This article is excerpted and modified from Comments and Suggestions for the Gateway Code. The original message was presented to the Arcata Planning Commission and the Community Development Director as critique and suggestions for improving the Gateway Code on April 19, 2024. 

For a good design of what might fit into the Gateway area, see A good building design for the L Street corridor woonerf

The current Gateway Code permits bad design

A form-based code does not prevent bad design. If the Planning Commission, the City Council, or the public either wants or does not want certain design elements, the Gateway Code has to be specific.

“Let’s pretend” — An absolutely awful building design

I am asking you to use your imagination on this. Let’s use the AmeriGas site as an example. The AmeriGas site is what can be considered to be a premier site in the Gateway area. It is a central, full-block parcel.

You may or may not be aware of the Westwood Garden Apartment addition project, approved by the Planning Commission in October 2023. It has long rows of one-bedroom apartments, most with parking  underneath. The building is two stories in height, but the ground-level for the majority of the buildings consists of parking stalls. I consider the Westwood Garden Apartments addition to be the worst-designed apartments to be built in Arcata — ever. There is no instance of this many apartment buildings that are so close together –and with such little amount of sunlight. 

Is this what you want to see as you walk along the woonerf on the L Street corridor?

Utilizing the current Gateway Code, here’s an image of what could be built along the L Street corridor linear park and woonerf.

This is what could be seen by people walking along the section of the L Street woonerf — on the entire block between 6th and 7th Street:

And this:

And this — a full one-block long:

If the Planning Commission wishes to take preemptive action to prevent this style of construction from being built in the Gateway area, then the Gateway Code needs alteration.

This is what could be built

These images are taken from the Westwood Garden Apartments plans. A small amount of modification would be required to make the buildings comply with the Gateway Code — change the roofline periodically as shown above… provide a change of material here and there. This is called “articulation” and as it is expressed in the Gateway Code it does not guarantee good design.

The Gateway Code allows a Base Tier building height of two stories. For supplying 20% low-income student housing (the student housing cost is subsidized with grants), a State Density Bonus law gives  the developer a “waiver” that can be used to negate an existing City regulation. In this fictitious example, the developer uses the waiver to get past the Gateway parking maximum of one space for every four units of housing.

The Gateway Code can be as specific as the Planning Commission wants it to be.

Much of the discussion has been to promote a developer who is seeking higher density. The Community Benefits program supports higher-density housing.  But what if a developer designs a project that is cost-effective (for the developer) at a far lower density? Are we willing to accept a block or two of the Gateway Area built with the rows of one-bedroom apartments in two-story buildings — the type of housing that we now see on the Foster Avenue Extension, or, worse, a version of the recently-approved Arcata Garden Apartments?

What is shown here is very close to what could be built

The solid blue lines are the 250’ x 250’ size of an Arcata block. The dotted blue lines show a 20-foot setback. This is larger than what the code requires on 3 sides – the 7th Street side (on the right) faces the Devlin Cottages and requires a 20-foot setback.

What’s shown is:

• 67 one-bedroom apartments
• Each apartment about 395 square feet
• A density of 47 units per acre
• 62 parking spaces
• Parking stalls on the ground level for three of the four buildings
• Commercial spaces on the ground level facing K Street
• No attempt to create an interesting or people-oriented face to the L Street corridor linear park – and a missed opportunity for people-oriented retail and food shops.

It could be worse

I drew this to make a point. It is a crude design. If you don’t like what is shown, keep this in mind:  It could be worse than this.

And yet the Gateway Plan will allow it, more or less. Based on how this is drawn here, there would have to be some design differences, in wall and roof articulation mainly. But the basic “two-story with parking stalls underneath” design would be approved as it does follow the objective standards.

The solution

Analyze and change the Gateway Code so that this does not happen.

That’s it.