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From: Fred Weis
Date: Wednesday, April 26, 2023
General Subject: Notes on the Planning Commision meetings of April 25 (yesterday) and April 27
(tomorrow)
Bold and red are used to highlight, so you can skim.
I try to set things up so you can get the basis of what I’m saying in a minute or two — the same in my articles
on Arcata1.com
1. Information: A good place to start to see what’s going on with me and my thoughts is the Newest
Articles at Arcata1.com
You can use this easy-to-remember address: arcata1.com/new
2. Rezoning: There are two articles on the rezoning of specific areas: The 17th & Q and Eye Street /
Craftsman’s Mall. There may be more coming before the Thursday meeting, so if this is helpful to
you please check back. By utilizing Google Satellite images (aerial views) with the outline of the re‐
zoning area superimposed on the aerial image, you can better see the neighborhood, houses, roads,
schools, etc. If the links do not work, use arcata1.com/new
I originally started Arcata1.com to provide better maps and visual information to the
public. For people to see where the Gateway area is, among my earliest articles is one showing aerial
views with outlines of the Gateway and locating points of streets and well-known sites. See: Aerial
Views of the Gateway area or look on Arcata1.com under “Gateway – Maps” on the menu.
The rezoning maps supplied in your packets are wholly inadequate for making informed decisions, IMO.
And inadequate to the public. As mentioned in my Monday, April 24, message, “When a local Realtor
with 25 years experience — who has been on committees and is involved in community planning — tells
me he cannot figure out where these parcels are from looking at the maps… that’s a problem.”
3. MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets). PS-6G and PS-7. Initiated by Commissioners Lehman and
Mayer. At about 1:48 on the April 25 video. Proposals included “The City shall also keep a compendium
of Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs)” and ” information—including the MSDSs—shall be made
available to the public.”
Staff response: “this is unnecessary as it is required by law. But we can add it if the commission
wishes to.”
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Please pursue this. There does not seem to be any accessible collection of MSDS
information available to the public. What Commissioner Lehman speaks to is not what
is “required by law” as Director Loya has mischaracterized. I take what Lehman speaks to as a
central location for all city-wide MSDS and related information.
To add to the issue, the search engine used on the City’s website is not a good one. (The IT is not your
jurisdiction of course, but you may want to push on an improvement here.) Trying to find material of
any kind on the City’s website is cumbersome and often without success. The City personnel know this.
As an example, try entering “MSDS” — yields nothing of value.
4. Large City Park: I spoke last night about a City park to be located in the heart of the Gateway Area.
we may have, in 20 years, potentially 1,000 or 2,000 additional people in this area. The Gateway Plan’s
hope is in the community benefit program encouraging developers to provide 1,000 or 2,000 square
feet as a privately-owned public-accessible park. These “parklets” are good and are valuable to the
formation of community and neighborhood — but they don’t replace a large community park.
If I were the parent of a 6- or 8- or 10-year old, what would I want? Stewart Park at 15th and I is ~10
minute walk from the heart of the Gateway. But involves crossing Alliance at L Street, or perhaps
walking over to J Street and then up. The Community Center Park is ~15-20 minutes, on the 7th Street
overpass (ugh). The Arcata Marsh is ~25 minutes. Redwood Park is ~30 minutes. Many people (not
the young or the old) can bike. But what we don’t want is for people to drive to a city park.
We are aware that the overall plans involve the creation of a block-size privately-owned publicaccessible park in the master-planned Barrel District — potentially at the spot where Wing Inflatables
currently is. To me, that’s all very well and good, but that may not happen for 20 or 30 years. It
also pre-supposes that a) the property owner will actually do this; and b) the Coastal Commission will
allow tall buildings in the Barrel District (to offset the cost of the park). David Loya has been in
conversation with the property owner, Brad Floyd.
It’s also not a particularly central location. What I’d like to see is for the Commission to actually target
a specific property, and see about starting talks with the owner while simultaneously actively pursuing
grant monies. As a theoretical possibility, a property might be appraised for $1 million — the City and
owner come to terms at $600,000, and the owner can use the $400,000 difference to reduce taxes.
Suitable spots might include in order of suitability IMO: The car wash site (with a daylighted
creek); the AmeriGas block; the ~half-block lot to the west of the Tomas / Open Door Clinic on 8th
Street behind the Creamery; the area west of N Street between 9th & 10th at the end of the Creamery
block, and two lots on M Street north of 12th and south of Bug Press and “13th” Street. The ideal
candidate is directly alongside the L Street corridor (assuming that will become a linear park.
For pricing, the only even-vaguely similar properties that have sold recently include the full block where
the data center is (previous Myrtletown Lumber, Arcata Lumber, etc) which sold for $2.13M in
December 2019 and the post office half-block at $1.4M in February 2022. Both had operational
buildings and rental income. I have no idea what the price might be on the properties mentioned
above.
Yes, this would be difficult. To paraphrase what David Loya told us recently, just because something is
difficult does not mean that it shouldn’t be pursued.
5. A form to help with the Framework: I have mentioned to David Loya and Chair Scott Davies that I
have developed a one-page form that would work in conjunction with your current “Framework”
process. Its use would not alter or replace any aspect of the Framework — it would augment it. It
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would involve just a few minutes of extra work (which either each of you or staff could do, or a
combination) and would, I believe, further increase the efficiency at your meetings. It would also help
eliminate the “I thought we were talking about what’s on Page 56” and “What is that in reference to?”
type of discussions, which occur perhaps more frequently than you may realize.
The format is very similar to what Commissioners Simmons and Lehman are already doing
— just formalizes things a bit, and adds some missing info that will help the process. The idea is to
make your comments easier to read, to process, and to understand — and at same time have the
discussion be complete and faster. I developed the form and have been adjusting it, based on what
you have actually been submitting as your comments. I should be able to present this to you — in
writing — next week. As per the current style, I’ll present it as a 45-second “elevator pitch” and then a
couple of pages of examples and backup material. If you can be more efficient on the smaller (but very
much important) areas, then you will have more time to discuss the more visionary material.
Thanks,
— Fred Weis