Fred Weis – June 12, 2023 – David Loya once again dismisses the Transportation Safety Committee’s recommendation: “Removal of couplet in favor of a linear park through the L St corridor”

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    fredredwoods
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    The letter below was sent to the City Council, the Planning Commission, the Transportation Safety Committee Chair Dave Ryan, the TSC staff liaison David Caisse, Community Development Director David Loya, and the City Manager Karen Diemer.

    This letter was quickly (25 minutes later) responded to by David Loya, which prompted a further message to reply to his response. That interchange is here on Arcata1.com also.

     
     
    David Loya dismisses the Transportation Safety Committee — yet again
     
    Monday, June 12, 2023
     
    To:  City Council, Planning Commission
           David Caisse, David Loya, Karen Diemer
           TSC Chair Dave Ryan (as BCC)
     
     
    From the June 13 Planning Commission staff report, page 31:
     
    “*Most TSC policy recommendations released May 30, 2023, are similar to the PC recommendations (see https://www.cityofarcata.org/940/Engagement-Information). Staff will incorporate the adopted changes, with the exception of the recommendation for the K/L street couplet, unless the Commission directs staff not to included specific recommendations.”
     
    David Loya dismisses the Transportation Safety Committee’s input in a major way — yet again.
     
    Below is Director Loya’s recent thwarting of the Transportation Safety Committee’s recommendations on the General Plan.
     
    We have a situation here where a Planning Commissioner and the Chair of the Transportation Safety Committee have declared that Arcata’s Community Development Director David Loya has inadequately, inaccurately, or in a diminished fashion presented recommendations from the Transportation Safety Committee to the Planning Commission. So much so that this Planning Commissioner and the TSC Chair have requested that the TSC Chair deliver the Committee’s views and recommendations to the Commission in person. 
     
    Normally, input from the Committees is delivered to the Commission through the Community Development Director. But in this case that is no longer possible.
     
    To put that another way, it is evident from past manipulations of the Transportation Safety Committee’s recommendations that Director Loya cannot be trusted to convey information from the Committee.  “Cannot be trusted” is my phrase, not theirs. But they are stating openly and to the public that the TSC’s explicit and clear recommendations are not getting through to the Planning Commission. The TSC’s recommendations are being altered, reduced, and ignored before those recommendations reach the Planning Commission.
     
    You can read TSC Chair Dave Ryan’s April 11 letter on this matter (without comment from me, just the letter) on Arcata1.com.  
    https://arcata1.com/letters/dave-ryan-chair-transportation-safety-committee-april-11-2023/
     
    What Dave Ryan determined and established and wrote about — was before this latest round of the same nonsense. Once again we have the same disregard for the Transportation Safety Committee’s latest recommendations. The staff report included for the June 13 Planning Commission meeting contains a very dubious section showing the input for General Plan Element Review.  (Pages 30-31)
     
    That’s where it says “Most TSC policy recommendations … are similar to the PC recommendations. Staff will incorporate the adopted changes,

    with the exception of the recommendation for the K/L street couplet….”

     
    But the TSC’s policy recommendations are not similar to those of the Planning Commission. They submitted 44 comments, and 5 are similar (by my count; see below). And the K/L Streets couplet is (along with building heights) among the most crucial and talked-about parts of the Gateway Plan. For that to not be included — as an alternate, at least — defies any possible acceptable explanation.

     
    My question of the City Manager and the City Council:  Why do you allow this to continue?
     
    If a member of the City Council distorted information to this degree, he or she would be censured or asked to leave. If a staff member of lower ranking misrepresented a Committee’s recommendations and misrepresented facts to this extent, he or she would be forced to resign. 
     
    You — the Councilmembers and the Commissioners — can do what you want to do. I consider Director Loya’s behavior to be shameful. 
     
    Why does David Loya refuse to acknowledge the input from the Transportation Safety Committee into this General Plan and Gateway Plan process?
     
    I request a reply from the City Manager on this.
    Thank you.
     
    — Fred Weis
     
     
    ————————————————————————
     
    1. Staff report:  “Most TSC policy recommendations released May 30, 2023, are similar to the PC recommendations.”

      I counted 44 distinct recommendations in the Transportation Safety Committee’s policy recommendations. Of those, I counted 5 that are similar to the Planning Commission recommendations. The other 39 TSC policy recommendations are unique to the Transportation Safety Committee. 

      Five out of 44 is a bit over 11%. That is most definitely not “most.” To say “most” is false.

    2. “Staff will incorporate the adopted changes, with the exception of the recommendation for the K/L street couplet….”
      First off, the TSC did not give a recommendation for the K/L street couplet. Their recommendation was against the K/L street couplet — to eliminate all references to the K & L Streets couplet.
      What David Loya wrote here is 100% false and is completely misleading to anyone who viewed it and read it.

    3. Why would the Transportation Safety Committee’s exceedingly clear recommendation against the K/L Street couplet not be included in the updated draft of the General Plan? Why should it be specifically excluded?
    4. Doesn’t the Council want to see all the input from the Committees — and not just what has gotten filtered by what Director Loya would like the Council to see?

      This was the danger (or, that is, one of the dangers) of how Director Loya had the whole General Plan and Gateway Plan process set up. All input from the Committees goes through him, and he determines what the Commission and the Council sees, and what they don’t see.

    5. What part of this is not clear?
      What’s in red is what David Caisse wrote at the Transportation Safety Committee on May 16, 2023.
      The TSC has come out against the K/L Streets couplet for over a year. Director Loya continues to refuse to acknowledge the work of the Transportation Safety Committee.

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      The above are recommendations from the TSC on the General Plan, from the document: Transportation Safety Committee – Circulation Element – Adopted Policy Recommendations, on the City’s website at: https://www.cityofarcata.org/DocumentCenter/View/13167/Mobility-Alt-Transpo-TSC
      Pages 12, 13, and 15.

    6. As a reminder to the Council, to the Planning Commission, and the Transportation Safety Committee, there has been a discussion around Staff providing an alternate plan to the K/L Streets Couplet concept. This alternative — and, in reality, there could be a number of alternatives offered — has been referred to as “Plan B.”

      “Plan B” has been proposed as something that staff would supply to the TSC for their evaluation since January, 2022 — that is, just about a year and a half ago. And in this time, staff has not provided a Plan B. Back at the TSC’s meeting on January 18, 2022, David Loya spoke as though Plan B existed — but no alternative plan has ever been provided.

      David Loya said: “So we definitely need a backup plan, a Plan B. And we, Todd, can maybe touch base on what the Plan B is.” Todd Tregenza of GHD said: “And I look forward to coming up with a Plan B. There have definitely been other options described and evaluated here at a high level. We’re probably going to need to come up with one that we analyze in greater detail as a backup plan. We’re not there yet. And I don’t have the answer to what that kind of consensus backup plan is.”

    7. David Loya also said: “So if folks can come up with ideas that are superior to what’s in this plan, we want to make sure and bring that forward to the Council and have them consider it.”

      But it sure seems that he’s pretty keen on not letting that happen.

    The “official” version, from Arcata’s website Public Comments page.