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I’d like to start by thanking the staff, especially Community Development Director David
Loya for all your hard work on the Gateway Plan, and for being very accessible and open
to engaging with the public. That said, I concur with Planning Commissioner Kimberley
White who mentioned that the Gateway Plan feels more like it’s staff driven than led by
community input. So my main request to you tonight is to bring us – the community –
along with you!

There are a couple of ways you can accomplish this. First, while the city staff and certain
council members may feel they have all the information they need to charge ahead with
this plan, the community isn’t all behind you, by any means. Please think about the 85
signatories to the letter by Responsible Growth Arcata, requesting an advisory board and
better community outreach. Each one of those folks potentially represents hundreds, if
not thousands of other Arcata residents who didn’t get to sign the letter but might have
had they known about it (like myself).

You just don’t know unless you conduct a thorough survey that includes a wide cross-
section of Arcata residents. We’re trying to get that survey together right now. So |
respectfully request that you wait to charge ahead, especially on key items like the
number of stories (a key sticking point) until we can complete this survey. We aren’t
against the plan; we just want to take the time to get it right! Arcatans deserve that much.
If you fail to do this, I suspect the residents will revolt (peacefully), and you may even
face law suits.

We’re also asking for an advisory board because this plan has too many impacts which
should be looked at holistically, and not just steamrolled over. We’ve heard from staff,
and now we want to hear from the experts about fire protection, climate and ecological
impacts, sea level rise and our wastewater treatment plant, and whether it’s wise or even
feasible to build on mudflats,

Why are we asking for this? Well, as Fred Weis of Arcatal put it, “What’s missing in the
Gateway Plan is the evidence that the Plan is fiscally responsible or feasible (i.e.
wastewater, roads, traffic, schools, police, etc, etc).” For instance, there’s an article in the
North Coast Journal this week that discusses the serious shortfalls of the Arcata Fire
Department to respond to fires and emergency calls. (Weinreb, Elaine. “Chipping Away.’
NCJ, Sept. 1, 2022) Assistant Chief Sean Campbell cites a host of grievances from a
shortage of staff and equipment to lack of funding and adequate training with absolutely
zero capacity to respond to fires in high-rise or mid-rise buildings (6 to 8 stories). The
district doesn’t even have a ladder truck!

So this begs the question: Why are you forging ahead with higher stories when you don’t
have a plan for this?? Also, we greatly admire our brave firefighters who put themselves
at great risk to protect us. Why make their job more difficult and dangerous? Why
endanger the lives of people stuck in those tall buildings. You need a plan for how to
fund our fire department, and can’t necessarily expect to rely on taxpayers, because the
property taxes (or going to taxpayers heart in hand), may not be sufficient.

Although city staff appears eternally optimistic that “‘as that growth happens in the
population, tax revenues and employment base for public services will also grow.” But
that’s not how the professionals in the fire department view it. As Arcata Fire Chief
Justin McDonald noted in a staff report, “It should also be noted that rapid increase of
student, staff and faculty population to our district will not be commensurate with the tax
revenue the District can generate to cover staffing and equipment needs.” Fair question:
Why aren’t you listening to your own experts?

Also, the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury released its report this year (“The Sea Also Rises”), Have you read it? The report mentions that mega-flooding events are already with us:
“Even now we are witnessing ‘bomb cyclones’, extreme weather events like the
massive storm that hit the Pacific Northwest last year resulting in major flooding.
And if this isn’t enough, the earth has a “moon wobble” problem. News reports in
2021 informed us that the moon wobbles back and forth on an 18-year cycle. At
one side of the cycle the moon’s gravitational pull on oceans is stronger than the
other side. We are presently in the trough of the cycle where tides are mildly
affected. By 2030, we will begin witnessing the peak of the cycle when tides will
be larger and stronger resulting in more flooding along the earth’s coastlines.”

That’s in as little as 8 years! Not to mention that King Tides and heavy rains are already
causing problems with our aging treatment plant. So, do you have a plan for where to
relocate the wastewater treatment plant? David Loya says that you do. But when I asked
to see the maps for where the buildings, infrastracture and plant would be relocated, he
said the city hasn’t gotten that far yet. Maybe it’s time you did, because we’ve got very
little time, and that infrastructure may need to go in the southern half of the Gateway
District, if that’s even feasible.

Finally, I was highly impressed by Susan Omelas’s suggestion for an alternative to the
Gateway Plan in her letter to the Mad River Union (“Add Color and Vibrancy.” Mad
River Union. Sept. 7, 2022). Apparently, the recently passed Senate Bill 9 would allow
single-family lot owners to build two primary units and two accessory units to their
property. And Susan says that this would help to integrate students into the community
rather than just segregating them in one or two areas of the town. I think this is real
“outside the box” thinking, that could potentially go a ways toward creating genuine
equity in housing (if combined with rent stabilization). Please consider her ideas.

Like Fred Weis, I am concerned that our letters are not getting into the agenda packets, so
I’m handing this in at the city council meeting tonight. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely, Lisa Pelletier (Arcata resident)