Fred Weis – September 21, 2022

    By
    fredredwoods
    -
    0
    170

    Loading

     
     

     

    Note:  What is shown below is a​ copy of the original letter, made for this website.  It is included here only so that the contents of the original letter can be searchable.  (The PDF received from the City is in the form of an image, and so is not a searchable document.)

    What is below is not the letter sent by the letter-writer. It will contain typographical errors and other departures from the original.  The PDF displayed above is accurate.  The text below is not accurate.  It is printed here for indexing purposes, so that each word can be indexed and included in the search.

     

    To:    Community Development Department
             Planning Commissioners
     
    From:   Fred Weis
     
    Re:    Discussion of building height
     
    To the Planning Commissioners:
     
    Slido polls:  I consider to be a very poor form of surveying.  Worthless in my view, and very much misleading and distorting.
    As I mentioned:  If there is to be a survey of building height, it should be done with images of buildings, not text.
     
    To emphasize and elaborate on what has been said by different people, at various times, in different ways:
     
    A decision on “building height” does not exist as a stand-alone figure. Among the critical factors that accompany this decision:
    • Setback from the street
    • Upper-story stepbacks
    • Proximity to other taller buildings
    • Relationship with neighboring single-family residences
    • Solar Shadowing
    • The “canyon” effect for pedestrians and bicyclists, particularly in Winter months
    • Massing and design
    I will refer you to the Planning Commission portal at:   arcata1.com/pc 
    for links to the diagrams and articles listed below.
     
    In the David Loya presentation on Form & Massing, there is a 3D image of an imaginary building at the northeast corner of 5th & K — where the old St. Vincent de Paul thrift store site had — labeled on the image as “6th” Street but actually on K Street. This is a good example of a lot that may be up for redevelopment in the not-distant future. The front of the building, facing K Street, is four stories.  The rear of the building, where the lot adjoins two-story residential structures, is shown as stepping down to two stories and even a one-story level.
     
    In the imaginary proposal for the Car Wash site, with the full daylighting of Jolly Giant Creek, local architect Julian Berg has provided us with a rendering of what a clustering of 4- and 5-story buildings might look like.
     
    In the “3D Images and Aerial Views” article, on your portal, I put this rendering onto a Google satellite view image, to place the building into a  neighborhood.
     
    And then, altering the original rendering to eliminate Jolly GiantCreek, I made a “fake” building that might occupy the adjoining parcels to the south, between 8th & 9th Streets on K, and placed that onto the Google satellite view.
     
    Having two 5-story buildings on adjoining blocks changes the way they seem. And if there is a third building in a row, on the Clothing Dock / German Motors site, then we’d have a strip.
     
    The 3D modeling can show us some of this.
    Perhaps the Planning Commission can make requests of these views, to be better able to see the massing.
     
    Thank you.