Tap / click here for more than two dozen articles about the Gateway Code.
There is no transit center planned for the Gateway Area, and no off-street bus stops.
With the original plans so deficient, much of the overview of good planning got lost.
Among what was neglected is: Where are the bus stops?
Where is the transit center?
Where is the planning?
Where is the planning?
To skip to possible solutions, tap / click here.
The creators and planners of the Gateway Area Plan have the opportunity to plan for future bus stops and a transit center — and they are ignoring that opportunity, it seems.
The Planning Commission, at the direction of Community Development Director David Loya, become enmeshed in their work at attempts to correct the incomplete and lifeless Plan and Code that were supplied. The original Gateway Area Plan (from Rob Holmlund and Planwest Partners) was mechanical, dry, uninspiring, and dull.
More recently, the Gateway Area Code, the form-based code from the consultant Ben Noble, is vague where it needs to be precise, poorly-written, and unresponsive to peoples’ needs for parks, transit needs, bicycle realities, and the proper urban planning needed to create the vibrant “second downtown” scene and center that the Creamery-centered area could become.
With the original plans so deficient, much of the overview of good planning got lost. Among what’s been neglected is: Where are the bus stops? Where is the transit center?
Sorrel Place as an example of an extra building setback
It may not be obvious when passing by now, but the Sorrel Place building is set back an additional 10 feet from where a building would typically be placed. As part of the conditions of approval, the developer (Danco) had to cede that 10 feet to the City. The cars that we see parked in front of Sorrel Place on 7th Street would be 8 or so feet out into the main passage of 7th Street if this hadn’t been done.
This can be seen in an aerial image. Note the centerlines for 7th Street on the west and east sides of Sorrel Place are offset from that one block where Sorrel Place is located.
This allowed the creation of unobstructed bicycle lanes for that block.
I do not know who to credit for this innovative extra 10 feet, but I’ll credit Arcata’s Community Development Director, David Loya. The reason for the redesign of the site layout was to increase solar access to the properties across the street on 7th Street — notably the McBain-Thrush building. For more on this, see the agenda packet for the October 22, 2019, Planning Commission meeting, pages 6 and 7.
It would not be difficult to plan for these transit needs
I am not an urban planner, and I’m not a transit-needs planner. But common sense would indicate that if K Street is going to be one-lane in each direction with no parking — that there should be a place where a bus could pull over. Otherwise traffic is just backed up behind the bus.
And common sense would say that if the people living in the Gateway area are going to be relying more and more in the future on public transit, then there would need to be a hub of some sort — or at least a place for people to wait, with benches, weather protection overhead, bathrooms perhaps, and some adjacent commercial spaces that would be dedicated for a convenience store, coffee shop, quick restaurant, and so on.
By requiring an extra 10-foot setback for bus pullouts, or an extra 20-foot setback (or more) for a mini transit hub, and having that land ceded to the City, we could go a long way toward planning for a public-transit oriented future. Note that this is not a “taking” in the ordinary sense of the word. For the property owner to give up this land would be a condition for development of the parcel.
To repeat: I am not an urban planner. An experience architect or planner would know a whole lot more than I do. But we are looking at the Gateway Code right now. These extra setbacks need to be put into place now — and then we can figure out five or ten years from now just how these future bus pullouts and mini transit hub will operate and look.
Possible locations for bus pullouts and a mini transit hub
Below is a map showing K Street and some possible locations for bus pullouts or mini transit hubs.
For a mini transit hub, potential locations as shown include the sites below. My choice would the current parking area for German Motors, at 10th and K.
- The current parking area for German Motors, at 10th and K. This could (in theory) be developed long before the redevelopment of the Clothing Dock / German Motors building. Ceding the property would be a condition for any future improvement of the site.
- The former Cahill / Patriot gas station at 11th and K. Very central location. A small site (0.21 acres, 9,226 sq.ft.), so having a suitably-sized portion ceded to the City as a condition of development involves a “taking” — the remainder of the parcel would not have an opportunity for development.
- The AmeriGas site. Large site, easy to justify ceding of property. Likely site for redevelopment. Not as central as other locations. If not used as a mini transit hub, could be a bus pullout, with an extra 10-12 feet of additional setback.
There should be another transit hub within the Barrel district, for the 500 – 1,000 residents (or more) who will live there one day. That will be good for them, but a more central location, near to 11th & K Streets, is crucial. Any location that is off of K Street, such as the Ag Sales site, will involve the extra time and congestion of vehicles being routed off of K and looking around on the less-trafficked streets.
Tap / click here for more than two dozen articles about the Gateway Code.