Nearly 80 percent of those who responded to a Crescent City survey said they preferred a sequence of gateway elements incorporating waves and dolphins to welcome folks to the Beachfront Park area. | Screenshot

After a community outreach campaign netted 561 survey responses and more than 100 shares on Facebook, Crescent City councilors chose a gateway that draws on its residents’ relationship with the ocean.

Seventy-six percent of those who responded to the city’s survey also supported changing Front Street’s name to Beachfront Drive, Crescent City Manager Eric Wier told the Council on Monday. But the potential name change could disadvantage local businesses, Wier said, costing them thousands of dollars.

“The hard costs are somewhere between $7,000 on the low end for the permitting, the licensing, all the changing of business cards — all those types of pieces,” he said, adding that he spoke with two business owners on Front Street. “Then if you get into search engine optimization and the actual loss of revenue if that’s done the wrong way or at the wrong time, it could be tens of thousands of dollars. Upwards of $50,000. It’s not a small item and it should be one that’s dealt with carefully and intentionally.”

_{Cultural Center concept art designed by Greenworks Planning Consultants architect Ben Johnson, courtesy of Crescent City.}

Crescent City councilors applauded the friendlier Cultural Center architect Ben Johnson and his team at Greenworks Planning Consultants presented them on Monday.

Johnson’s vision removes the second of two staircases and adds a walkway that takes visitors to an entry plaza. But rather than incorporating a Tolowa basket pattern into the entry plaza — a proposed introduction to the interpretive walk at neighboring Beachfront Park — councilors wanted a design that represents the whole community.

“The entryway needs to be communicated that this is an entry point for all people,” Mayor Blake Inscore said. “None of this is meant to undermine or take away from the amazing work or this being the ancestral home of the Tolowa people. The point is we’re talking about an entryway going into a public building that’s for everyone, including people from all over the world.”