_{Thumbnail photo: Early concept art of the Redwood Downtown, a mixed-use building that includes residential units planned for 3rd and J streets in Downtown Crescent City. Housing is one of the key components of the city’s Downtown Specific Plan. | Image Courtesy of the City of Crescent City}

Don Arambula thinks of Whitefish, Montana as an example of the downtown Crescent City could have in about 20 years.

The Rocky Mountain community, population 7,751 as of the 2020 U.S. Census, is about the same size as Crescent City. It’s isolated, a gateway to a national park and, similar to Crescent City, was “kind of struggling.” 

Arambula, principal planner and urban designer for Portland-based Crandall Arambula PC, said the downtown masterplan his firm developed for Whitefish is comparable to Crescent City’s Downtown Specific Masterplan. 

The ongoing development of Crescent City’s plan, which is heading into its second phase next week, is also an opportunity to address shortcomings from the plan Crandall Arambula created for Whitefish, he said.

“For example, Whitefish saw this influx of investors and they were Silicon Valley-based venture capitalists who drove up the costs of property all of a sudden. Local residents who were making less money were priced out of the market for housing,” Arambula told Redwood Voice Community News. “Often the word is called gentrification, and there’s nothing wrong with a limited amount of gentrification because we need more money. What we’re fearful of is the result of gentrification, which is the displacement of people who lived and owned businesses in the downtown.”

Public outreach for the second phase of Crescent City’s Downtown Specific Masterplan will start with a steering committee meeting Tuesday. This meeting is for members of the business community, officials from other public agencies such as Del Norte County and the Crescent City Harbor District as well as representatives from local nonprofits such as True North Organizing Network and the DNATL Community Food Council.

Arambula will not only present his concepts for what land use could look like in Downtown Crescent City, he will also seek input from steering committee members, according to a June 18 email from Bridget Lacey, the city’s grants and economic development manager. 

A community town hall will follow from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Crescent Fire Protection District fire hall at 255 W. Washington Boulevard. A Zoom link and a recording of the meeting will also be available by clicking here for those who can’t make it.

The city is using a $186,000 Economic Development Administration grant to complete the Downtown Specific Plan, according to Lacey.

Crescent City contracted with Crandall Arambula in December 2024 to develop the Downtown Specific Masterplan. According to City Manager Eric Wier, the first phase was a broader look at what makes a downtown successful. 

The city manager echoed Arambula in saying that a successful downtown more a science than an art with a certain mixture of retail space, housing, parking and key anchor sites.

For example, in a February presentation to the Crescent City Council, Wier said the city needed to increase its “meager housing supply” in the downtown area for the Downtown Specific Plan to be realized.

It’s a statement Wier echoed in a June 22 conversation with Redwood Voice.

“You need a certain amount of residential in the downtown,” he said. “If you have people living in the downtown, it creates an environment that doesn’t shut down at 5. Without having to get into a car and go anywhere, you have restaurants and shops and all these sorts of amenities that people are coming here for.”

The Downtown Specific Plan’s second phase will hone in on the downtown area’s key facilities. One of those may be focusing on Tsunami Plaza and the memorial fountain to be the city’s town square, he said. 

According to Arambula, the second phase will look at options people identified in the first phase and discuss a preferred option “in terms of land uses.” This will address issues such as parking, he said, and focus on a potential long-term strategy.

“From that we’re going to refine the preferred (option), build out a strategy and identify five or six key catalyst and priority projects,” Arambula said. “We can’t have a laundry list of things to do. We’ll boil it down to five things that are manageable.”

The catalyst projects would be potential accomplishments that could be realized in five years, rather than 20 years, Arambula said.

The second phase of the Downtown Specific Plan will also include recommendations for updating the general plan and the city’s zoning ordinance. It will address a parking management plan and sign strategies. 

A follow up to the Downtown Specific Plan’s second phase will also be to look at the U.S. 101 corridor and think about its character, Arambula said. The city’s main commercial corridor currently competes with its downtown core, he said. It’s important that realizing its potential follows a strategy that is somewhat different.

As Arambula has worked with Crescent City throughout the last year and spoken with its residents, he said it’s clear that they don’t want to be a Los Angeles and a San Francisco. That isn’t going to happen, he told Redwood Voice.

“What we’ll talk about is form, massing and scale of development that is appropriate,” he said of the steering committee meetings and the public meeting. “And we’ll also have architectural standards and guidelines. We’ll talk about the characteristics appropriate for the climate, culture and history of Crescent City.”

Arambula said the steering committee meeting will be an opportunity for those who have a vested interest in the downtown to offer sage advice. It’s also a test for his firm to refine hot button issues before a public presentation.

Steering committee members will also be able to attend the public town hall.

The goal is for the Crescent City Council to adopt a final Downtown Specific Plan by the end of the year. The proposed plan will also go to the Crescent City Planning Commission for input in November, Arambula said.

“As we get to this list of catalyst projects, there is a whole series of things people will be able to use that plan for,” he said. “For example, there’s a transit center project Redwood Coast Transit is going to implement and start construction (on), I believe, in 2027, so we’ve targeted that in our plan. K Street will be improved. There will be more input on that. There will be tons of opportunities for the public to be involved in the next five years.”