Lee Torrence – February 12, 2023

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    fredredwoods
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    Dear City Council members and Planning Commissioners,

    First, I need to thank you all for the work you do for our community.  I understand that you all have the best of intentions for Arcata present and future. But, something seems to be lacking.
     
    I would like to state again that just because more community members do not write their concerns to you about the Gateway Plan, this does not mean they agree with what you seem to think is best for Arcata. People either don’t have the time, don’t feel competent, or simply don’t prioritize commenting formally. People want housing, but once the problems are explained to them  they normally say, “Oh, I didn’t know that,” and start to question the plan.  So I take my hat off to and am extremely grateful to those who attend your meetings regularly and speak out on our behalf.  
     
    Fred Weis’s opinion piece in the Mad River Union states the obvious reasons very efficiently why you need to reign in the scope of the Gateway Plan. He has, along with many, many  members of the community stated these concerns since the plan was “unveiled.”    I attend meetings and don’t comment because I don’t like to speak in public.  But, I see that most of the members of the city council (except Kimberly White) seem ready to rubber stamp anything David Loya proposes to move the Gateway Plan forward.  I don’t see you listening to the community.   Fred points out in the attached opinion piece, that even Chris Dart, a president of Danco, believes it’s not economically feasible to build higher than 4 stories.  From every angle possible, Fred shows expert after expert stating flaws with your plan.  But you still seem bent on surging ahead.  Why?   When will you write a response to the community stating how you can refute what the experts are saying?   It’s incredulous.
     
    I watch the city council meetings and it actually seems a waste of time for anybody to comment.  It looks like your minds have been made up since the beginning.  I don’t mean to sound rude, but it seems like the public comment period is something you just tolerate as a formality you have to put up with.  
     
    I urge you to read Fred Weis’s reasonable words and take heed.     Please listen to the experts and make a reasonable plan for the future of Arcata.
     
     
    Very Sincerely,
    Lee Torrence 
    Arcata
     
     
     

    Tall Buildings are Unfeasible in the Gateway Plan

    The January 10th, 2023, meeting of the Planning Commission was especially informative about the prospect of taller buildings in the Gateway area. We heard from Eric Loudenslager, Board of Directors of the Arcata Fire District, who told us that the AFD could not safely protect the occupants of a building taller than four stories. Even at four stories it is a dicey situation. “We’ve basically been lucky,” he said. “We’re telling them not to build another four-story Sorrel until we have a bigger fire department.” (Referring to the 2022-built Sorrel Place on 7th Street.)

    I spoke to the Commissioners concerning a two-hour conversation with renown sea level rise and Humboldt/Arcata Bay expert Aldaron Laird. In addition to the known threat of sea level rise, we have here in Arcata the matters of rising ground water (from increased flooding and from sea level rise) and the breaching of the dikes that keep the rising bay water away from low-lying land areas. The 2005 New Year’s Eve king tide / storm — declared a “state of disaster” after bay waters came over Highway 101 — was the highest water elevation recorded to that date. Our average king tide heights now are less than a foot lower than that flooding event. It’s likely that we will have regular flooding of the low land areas in Arcata within 20 years, and sea level rise into portions of the Gateway area within 30 or 40 years.

    Having groundwater just a few feet below the surface affects the design and cost of constructing foundations. Sea level rise to levels where Gateway buildings would be located is just about certain to occur within the useful life of any apartments built there. And the Coastal Commission, which has jurisdiction over any proposed project south of 8th Street (this includes the AmeriGas site, the Greenway site, the Wing Inflatables site, the trailer park, and more) has shown from recent considerations that they are looking at the 100-year sea level rise projections to assess safety and viability. To put that in perspective, in 100 years, by current projections, about 80% of the Gateway area will be under water.

    To add to all this, the recent OLLI presentation about affordable housing was also brought up at this Planning Commission meeting. At that presentation, Danco president Chris Dart stated that any residential construction over four stories is not economically feasible in Arcata. (The deep financial resources of the university are the exception.) That is to say, housing priced so people can afford to live there cannot be done with taller buildings. Danco has built more affordable housing and more taller buildings than any other developer up here. I’d say Chris Dart knows what he’s talking about.

    By continuing to disregard acknowledged experts, Arcata Community Development Directory David Loya insists on promoting a plan which cannot — in its current form — possibly succeed. Is it a 20-year plan for 500 apartments, or a 60-year plan for 3,500 apartments? Will homes actually be offered for purchase from a plan that only “encourages” condominium home-ownership, or will it be the case, as David Loya stated on June 28th, “when I met with the Humboldt Association of Realtors, they told me that there’s no way you’re going to get condominium projects.”
     
    Arcata needs a good plan. This Gateway plan is not it. It’s not feasible. And, as I’ve said again and again, a plan that can’t be built is not really a plan at all.  

     
    The plan needs to be simpler, more practical, and actually possible — and with true affordable housing and home-ownership opportunities, as David Loya and the City’s plan have promised, over and over. They have promised this, and they are incapable of making good on this promise.
     
    I say: Let’s make this plan better.
     
     
    Fred Weis started Arcata1.com out of concern that information needed for good decision-making was not being accurately supplied by our City government. He can be reached at fred @ arcata1.com