What Happened
The Planning Commissioners asked for a meeting with the Creamery community. At the time, Community Development Director David Loya agreed. But when the meeting occurred, it was not what the Commissioners had requested. As we have seen so many times, Director Loya did what he wanted to do. And once again Director Loya disregarded the expressed wishes of the Planning Commission — and disregarded input from our community.
The Creamery Discussion
At their November 8, 2022, meeting, the Planning Commission discussed wanting get input from the businesses and residents of the Creamery District. They provided specific direction to Community Development Director David Loya as to how they could get that input.
The full transcription and the video of that segment of the November 8 meeting is below.
The meeting eventually took place on May 16, 2023, over six months later. And it was not what the Planning Commission had asked for.
Here’s what the Commission asked for:
“The Creamery District is unique in the Gateway Area in that there are several organizations already existing there. They are active and, to a great extent, they’ve been the motivation of much of this plan. What I would like to invite some of those organizations to do is to themselves hold a meeting or more than one about the Gateway Plan — Invite the Planning Commission to attend it — Agendize it as a Planning Commission meeting. So that we go to their space, and listen to what they have to say. We can call it whatever we want — a listening session, a reach-in rather than a reach-out. I think the important thing is that the Planning Commission is invited as guests. But that we are agendized so that we can all be there. And see what comes of that. Because, you know, the Creamery organizations — and there’s several of them — are very capable of representing themselves. I can understand why they don’t want to sit through one of our boring meetings. They have a way of throwing a great party that we might want to attend. And I’d love to be invited.”
As discussed, the meeting would be set up as a Study Session — which has the disadvantage of not being on Zoom or recorded on video, but which would easily allow the Commissioners to attend a meeting that is outside City Hall.
Here’s what Director David Loya had this meeting be:
- Planning Commissioners were not invited — in fact, were told to stay away.
- The structure and the agenda of the meeting was set by Director Loya.
- The topics of discussion were chosen by Director Loya.
- Participants were not permitted to speak on items that were off-topic. They could write their ideas on Post-it notes.
Here’s what David Loya said the meeting would be, on November 8, 2022, in response to what would we be talking about:
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:48:50
Really, any impact of the Creamery District. So this could be based on concerns about aesthetic impacts. It could be concerns about, you know, additional people. It might be somebody who’s concerned about parking. Somebody who is concerned about the loss of L Street. All of those things are going to come out because they all relate to the Creamery District process.
Here are some other Creamery-oriented topics discussed at the November 8, 2022, meeting. These Creamery-oriented topics have more or less been lost along the process.
- Move the Barrel District boundary south of Seventh Street.
- Keep L Street pathway Park to ensure that events held at the Creamery District aren’t disturbed by major traffic impacts.
- Talk to all residents and businesses in the whole of the Creamery District.
- Make a new Gateway District around the Creamery District.
- Keep building heights lower adjacent to the Creamery.
- The L Street linear park would benefit the Creamery businesses.
- The Montessori school should be in the discussion too. (Staff said: They have been reached out to.)
- Some incentives for shared workspace, shared business space in the Gateway. Maybe not just in the Creamery.
- Yes, please, Planning Commissioners meet at the Creamery building and listen to what they have to say.
Reaching out to the Creamery community — transcription from the November 8, 2022, Planning Commission meeting
Approximately 12 minutes
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:44:29
Impacts on the Creamery District and building. All I can say about this is, well, I guess there’s a couple of different things here. One is that the Form-Based Code is really, you know, it’s ours to create. It’s yours to recommend. It’s the City Council’s to adopt. [We] can certainly do things with the Form-Based Code to make sure that the Creamery building and Creamery District as a whole is not negatively impacted. And in addition, we threw down a couple of things here about relocation assistance, both for residents and business. And then the artists live-workspace. I guess this is just a tag-on that, you know, we really want to emphasize that in the Creamery District. The Creamery District is really the, you know, kind of an art hub in the city of Arcata. We want to make sure that people that work there can live there.
Commission Chair Julie Vassaide-Elcock 2:45:35
Well, I think the first speaker would be people representing the Creamery District. Let them come in and let us pick their brains a little bit and see how we can meet their needs.
Kimberly White (Commissioner) 2:45:53
Would that be both businesses and residents, correct?
Commission Chair Julie Vassaide-Elcock 2:45:59
I was just thinking of residents, but I guess all. And we will need, they will need relocation assistance because some there will be quite a few businesses and residents that might be displaced, at least temporarily. And it’s very hard to find another place in Arcata, they live in our work in Arcata. Good luck finding a place.
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:46:29
So are you suggesting like a study session or something like that, that you’d like to see happen?
Dan Tangney (Commissioner) 2:46:36
Just on the Creamery District that seems — or unless we’re talking about the art and design thing, but in terms of relocation that could be in any part of the Gateway.
Jennifer Dart 2:46:49
The next item that you’re going to see on here is actually — David, if you scroll down a little bit — the effect on businesses. So I don’t know, but maybe that could be combined to a study session to kind of address both of those things. I’m just throwing it out there.
Commission Chair Julie Vassaide-Elcock 2:47:03
That would make sense.
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:47:04
I mean, it could be two. I think that my sense is that there are several folks in the Creamery District who have, you know, reached out either independently or, you know, have provided, you know, correspondence that’s, you know, in your list of correspondence already. That, you know, I mean, this would this would be an open public meeting. If the Planning Commission wants to sit down and speak with residents, so it’d be an open public meeting and be notice. Everyone can come, it would be recorded on Zoom, et cetera, et cetera. Many people are, you know, have expressed me sort of a reticence to, to come and participate in that format. And so, you know, I guess one alternative, I would suggest is that, you know, we’ve had, you know, oodles of meetings at this point on this topic, I can do a specific outreach to addresses within the Creamery District, you know, the space that’s properly located on there. And we can have an agenda item on a Planning Commission meeting and say, Hey, we’re having this agenda item to talk about impacts specifically to the Creamery District — come one, come all. And then it’s incorporated into an actual working session of the Planning Commission, a regular session of Planning Commission. And it could be that we compile a couple of these different items like the, you know, that we’ve identified as agenda items that could be specifically discussed. And we have a couple of these that come together in one format like that. As opposed to having yet one more study session that nobody may come to.
Dan Tangney (Commissioner) 2:48:45
I’m a little confused, are we talking specifically about the relocation issue again, or —
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:48:50
Really, any impact of the Creamery District. So this could be based on concerns about aesthetic impacts. It could be concerns about, you know, additional people. It might be somebody who’s concerned about parking. Somebody who is concerned about the loss of L Street. All of those things are going to come out because they all relate to the Creamery District process.
Dan Tangney (Commissioner) 2:49:06
And that’ll come up on our Form-Based Code specifically for that district. Right?
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:49:12
I think it will.
Dan Tangney (Commissioner) 2:49:13
Wouldn’t that be the action time for this? Because we super would have to work out what — I mean, you know, parcel by parcel, we can decide on building heights and specifics in our Form-Based Code.
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:49:28
You could if you wanted to get to that level of detail — that granularity is going to be, um….
Dan Tangney (Commissioner) 2:49:35
If we’re protecting a historic —
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:49:37
Yes, yes. If you have some specific resource that you’re concerned about, you say, Hey, look, you know, with the exception of this area here, you know, everyone can build the five stories because we want to, you know, whatever.
Dan Tangney (Commissioner) 2:49:48
I’d like to think that those people will show up when we’re working on Form-Based Code specific to the Creamery District because it is, you know, there is a specific kind of aesthetic there.
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:49:58
Yeah, right. Yeah. I’m just putting this forward as optional. I mean, we could do either, if you wanted to hold a specific study session on that? I just I feel like a lot of the people, there are several people in the Creamery District that are coming to these meetings regularly. There are many people who have expressed to me an interest, but when I invite them to the meeting, they say, I’m not going to do that. So you may just get nobody show up.
Dan Tangney (Commissioner) 2:50:18
That’s what I would think. And when it comes to the design, if they could at least write a letter, or zoom in or something.
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:50:29
And I can send out specific notice to those people on those agenda items, if you’d like.
Judith Mayer (Commissioner) 2:50:39
The Creamery District is unique in the Gateway Area in that there are several organizations already existing there. They are active and, to a great extent, they’ve been the motivation of much of this plan. And what I would like to invite some of those organizations to do is to themselves hold a meeting or more than one about the Gateway Plan — Invite the Planning Commission to attend it — Agendize it as a Planning Commission meeting. So that we go to their space, and listen to what they have to say. We can call it whatever we want — a listening session, a reach-in rather than a reach-out. I think the important thing is that the Planning Commission is invited as guests. But that we are agendized so that we can all be there. And see what comes of that. Because, you know, the Creamery organizations — and there’s several of them — are very capable of representing themselves. I can understand why they don’t want to sit through one of our boring meetings. They have a way of throwing a great party that we might want to attend. And I’d love to be invited.
Commission Chair Julie Vassaide-Elcock 2:52:17
But how would we invite the public and how would we televise it? And how would we do all that?
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:52:22
Yeah, there’s some technical things that I’d have to look into. It probably would have to be a study session. And that wouldn’t require the same level of detail. So if the Commission, you know, you take your straw poll, you all want to do that, I’ll see if I can pull it together. Again, we’d be inviting ourselves to their house. And I don’t know how — I can’t promise that that’s going to happen.
Judith Mayer (Commissioner) 2:52:46
We’d have to invite them to invite us. And I think as far as recording and stuff like that, that there are the resources with Access Humboldt and a number of other folks. And a study session can sort of skirt those issues and provide a level of informality that would allow this all to happen.
Commission Chair Julie Vassaide-Elcock 2:53:09
If you can arrange that I’m pretty sure all of us will be there. I can’t imagine anyone saying no. Right, Dan?
Dan Tangney (Commissioner) 2:53:17
Right, I’m all for it.
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:53:19
Okay and the good thing is they’re going to staff it so [laughs]
Scott Davies (Vice-Chair Commission) 2:53:23
Sounds fun — I’ll definitely show.
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:53:25
Okay, I’ll see what I can do. And then I think — let’s see, we have: Move the Barrel District boundary south of Seventh Street. Keep L Street pathway Park to ensure that events held at the Creamery District aren’t disturbed by major traffic impacts. Talk to all residents and businesses in the whole of the Creamery District. Make a new Gateway District around the Creamery District. Keep building heights lower adjacent to the Creamery. The L Street linear park would benefit the Creamery businesses. Montessori schools should be in the discussion too. They have been reached out to. Yes, please, Planning Commissioners meet at the Creamery building and listen to what they have to say. Form-Based Code standards. Existing Gateway Plan — Oh these are the staff comments. Okay, so I will see what I can do on that. Inviting ourselves to their house. Should we tell them what kind of sandwiches we like? And to Deputy Director Dart’s point are you okay wrapping in “effect on businesses” into this concept of impacts on the Creamery District? I think some of that is going to be elucidated. We also have the relocation assistance programs and those sorts of things or do you want to discuss this more?
Scott Davies (Vice-Chair Commission) 2:55:00
No, wrapping them in makes sense.
Judith Mayer (Commissioner) 2:55:04
One more thing. I don’t know where it needs to go. But this is as good a place as any. It would be great if there were some way of providing some incentives for shared workspace, shared business space in the Gateway. Maybe not just in the Creamery. Community Benefits is only one of many ways that we could do that. But, you know, that is, again, another way of addressing gentrification — not just with regard to housing, but with regard to commercial and business rents as well.
Dan Tangney (Commissioner) 2:55:45
So perhaps that would be on the Community Benefits?
Judith Mayer (Commissioner) 2:55:48
Could be, but there are other ways that we can do that as well. And it would be great to have some proposals. It may be something that goes in the Code. It may be some policies that we add to what we’ve already got.
Dan Tangney (Commissioner) 2:56:14
So are we deciding on moving “the effect on businesses” up?
Commission Chair Julie Vassaide-Elcock 2:56:19
The relocation assistance, you mean?
Dan Tangney (Commissioner) 2:56:24
Well, I mean, that’s area-wide. We know. That’s way beyond the Creamery. So I don’t know.
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:56:41
Move relocation assistance down to where?
Commission Chair Julie Vassaide-Elcock 2:56:44
Yeah, the effect on businesses, she said.
Dan Tangney (Commissioner) 2:56:45
Because it’s the Gateway Area.
David Loya – Community Development Director 2:56:51
Well, it, I think it’s in both places. So relocation assistance is here, and relocation assistance is here.
Reaching out to the Creamery community — Video from the November 8, 2022, Planning Commission meeting
Approximately 12 minutes