Huddleston, “Every new home built, or manufactured home brought in, is progress. These little towns exist because of a need.”
‘No litmus test‘
Patrick Joseph, Dixie Fire Collaborative coordinator, noted the experimental nature of rebuilding a town. “The rebuilding process has no litmus test and lots of variables,” he said. “Insurance money and settlement money are necessary for any kind of rebuilding.”
The difficulty of getting home fire insurance adds a huge factor of uncertainty: “Toxic debris removal took two years to get approval from the state to move forward,” Joseph said.
“It takes time, and it takes a village to rebuild.”
Kevin Goss, Plumas County supervisor
The Dixie Fire’s burn-scar communities need to look at other communities to see how they progress with home rebuilding, he added. “There is a need for family-of-four housing for middle-income working people. There is uncertainty with the tax base. The fire impacted the housing stock, and we are dealing with other ripple effects,” he said.
The future of rebuilding holds complexities and many variables. Among them are a short building season and inadequate insurance and settlement funds for the cost of rebuilding. Homeowners also have to navigate the statewide homeowner’s insurance crisis as well as the lack of construction crews and housing for them.
Still, the process of rebuilding housing is going forward with many concerned individuals working hard to find solutions and the necessary supportive measures.
“It takes time, and it takes a village to rebuild,” said Goss. “It may take 15 to 20 years to get back to what we had.”