Can we all agree that Rio Dell deserves a little boost of some kind? Locals will tell you that the city has always been a bit rough, but when the timber money that kept it afloat started disappearing in the ’90s things took a pretty dramatic turn for the worse. Unemployment in the city now stands at 16.2 percent — by far the highest rate in Humboldt County (or any place in the county where statistics are available), and over half again as high as the county’s average.

Over the last few years there have been various ideas and efforts, mostly modest ones, to spur some economic development in the town. Your Lost Coast Outpost remembers a time back in 2004, when then-City Manager Eli Naffah spoke wistfully of luring a Red Lobster or an Outback Steak House to set up shop alongside an overpass. Small steps, aimed at getting through traffic to pull off for dinner.

Of course, even that never came to pass. Likewise, bigger plans to revitalize Wildwood Avenue have some up short. Again: No one was dreaming about a Champs-Élysées sur le Eel, but it was thought that maybe a bit of a sprucing-up of the city’s main thoroughfare wouldn’t be impossible. 

Now, though, the city is looking to shift priorities away from Wildwood and toward a good-sized vacant lot right near the heart of town — a lot that some people dream of someday hosting “Rio Dell Plaza,” a new development intended as a new city center. 

The thing on paper sounds undeniably strip-mallish. It would be anchored by a big grocery store, two motels and restaurants, a gas station and a big parking lot. But it would also host new civic buildings for the city and a modicum of public space. And then again, Rio Dell could use a supermarket.

Rio Dell city government is going to be hosting a public forum at City Hall tonight at 6:30 p.m. Here’s a summary of the proposal (.pdf). One interesting aspect of the plan is that the city itself would act as the developer; it proposes to buy an option on the land in question, then cobble together deals with the private sector to sell off the land chunk by chunk.

Expect some controversy tonight. One Lost Coast Outpost reader — who says that apparently Winco is in talks to be the anchor store — writes:

If you object to sprawl and would rather see our local business supported with smart re-development in our current downtown, if you would prefer that your kids not be able to walk to fast food restaurants, if you care about open spaces and ag land in the Eel River Valley, if you would rather this town was not imploded by a 2-year (minimum) construction project, if you would rather look at the Scotia Bluffs than the Golden Arches and halogen floodlights, then COME TO THE MEETING!!!