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Updated May 21:  Ground-Floor non-residential spaces are required along the woonerf.

The L Street Corridor linear park and woonerf

Shown here is the portion from Samoa Boulevard to 12th Street.

At the August 22, 2023, City Council / Planning Commission joint study session, the City Council members emphatically expressed their enthusiasm for a combined woonerf and linear park in the L Street corridor. For a video and transcript of that portion of the meeting, see The City Council said “Yes” to the L Street linear park. David Loya tried to defy them.

Over the eight months since that meeting, the Community Development Director, David Loya, apparently has done nothing to ensure the formation and success of what the City Council and the people of Arcata say they want. For more on the woonerf/linear park, see selected articles and see the over 1,170 signatures petition.

In correspondence with David Loya, it seems that he thinks that all that’s needed is to make sure that putting in a woonerf is consistent with the General Plan. A woonerf for the L Street corridor can be figured out “after the planning work is completed.” As he wrote, “We thought this was responsive to what we were hearing from the community. Based on recent feedback, it makes sense to formalize this direction by labeling the map.”

Someone needs to inform David Loya that putting a label on a map is not planning.

For the L Street corridor linear park and woonerf to succeed in Arcata, the specifications and rules of how it will be must be written into the Gateway Code.

What is a Woonerf?

“Woonerf” — pronounced with a “V” — comes to us from the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium). A woonerf involves a shared space that minimizes the separation between all the different modes of use of the area. While motor-vehicle traffic can be present, it must exist among the other uses — walkers, bikers, strollers, rollers, children playing, people talking. Typically speeds are limited to as little as 5 mph. Car drivers are “residents” of the street. Eye contact and human interaction keeps things safe. There is no car parking, and stopping is permitted only for deliveries and handicap drop-offs. 

Where do we start?

First, let’s look at the 2010 Rail with Trail Feasibility Study. This is the best place to start — what a large group of planners, urban specialists, engineers, and Arcata’s Environmental Services Department and Public Works Department came up with. In total, a 13-person Steering Committee and 28 representatives from 19 local organizations or agencies came up with this plan. The six-page section that relates to the L Street Corridor and the full 160-page document are on Arcata1.com. The image here was used as the cover of the full document.

The suggestion is not that this plan be used as-is, as it is shown. It’s a starting point for our design and discussion. For one thing, these plans show the old railroad tracks to be included in the design — just in case they might be used in the future, say, for a light-rail transit line. A new design might want to have those tracks be removed.

Linear Park and Woonerf examples for us to look at is also on Arcata1.com.

As then-Mayor Sarah Schaefer pointed out at the August 23, 2023, meeting, Youtube is filled with videos of woonerfs from all over the world. Try here for search results, and Life on a Dutch Woonerf (2 minutes 24 seconds), What’s a woonerf? (Toronto, 1 minute 30 seconds), and Shared Space: Dutch Woonerfs and Shopping Streets Explained from the Urban Cycling Institute (6 minutes).

The current Gateway Area Code will allow 5, 6, and 7-story solid walls to be built directly adjacent to the linear park.

Although I have asked the Community Development Director multiple times on this issue, he continues to avoid providing a direct answer. He continues to call the L Street linear corridor a “street” — even those areas that would become a linear park. I completely disagree with him. A linear park is not a street. There are sections of the L Street corridor that never have been streets.

Requirements for a successful woonerf / linear park designation in the L Street Corridor

A. The absolute necessary written policies

1. Definition of a “woonerf.” [To be written and agreed  upon.]
2. Location: Woonerf segments will be created in the sections of the L Street corridor that includes:
   1. The three continuous blocks from 7th Street to 10th Street.
   2. The block from 10th Street to 11th Street.
      Updated 5/9/2024:  We can combine 1 and 2 to read:
      “The three four continuous blocks from 7th Street to 10th 11th Street.”
   3. The three-quarters of a block (approximate) from 12th street headed north. This section will not continue to 13th Street.
   4. Optional: The one-block section from 9th to 10th Street. (Borders the western boundary of the car wash site, and the eastern boundaries of the Northcoast Children’s Center and North Bay Auto sites. 
      This option shall be determined within a “by-when” date, so that the property owner of the car-wash company can plan accordingly.
   5. All other locations are designated as a full-width linear park.
3. Existing driveway and garage entrance locations along the designated woonerfs are preserved. If the building use changes and vehicle access is no longer present for a period of two continual years or greater, the parcel loses the right to any further vehicle access from the woonerf. There are no “grandfathered” rights to access from the L Street corridor. No vehicle access from the L Street corridor will be added.
4. All new construction adjacent to a woonerf shall have ground-floor commercial storefronts frontages that face the woonerf. Encouragement is given to develop smaller spaces, or to provide flexibility in the architectural design to provide for varying sizes of commercial spaces.

B. Setbacks and Pedestrian Realm Dimensions

1. Woonerf frontage is considered as a street. The same setbacks for street frontages that are applicable in the Gateway Corridor district shall apply, unless designated otherwise.
2. For new construction, Pedestrian Realm Dimensions for Active / Non-Active frontages (Choose one) shall apply. (Active frontages have an 11-foot minimum setback from the property line; Non-Active frontages have a 13-foot minimum setback from the property line.
3. While the sections of the L Street corridor that contain the linear park designation are not a “street” as such, for purposes of establishing setbacks and pedestrian realm they will be considered as a street for any new development adjacent to the linear park area.

C. Protection from the shadowing of adjacent buildings in new construction

1. Within the Gateway Code, protection from the shadowing of adjacent buildings in new construction shall be provided for the L Street corridor woonerf sections and linear park sections. This same protection shall be provided for all parks in the Gateway area, including but not limited to: The L Street corridor linear park; The L Street corridor woonerfs; the N Street corridor linear park, as specified between 11th and 16th Streets; the “square” to be located in the Barrel district. This protection is specifically not provided for a woonerf on 6th Street between K and L Streets, if built. This protection is specifically not provided for greenways, as designated in the Mobility section of the Gateway Code.
2. The protection will be at a minimum the standards as:

“Upper-Story Stepback. Buildings shall not intercept a 45-degree daylight plane inclined inward from fifteen (15) feet above existing grade at the property line of the parcel adjacent to property line of an adjacent property containing public open space or an historic resource.”

D. Ground-Floor non-residential spaces are required along the woonerf area — from 7th Street to 11th Street.

Ground-floor commercial spaces — for restaurants, shops, neighborhood-oriented businesses, walk-in realms — should be required in the 7th to 11th woonerf section. Just as there are no ground-floor residences on the Plaza, similarly there should be no apartments directly facing the L Street corridor on the first floor. People living on the second or third-floor could have a large outside patio that overlooks the activities below.

E. Other

This is a first draft for the requirements for a successful woonerf / linear park designation in the L Street Corridor, to be included in the Gateway Code. Prior to the adoption of the Gateway Code by the Arcata City Council, there may be other considerations and recommendations for this code.

What could be built if this protection is not put into the Gateway Code

See the full article The Gateway Code along L Street: What could be built.

In my reading of it, the current draft Gateway Code is vague on some of this. As such, a developer could interpret the Code and build what is shown above. As an alternative, there could be minimal 8-foot step-backs required at the 5th story level. If that were the case, the buildings would look like this:

What could be built if these requirements are included in the Gateway Code?

This is what could be built.

From the cover of the L Street – 2010 Rail with Trail Feasibility Study with text added.