From: Alex Stillman
To: David Loya; Merritt Perry
Subject: Fwd: Roger"s Garage Affordable Housing Project Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2025 9:03:12 PM
Alex Stillman
iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: Kristi Colbert
Date: June 17, 2025 at 4:44:01 PM PDT
To: Alex Stillman <[email protected]>, Kimberley White <[email protected]>, Meredith Matthews <[email protected]>, Stacy Atkins-Salazar <[email protected]>, Sarah Schaefer <[email protected]>
Subject: Roger's Garage Affordable Housing Project
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Dear Mayor and City of Arcata Council Members,
I want to make it clear I am against the city's major housing project, Valley View Commons, proposed at 1622 Old Arcata Rd.Not only is this across from Jacoby Creek elementary school where traffic backs up multiple times daily, this will only increase congestion.
While I appreciate the Old Arcata Rd improvements, unfortunately, there is not enough parking. When there is a school event the bike lanes are entirely taken up, and garbage cans are left in bike lanes forcing bicyclists to ride in traffic.
We have responded to many accidents while living along this road. Car speeds are unfortunately incredibly fast, and there is A LOT of passing.
Bayside is not a suburban, high density zone. Nevertheless, Old Arcata Rd encounters an incredible amount of traffic. EMS response time is delayed related to distance and traffic congestion as well. The extra burden on City Fire Fighters and EMS responders must be considered. Our home insurance is already at risk related to this. This could make our neighborhood more uninsurable.
The units built downtown by the Co-op are much more appropriate use of space for this type of development. There are several more spaces that would be more appropriate for such a development.
My last concern is, why weren't we notified of this earlier? Thank you for your time.
Best always,
Kristi Colbert
The scope of the development does not fit the suburban, low density zoning of the surrounding neighborhood where insufficient parking and school traffic create road congestion in the morning and afternoon and during frequent school events. The scale of this project with insufficient parking will only exacerbate these issues which are well known problems for the neighborhood.
Meaningful public participation has been completely lacking for this proposed development and adjacent property owners have never even been contacted