As California faces soaring housing costs and a rising homeless population, Arcata has been working on the Gateway Area Plan. It’s meant to address these problems by building a mixed-use neighborhood near downtown with housing to serve a variety of income levels. On Wednesday night, after nearly a year of evaluation, the city’s Planning Commission will present its feedback on the plan to the City Council. JPR’s Jane Vaughan spoke with Arcata Vice Mayor Meredith Matthews about the Gateway Area Plan.
Jane Vaughan: So can you first describe what was the motivation for this project?
Meredith Matthews: Everybody knows California is experiencing an unprecedented housing crisis. Arcata is not immune from that crisis. We've got people coming up from the expansion of Cal Poly university, climate refugees, people that are able to work remote, and we live in a beautiful area. So really trying to address that. And also, we've got a homeless crisis here. We have about 400 or so unhoused people in Arcata, so really trying to focus on low level, very low-income and also all kinds of mixed use housing for everybody.
JV: Sure. So what does this plan include?
MM: It's about an 140-acre, former industrial area. It's about a five minute walk from downtown. And so that's what we're really focused on. Arcata, one of the things we love about Arcata is all of the green spaces, all the trails and the nature. And so we really wanted to avoid sprawl and focus on density, infill, going high, instead of going out. We envision some retail or other office spaces on the bottom level, and then housing above and really focusing on walkability, art, open spaces. And still maintaining like the character of Arcata.
JV: What sort of feedback have you gotten from the community about this plan?
MM: Change is really hard, right? Arcata really hasn't done much building at all since the 70s. And so people live in Arcata because it's a bucolic small rural college town. And so trying to wrap your head around the change that is inevitable is sometimes challenging. So we've got a lot of really positive feedback. People are very impressed with the walkability, the bikeability. I think the things the people are worried about is are their houses that they own going to be shaded by these tall buildings, is our wastewater treatment plant going to be able to accommodate all of these people living there, is our fire station going to be able to put out fires in buildings that are four or more stories? So I mean, there's some questions and hopefully, as we work our way through this plan, those will be addressed.
JV: So the city has been working on this project for a long time. What is happening next with this project, and when do you anticipate that a final decision would be made?
MM: Yeah, so honestly, I first heard about this plan in 2019, when I was the chair of the Economic Development Committee, and it's gone through many, many iterations, a lot of public hearings, a lot of editing. And so right now it's working its way through the Planning Commission. And they had it and sat with it for about a year. So on Wednesday night at our City Council meeting, we're finally going to hear the recommendations of the Planning Commission. We're going to hear what edits they have suggested. And then after that, we're going to have three really intense focused study sessions with the Council and the Planning Commission. So we'll be able to bring in some more experts, if needed, have some robust, open conversations. And then hopefully we'll start to tackle it and make some decisions. From what our Community Development Director has said, we hope to get this plan signed off and ready to go by spring of 2024.
JV: Meredith, thank you for speaking with me today.
MM: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
