Screenshot of Tuesday’s Eureka Council meeting.
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The Eureka City Council on Tuesday narrowly approved a $2.34 million contract with local firm RAO Construction Co. to build the “C Street Bicycle Boulevard” project, which aims to enhance cycling infrastructure between Old Town and Henderson Center. The bid award was approved in a 3-2 vote, with councilmembers Renee Contreras-DeLoach and G. Mario Fernandez dissenting over concerns about community outreach and engagement.
The project, funded through a Caltrans Active Transportation Grant (ATP), will alter the configuration of C Street between Waterfront Drive and Harris Street to deter drivers from using it as a north-south corridor and make the road safer for cyclists. Once the project is complete, two-way traffic will be diverted off of C Street at four intersections (Seventh, Fourteenth, Buhne and Harris streets).
“Local vehicular traffic will continue to have access anywhere along the corridor, though they may have to go ‘around the block’ to get to [their] destination on C Street,” the staff report states. “Bicycle and pedestrian traffic, however, will remain two-way.”
The project design also includes 11 “enhanced” pedestrian crossings at high-volume intersections that feature concrete bulb-outs, rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFBs), signage, striping, pavement markers and planters.
City Engineer Jesse Willor said the project came about in 2020 when staff started working on the Eureka Bike Plan, which aims to make the city navigable for bikes. “It wouldn’t necessarily reduce access to anybody living along the street,” Willor said. “It’s more [of an effort] to inhibit people [from] using C Street as a cut-through street to get from one side of town to the other … and really allow for that street to be a way for cyclists to … get across town without having to navigate as much traffic.”
During the public comment portion of the meeting, Eureka resident Jessica Rebholtz expressed concern about the community engagement process, asserting that “not once has anyone on C Street been notified of this project.”
Rebholtz | Screenshot
“There was no flyer, no mailer, no community meeting,” Rebholtz said, adding that the city could have saved money on a physical mailer by including information about the project in residents’ water bills. “Additionally, I [would] like to better understand the logic behind selecting C Street. … B Street already has flashing lights on Buhne. Why not pick B Street? Why C Street? It makes no sense to me. … I can guarantee you, no one on C Street actually knows this is happening, so it’s being tucked away.”
As Councilmember Leslie Castellano would note later in the meeting (see below), there have, in fact been several public meetings on this issue.
Eureka resident Brett Gronemeyer spoke in favor of the project and underscored the importance of expanding bike facilities to enhance connectivity throughout the city and accommodate cyclists who aren’t comfortable riding through high-traffic areas.
“A high-quality bicycle facility like this one adds a needed north-south bike route roughly halfway between the H and I street couplet and Broadway,” he said. “It’s good to have [an assortment] of different bike facilities in the city because not everybody is confident when they’re riding … with a lot of traffic, and this would create a nice, quiet corridor for cyclists. I think the residents would also appreciate having less traffic and [fewer] vehicles speeding down their street that this project will bring with the volume and speed management features it’s going to contain.”
Shortly after public comment, Fernandez made a motion to postpone the council’s decision until its June 17 meeting, but the motion died lacking a second. Asked why he felt compelled to postpone the decision, Fernandez said he was “generally supportive of these type of projects,” but took issue with the community outreach process.
“As city government … we do what’s necessary, we do what’s required, but that community outreach is an ongoing process, and I don’t feel that we’ve done that in this situation,” Fernandez said, adding that, if postponement were granted, he would vote in favor of the project.
Castellano made a motion to approve the bid award, which was seconded by Councilmember Kati Moulton.
Before voting on the matter, Contreras-DeLoach explained why she planned to vote against it, echoing previous concerns about the public outreach process and the financial impact of the project. “It’s more of a budget thing for me,” she said. “I see this as nice and beautiful, but not necessary.”
Castellano said she could understand concerns around public input, but reminded her peers that the debate at hand was not whether the project should be approved, but whether the council should approve a bid award for its construction.
Castellano | Screenshot
“We’ve already approved [this project] through numerous public meetings,” she said. “I have attended at least two public meetings, and I understand that sometimes people miss something — I miss things too, and I’m frustrated by it — but also I just want to speak to the fact that this really is for awarding construction through a process that we’ve already approved on council. … This is grant-funded, and I think delaying the process will only bog down [the] government process for something that we’ve all [agreed] with for years.”
Speaking to the broader issue of community outreach, Slattery said staff could bring back a proposal that would set additional parameters for the public notification process.
After a bit of additional discussion, the council voted 3-2, with Contreras-DeLoach and Fernandez dissenting, to approve the $2.34 million bid award to RAO Construction Co. Detailed schematics for the project can be found at this link.
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Other notable bits from last night’s meeting:
- During a special budget study session with the city’s Finance Advisory Committee, Finance Director Lane Millar went over the projected budget for the 2025-26 Fiscal Year. Staff is anticipating a nearly $400,000 deficit in the city’s General Fund, but Millar emphasized that that figure would likely change before the fiscal year is closed. “If you look at our financial statements, we tend to budget conservatively, meaning that we typically show worst-case scenarios,” he said. “If there are surprises, those surprises are improvements, not things that have gone in the other direction.” The council accepted the report but did not take any action on the item.
- The council also approved letters of support for two bills making their way through the state legislature. AB 609 would exempt environmentally friendly housing projects from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to streamline the permitting process for new housing developments. SB 79 would set state standards for transit-oriented zoning to encourage the development of multi-family housing around transit hubs. The letter for AB 609 received unanimous support from the council. The letter for SB 79 was approved in a 3-2 vote, with councilmembers Scott Bauer and Contreras-DeLoach dissenting.
Click “play” on the video below to watch the full meeting.
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