The Gateway Plan Form-Based Code has arrived
To: Planning Commissioners, City Councilmembers, Staff
As you know, the Gateway Plan’s draft Form-Based Code has arrived.
For your ease of viewing, it is available on Arcata1.com through your City Council / Planning Commission portal page at:
arcata1.com/council or arcata1.com/pc
arcata1.com/council or arcata1.com/pc
There is no commentary or discussion on the FBC at that website page — just the code, sized for either tablet/desktop or for cell phones.
There are a few points we can note:
- We acknowledge that this is a draft. Still, there is much in this draft Form-Based Code which appears to have ignored what Planning Commissioners have discussed and requested.
- As is typical for documents from our Community Development Department, there is no date or version number written on this draft. Nor is the word “draft” anywhere on the document.
- Inclusionary Zoning is shown as: For projects with 30 dwelling units or more, a minimum of 3 percent of the units affordable to low income households or 5 percent of the units affordable to moderate income households.
I see this is an unacceptably low amount of low- or moderate-income housing. - It calls for approval of four-story apartment buildings by a single person — the Zoning Administrator. That is, a building the size of Sorrel Place would be approved by one person. For buildings of 2 or 3 stories, no noticing of the public and no hearing where the public might speak are required.
- The Plaza-sized public space shown in the Gateway Plan as a square block in the Barrel District has been reduced to a half-acre — that is, roughly one-third of the size shown in the draft Gateway Plan.
- There is no mention or any requirement for smaller buildings along the proposed L Street Corridor Linear Park. These commercial-below / apartments-above buildings could be two stories, or three-stories with a deep stepback on the 3rd story with an open patio, perhaps. But this is not brought up even as a concept.
- This draft Form-Based Code allows the construction of two-story buildings throughout the Gateway area. To me this defeats the entire purpose of providing dense, walkable, ecological housing for the people of Arcata. If what is built in the Gateway area are two-story apartments, then we have failed.
- This Form-Based Code allows the construction of a five-story building that could be built as a vertical wall right on the property line — even if the adjacent property has a one-story single-family home.
- I’ve looked at or read a half-dozen or so Form-Based Codes, and I am not an expert by any means. To me, this draft Form-Based Code has about 40% of the information and code that is needed for a good Form-Based Code for the Gateway Plan.
Unfortunately, after all this waiting, what we have here is a “Grade C” Form-Based Code — or worse. As some people might view it, this is a Form-Based Code that fails to provide for the intents and interests and purposes of the Gateway Plan.
I am sorry to be such a “skeptic,” as I am sometimes called. But this is just not a very good or complete Form-Based Code. It does not fulfil our needs.
— Fred Weis