The Form-Based Code consultant was on Zoom audio at the Planning Commission meeting. The Commissioners were asked if they had questions for him.

The four Commissioners there at the meeting did not have a single question to ask him.

The first draft of the form-based code for the Gateway Area Code — the Gateway Zoning Code — came out on June 5th, 2023. The first meeting where the Arcata Planning Commission discussed the new Code took place on June 13, 2023.

A video of this segment of the meeting is below.

Prior to the “final” review on April 23, 2024, there were a total of three Planning Commission meetings at which there was review of the Gateway Code: June 13, June 27, and July 11, 2023. The total time taken, prior to the “final” review, by the Planning Commission for Gateway Code review was under 2-1/2 hours.

At the June 13, 2023 — the first Gateway Code review meeting — Commissioners Scott Davies, Dan Tangney,  Matt Simmons, and Joel Yodowitz were present. Commissioners Judith Mayer and Peter Lehman were absent. The form-based code consultant, Ben Noble, who is the author of Arcata’s Gateway Code, was present at the meeting on audio.

For the Gateway Code discussion, the Community Development Director spoke for the vast majority of the discussion — over 70% of the time. Ben Noble spoke for a little under 10 minutes (9:57). Other than the lead-in from the Chair, Commissions Davies, Tagney, and Simmons spoke and asked questions for an aggregate total of two minutes and 31 seconds.

During the time of Director Loya’s speaking, Chair Davies and Commissioners Tangney and Simmons asked some questions.

• Chair Davies asked about actual area of buildable parcels in the Gateway area. The Director said it was close to half.
  Note: The actual answer is about 48-53 acres, or about 41-45%. This is for all possible building areas, including both empty lots and parcels with operational buildings that would have to be torn down for redevelopment.
• A question that Chair Davies asked about an economic analysis has never been answered. “A quick question about the economic analysis,” Chair Davies said. “At what point in our review of this Gateway Code, will we be able to overlay the economic analysis about cost feasibility?”

Community Development Director David Loya’s reply:

Yeah, that’s a great question. We’re doing a couple of different things to try and address that one.

As you’re aware, we’re working with the Terner Center Housing Policy to develop a probabilistic model to evaluate the various policy decisions that we’re making. And so we’ve talked about that a little bit before. I won’t go into detail on that.

And then we also discussed with the consultants today, the architects who work with a economist quite frequently on projects like this to evaluate the codes that they’re preparing, or the the buildings that they’re preparing. And so we’re talking about a conversation where we could develop contracts with them to do more specific analysis on the Gateway area, looking at these standards that we’ve established, and then also to look at the community benefits program.

So to answer your question directly, when is that going to happen? I don’t know. But my hope is that we’ll we’ll have more information on that in the next month, and I’ll be able to give you a more of a definite answer. We have a couple of other options for how we can go through this process. But certainly before this Fall-Winter [2023] when we’re starting to really evaluate the Environmental Impact Report. And a lot of the legwork is behind us in terms of what we’re evaluating for adopting. We would have that analysis complete by that time.

• A statement that Commissioner Simmons made was incorrect, and was said not corrected by the Director. “So the idea there that if you’re less than those amounts, you don’t need a permit,” Commissioner Simmons said. Any construction needs a permit. The expansion construction that Commissioner Simmons was speaking about would not  need to come before the Planning Commission — but it would still need a permit.
• Commissioner Tangney asked a question was about whether setbacks and upper-floor step-backs were going to be discussed.
• Director Loya said there would be larger upper-floor step-backs in the buildings built in the “enhanced” locations. The standard upper-floor step-back is 8 feet starting on the 5th story. The “enhanced” location upper-floor step-back is 10 feet starting on the 4th story. 
• Director Loya spoke on the cost of upper-floor step-backs. “One of the comments that we got from our architect consultant today was that the step-backs are really going to increase the cost of buildings, and make them cost-infeasible. And so that’s something that we might want to take another look at.
• Commissioner Tangney asked for information on how much an upper-floor step-back adds to the cost. His question has never been answered.

  “The sooner that information comes to us, the better, obviously, but I guess that’s why we’re considering this a draft,” he said. “And we’ll we’ll come back to those issues as the reality of these architectural reviews and cost analysis come to us.” 

• Director Loya made a point that there “may not be a pathway to financial feasibility” on a project and “I do think we need to be realistic about what’s going to be developable.” Chair Davies responded that there are other contractors who we haven’t spoken to who can build now, and that it’s silly to say now what can or can’t be possible three, seven, or ten years from now.
• Commissioner Simmons spoke on how we are concerned about feasibility because costs can be passed on to the tenants as increased rents. Adding requirements can result in higher rents.

Ben Noble spoke for 10 minutes

The form-based code consultant Ben Noble spoke at the meeting via Zoom. He spoke for just shy of 10 minutes. 

On the City video, this is at 2 hours 23 minutes, and about 43 minutes 30 seconds on the  video below.

At the conclusion of Ben Noble’s talk, the Community Development Director asked if there were any questions for Ben Noble. None of the Commissioners present had any questions for Ben Noble, the form-based code consultant.

Was this a true review of the Gateway Code?

Or was it a presentation?

Did Commissioners ask any questions or bring up matters that were actually in the Code itself? No, they did not.

What does it signify that no Commissioners asked a single question of the consultant?

.

The video

Length is 44 minutes.
Note: If when you watch the video, it does not start at the beginning, simply move the red-dot slider all the way to the left.

This video clip starts at about 1 hour 50 minutes 30 seconds from the start of the full City video recording of that meeting.