Archived Engagement Information

This page houses data associated with updates to the City’s General Plan undertaken between 2020 and 2024, including the Gateway Area Plan and Gateway Form Based Code. The General Plan update process involved a variety of engagement strategies spanning multiple years to ensure broad participation. The final Engagement Report, linked below, reflects a summary of this work and summarizes themes from public engagement.

The City has worked to engage a wide variety of community stakeholders in current planning efforts, with an emphasis on bringing new people to the table and engaging a diverse array of current and future residents, including Cal Poly students and local organizations. Given the City’s interest in reaching a variety of community members—including both those who currently live inside Arcata’s city limits as well as those that do not but would like to—staff used a multi-pronged engagement approach to gain insight into people’s experiences with housing and provide various opportunities to offer input into the housing plans under development. The Racial Equity Engagement Report associated with the General Plan Update provides important additional data alongside the full engagement report. 

In addition to these two resources, this page houses point-in-time data from a variety of public meetings and engagement efforts, including Planning Commission and Committee public hearings, public workshops, and public surveys. Please note this page does not represent all input received on the General Plan Update. Public comment that was directed to decision makers, and public comment received on the Environmental Impact Report prepared for these policy updates, are not replicated here. 

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Engagement Data

Community Engagement Report

The Community Engagement Report includes a review of the engagement and decision-making process for the Stategic Infill Redevelopment through March 2024.

REVIEW THE ENGAGEMENT REPORT HERE.

The City has been working on General Plan updates in earnest for the last three years, starting with the Housing Element adopted in 2019, the Infill Market Study adopted in early 2020, and the release of various elements of the General Plan, beginning with the Gateway Area Plan in 2021. A summary of engagements is provided below.

NEW! Blanck and Oram Equity Partners Racial Equity Engagement Report

Planning Commission Suggested Changes by General Plan Element

Committee Suggested Changes by General Plan Element

Gateway Plan Policy Recommendations by City Committee

Please note, three City Committees (Parks and Recreation, Energy, and Historic Landmakrs Committees) adopted general recommendations while the remaining committees adopted policy-specific recommendations. 


Form-Based Code Workshop Results

Form-Based Code Public Workshops. 

These sessions covered design standards proposed to regulate building scale and massing, building heights by zone, parking, open space, and more. Older presentations in this series are now complete and can be viewed on the City's YouTube channel, here.   

Meeting 1, Part 1: Public Wokshop on Building and Roof Design, Open Space- January 19, 2023  6-8 pm via zoom:The first session focused on architectural and open space regulations utilizing a form-based code.

  • A recording of the video can be found here.  
  • Post-meeting survey results can be found here.
  • Please refer to the Look Book when reviewing the survey . 

Meeting 1, Part 2: Planning Commission Study Session on Building and Roof Design, Open Space- Saturday, February 11th, 8:30am-12:30pm- (in-person at City Hall). 

  • Materials for this session and the agenda for the Planning Commission Study Session can be accessed here.

Meeting 2: Public Workshop on Streetscape, Parking, and Open Space- Thursday, February 23rd, 6:-8: pm (via zoom)

  • Post-meeting survey results can be found here
  • Survey reference materials are embedded within the survey but can be downloaded seperately, here.
  • A recording of the video can be found here.

Draft Community Engagement Report 

The current phase of General Plan updates includes an engagement report. This draft Community Engagement Report includes a review of the engagement and decision-making process through June 2022.  Additional engagement data that has not yet been incorporated into the final engagement report is provided below for review.

The General Plan update process has involved several different engagement strategies to ensure broad participation. The engagement is ongoing. This is the initial draft report and a final report will be completed at the end of the process. This working draft collates engagement efforts and input to-date. The final report, along with a report of the recommendations, will inform the decision makers before adopting the General Plan updates.  

REVIEW THE WORKING DRAFT OF THE ENGAGEMENT REPORT HERE.

Engagement Report Attachments

    Visioning Meetings - Notes by Group

    Walking Tour Polling - Raw Export

    Town Hall Notes by Group

Visioning Survey Results

Equity Partners Racial Equity Report

Additional Engagement Data


ENGAGEMENT REPORT 2 Opens in new window


Open House Poster photos:

Poster 1Poster 2Poster 3Poster 4Poster 5
Poster 6Poster 7Poster 8Poster 9Poster 10
Poster 11Poster 12Poster 13Poster 14Poster 15
Poster 16Poster 17Poster 18Poster 19Poster 20


Comments Submitted

Public comment received on the Infill Program has been saved internally as part of the administrative record for this program. Based on community interest, comments received will be uploaded to this website in batches. Generally, comments will be uploaded in chronological, weekly batches. 

Comments Received

2021JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022MARCH-MAY 2022JUNE-JULY 2022
AUGUST 1-30 2022SEPTEMBER 1-30 2022OCTOBER 1-31 2022NOV-DECEMBER 2022
No Comments Received.
JUNE 17-23 2023JUNE 24-30, 2023 
No Comments Received.
JULY 29 - AUGUST 4 2023AUGUST 5-11 2023
SEPTEMBER 2-8 2023
SEPTEMBER 23-29 2023SEPTEMBER 30-OCTOBER 6 2023
No Comments Received.
OCTOBER 21-27 2023No Comments Received.
No Comments Received.
No Comments Received.
NOVEMBER 25-DECEMBER 1 2023DECEMBER 2-8 2023
DECEMBER 9-15 2023
No Comments Received.
No Comments Received.DECEMBER 30 2023-JANUARY 19 2024
No Comments Received.
No Comments Received.FEBRUARY 17-23 2024
No Comments Received.
MARCH 9-15 2024No Comments Received.
No Comments Received.
No Comments Received.No Comments Received.
MAY 4-10 2024MAY 11-14 2024
MAY 18-24 2024MAY 25-31 2024
No Comments Received.No Comments Received.
No Comments Received.
JULY 13-19 2024No Comments Received.
No Comments Received.
No Comments Received.
No Comments Received.No Comments Received.
No Comments Received.
No Comments Received.
No Comments Received.


Agency Comments