Thumbnail: Crescent City is pursuing a Caltrans grant that would make its highway corridor safer for all modes of transportation and tie its downtown area to the Crescent City Harbor. | Screenshot As Crescent City focuses on revitalizing its downtown, City Manager Eric Wier asked councilors to give a thought to the highway corridor. Describing M and L streets as a hardscape dominated by pavement, sidewalks and buildings, Wier urged councilors to pursue a Caltrans grant aimed at addressing all modes of transportation. He envisioned more greenery, possibly reducing the number of lanes on the northbound side and building wider sidewalks in order to reduce the amount of highway someone has to cross to get to Safeway. “A big part of the experience when you come into Crescent City is that highway corridor,” Wier said. “It is the downtown, but it’s not really part of the downtown. You have Caltrans and highway facilities coming through there so it really does need its own plan.” Three city councilors on Monday authorized Wier to pursue a $443,353 Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant from Caltrans. The grant will pay for the city’s Redwood Highway Multi-modal Transportation & Land Use Plan, or MTLUP. According to Wier, the deadline to submit the grant application is Friday. The city has already received support from the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors, the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce and the Redwood Coast Transit Authority, he said. Councilor Jason Greenough was absent. The city is currently taking applications to fill a vacant seat left behind by Daran Dooley, who resigned in October. The grant also includes an 11% match, which equals $50,853, Wier said. Staff time, valued at a minimum of $6,500, could be used to meet part of that requirement. Crescent City would then seek $44,352 from the Del Norte Local Transportation Commission, he said. If transportation commissioners don’t contribute match funding for the Caltrans grant, the Council could authorize an allocation from general fund reserves or SB 1 funding, according to Wier’s staff report. According to the city manager, the grant is an opportunity to make U.S. 101 between Northcrest Drive and the city’s southern border accessible for all users while providing a link to the downtown and the Crescent City Harbor. Wier’s staff report calls for a more pedestrian and bike-friendly highway with protected bicycle lanes, “comfortable transit shelters” and “seamless connectivity.” If Crescent City obtains the grant, it would begin developing the plan in October 2026. All grant dollars must be spent by June 2029. One concern city staff seek to address with the Redwood Highway Multi-Modal Transportation & Land Use Plan is the number of lanes on the northbound side of U.S. 101 north of the S Curves, Wier said. “The lane doesn’t start until right in the middle of the S Curve,” he said. “It’s only in one stretch. It’s on the northbound side, not on the southbound (side) and it ends at 9th Street. Can we use that space to have more of these bulb outs, more greenery and wider sidewalks on the other side, which would reduce the amount of highway that you have to cross.” Wier also argued that it’s also hard to navigate a left-hand turn from L Street onto Front Street. “If you happen to be in the right lane and want to make that (turn), now you have to get over three lanes,” he said. “There are a lot of reasons why we want to take a look at this.” Potentially reducing the number of lanes on the northbound side of the highway will require a “good idea of traffic volumes (and) traffic engineering,” Wier said. It would be expensive and would require a lot of community engagement. The Redwood Highway Multi-modal Transportation and Land Use Plan would also require a preliminary environmental assessment and would have to explore several different concepts, Wier said. Just before she railed against proposed changes to Crescent City’s sign ordinance, Mayor Pro Tem Candace Tinkler praised the multi-modal highway plan. “This is not only a great safety improvement, but it will visually make our area much more attractive for people coming in,” she said. “We all know it’s beautiful when you get off the highway, but the highway itself — driving through a concrete jungle doesn’t say, ‘Yay! Let’s vacation here!.’”