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Dear Commissioners:
The California State law governing new construction allows “no personal or subjective judgment by a
public official.”
It mandates “an external and uniform benchmark or criterion available and knowable by both the
development applicant and public official prior to submittal.”
.
The problem is, of course, to define that objective standard.

A direct approach might be the following:
Select five buildings in town generally liked that could represent what Arcata is looking for in design.
Here is a sample list.
Plaza Point
A Slice of Humboldt Pie
The Plaza Shoe Shop
11th & I Office Building next to Los Bagels
Hensel Hardware
Describe the features of each building that stand out. From this list create the “objective standard.”
Approached in this way, the city will be using its own buildings as examples instead of importing
samples from elsewhere.
After all, the most objective thing in the world is an OBJECT, a building actually out there in the real
world, not some concept in somebody’s head. Future Developers can visit each building and see for
themselves the features the city wants to support.

Such a design program as this would achieve the goal of avoiding the “modern university” look that
Cal Poly has chosen to pursue in the two new dorms.
2
It would also tend to attract better architects to a project as it would give them clear guidance and
challenge them to a higher level of achievement than mere utility.
This is not to say that utility is inessential. Indeed creating housing NOW is quite urgent. The design
standards should allow some flexibility for utilitarian structures that serve the immediate need of safe
and affordable housing while insisting on a minimum of strong architectural detail.

Many Arcatans do not want to become a “modern” city. That decision was made when fast-food
franchises were made illegal in the center of town, when stoplights were rejected as a means to manage
traffic, when a four-story building height rule was put in place, and so forth. Let us continue in this
tradition and not lose our identity as we move to meet the needs of the future.

Thank you for entertaining these ideas for building Arcata well.
Daniel Duncan