What's the Next Big City Project or Priority?

With the Gateway Area Plan completed (and the General Plan Update, too), what’s the next big-ticket item the city should focus its attention on?

— Hank Sims

Responses

Gregory Daggett

My guess is the Roger’s Garage Housing Project, 1622 Old Arcata Road, across the street from Jacoby Creek Elementary School. Maybe 40 units? The 30% of the Gateway Area Plan that is in the Coastal Zone will have to go to the Coastal Commission to address concerns over sea level rise and updating the 1989 Local Coastal Program. The Program guides and regulates all development within the Coastal Zone.

The best approach to urban design when increasing density in single-family low-density neighborhoods involves a multifaceted strategy that prioritizes community needs and character while promoting sustainable growth. It’s essential to integrate ‘missing middle’ housing, which offers diverse housing options like duplexes, townhouses, and small apartment buildings that fit seamlessly into existing neighborhoods. This approach maintains the character and scale of the area while providing more housing units.

Additionally, incorporating design guidelines that ensure new developments are contextually appropriate and enhance the neighborhood’s fabric is crucial. For example, the redevelopment of McGraw Square at Queen Anne in Seattle https://www.dahlingroup.com/projects/mcgraw-square-at-queen-anne demonstrates how to increase residential density without compromising the historic character of the neighborhood. Moreover, zoning reforms, such as allowing accessory dwelling units and adjusting height restrictions, can create more inclusive and diverse communities.

It’s also beneficial to provide shared amenities and ensure connectivity to the city center to promote a vibrant, walkable community. Ultimately, the goal is to create urban spaces that are not only denser but also livable, equitable, and visually appealing. In every neighborhood.

Genevieve Serna

Thank you for this question.

There are a number of exciting projects on the horizon for Arcata. One that I’m most looking forward to working on would be the Reconnecting Arcata, the project that will see a cap being placed on highway 101 between 14th and 17th St connecting the city’s east and west neighborhoods. This project will not only improve safety and connectivity for residents moving throughout the city but will also provide additional opportunity zones for possible infill construction.

It remains to be seen if this project will capture the public’s attention in the same way the Gateway Area Plan has but for me personally, this is an incredibly exciting project for the city.

Stacy Atkins-Salazar

Arcata is never short on big ideas! I am looking forward to improvements in the Valley West area including a new community center that will be utilized and enjoyed by many in our community. We are also currently working on a dog park in Valley West. A dog park might not seem like “a big ticket item” but if you ask the many dog owners who have been patiently waiting for a dog park, they might disagree. Also, let’s not forget that we are in the middle of unprecedented upgrades to our waste water treatment plant. Although not particularly “flashy” imagine if we weren’t committed to keeping this piece of infrastructure upgraded.

Alex Stillman

Arcata always has priorities and some of them are: the completion of the trail to West End Rd, the completion of the upgrade to the sewer treatment plant, the study of reconnecting Arcata, working with Arcata House Partnership for a warming station, a community center for Valley West, the Economic Development study/plan for the current and future needs of Arcata, plus there are several housing projects in the planning process and a few about to start construction.

Sarah Schaefer

Housing, housing, housing! Arcata needs to focus on bringing in varied types of housing with a range of affordability. The city needs to move forward on an ordinance for ADUs (mother-in-law units) to help streamline permitting and build up our housing stock while also supporting infill housing with a mix of affordable and market rate units. I am looking forward to completing our work on inclusionary zoning and seeing those policies in new housing across the city.

We also need to focus on how to mitigate and address climate change by collaborating with the planning commission to complete the local coastal plan.

Dana Quillman

Perhaps we don’t need any “Big City” projects because Arcata is not a big city. Arcata is a very small city because of natural borders - Humboldt Bay to the south, the Mad River to the north, the Arcata “bottom” (100- year flood plain), sand dunes, and the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Arcata Community Forest to the east.

The push for “big city” projects is driven by what I call “the housing hog on the hill”, which was HSU and now is even worse as CalPoly Humboldt.

Why was a small city like Arcata chosen to be a CalPoly? It makes no sense to me. A location for a CalPoly should be a place where it an expand far and wide and that is not Arcata, at least not without destroying this gem of a small city. I am a self-proclaimed “conspiracy theorist” and proud to be one, especially since most of the conspiracies are now being proven to be real! My theory about the plans by the “State” for our little gem, is for Arcata to be a 15-minute city, aka “smart city.” That means they are going to destroy this city and take away a lot of our freedom which is the primary goal of these cities devised by the non-elected government organization (NGO), the World Economic Forum (WEF), which by the way was founded by the lunatic Klaus Schwab!

If a person loves Arcata for what it has been and they simultaneously support the dominance of the “State” (which is CalPoly) over this city, they must be confused. I predict that CalPoly will ruin this gem of a city just as so many other special places in California have been ruined, unless the population stands up and says NO, just like we need to do to any other governing authorities that are bent on the “progress” promoted by the WEF that take away freedom and quality of life, all in the name of “trust the science.”

Just like with Covid-19, the topic of climate change is one where there is much disagreement among scientists and experts. Just like with Covid-19, the powers that be are very good at manipulating the population to see only one point of view on these differing viewpoints, the one that benefits those very same “powers.” Censorship has become the weapon of choice of the powers. Since the powers that be often do not have the best interest of the populace in mind, it is important that we all don’t fall for “trust the science” ever again, and this time in particular in regards to climate change, because there is no such thing as “the science!”

I am opposed to CalPoly and its plans for expansion and I can only hope that the “state” comes to its senses in the decision to turn HSU into a CalPoly and moves it somewhere else! In the meantime I hope people that truly Arcata will be awake to the big picture of what is happening here and do everything in their power to stop it!

Hank Sims asks Alex Stillman, Stacy Atkins-Salazar, Sarah Schaefer, Gregory Daggett, Genevieve Serna, Dana Quillman, Shea Freedomhowler…