For further reading and images:
Will upper floor step-backs vanish from the Gateway Code?
Ben Noble on “Building Height Ratio” concept — Avoiding the “canyons” of taller buildings
Form-Based Code articles
Building & Massing Presentation videos

What do we want for Arcata?

Councilmembers, Commissioners, and members of the public —
What do we want our buildings to look like?

Do we want this:

Or this?

The first draft of the Form-Based Code allows Zero setbacks on the rear and sides of parcels. This means that a building can be built right on the property line — regardless of what is on that adjacent parcel. 

The first draft of the Form-Based Code has no upper floor stepback requirement for the rear or sides of a building. This draft has an overall upper floor stepback requirement, but it’s up to the developer where that upper floor stepback is placed. And, yes, a wall of the building could go  straight up for four or five or six stories — and that 5-story wall can be right on the property line. Even if that vertical wall is 10 feet away from a single-family house next door.

The first image is a theoretical building that could be designed to fit the old St. Vincent de Paul thrift store site at 6th and K Streets. It’s from the August 2022 video presentation by David Loya, “Building and Massing Presentation 3: Proposed Setbacks and Massing Impacts.” 

The second is what could be built on that site, using the standards outlined in the first draft of the Form-Based Code plus proposals presented at the June 13, 2023, Planning Commission meeting.

This draft of the Form-Based Code has a long way to go if it’s going to accurately reflect what the people of Arcata have been asking for.

Ben Noble:

And so, you know, I think that when setting the upper story stepback standard, whether or not that should apply to the full perimeter of the building, or percentage of the building, I think is going to be an important topic of discussion.

Visual definitions

• Setbacks:  Distance from the property line to the building.
• Stepbacks: Upper floor reduction of the building’s floor area, with walls “stepped back” from the floor below it.

See also:  Will upper floor step-backs vanish from the Gateway Code?