Thumbnail image courtesy of Crescent City; YouTube video by Heather Polen Karen Betlejewski choked up a little when she described her dad’s impression of Downtown Crescent City as a 40-plus year resident returning home after being away. “He said, ‘I wanted to cry,’” she told a gathering of business owners, elected officials and other stakeholders with interest in the downtown area. Betlejewski, who manages the Del Norte County Historical Society’s museum and says “she’s into old,” said she enjoys shopping in Downtown Crescent City and she loves the people. But the vacant buildings make the area look sad. “You know that it just needs help,” she said. “And I would like to see that.” Don Arambula agreed. The project manager, principal planner and urban designer for Portland-based Crandall Arambula PC presented a preliminary assessment to Betlejewski and about 80 other residents on Wednesday. In his presentation, Arambula said Crescent City’s downtown lacks unique architectural characteristics. Buildings are under utilized or vacant. There are narrow sidewalks and poor lighting. He described the retail core along 3rd Street as anemic. But there’s hope. “You’re not what we would call a terminal downtown,” Arambula said. “You can come back from the brink.” Wednesday’s “steering committee visioning workshop” and a similar collaborative effort open to the wider community on Thursday were among the first opportunities for the public to tell city officials what they think Downtown Crescent City should look like. However, the city is still waiting to see if it’s been approved for $186,000 in Economic Development Administration grant dollars, City Manager Eric Wier told Redwood Voice Community News on Thursday. “We haven’t been rejected yet, but we also haven’t been pushed through,” he said. “They started initial conversations. It seems like they’re still vetting our application is probably the best way to put it.” Crescent City is focusing on the first phase of the Downtown Specific Masterplan project, which includes public outreach, market analysis and developing a handful of initial projects, Wier said. Receiving the EDA grant will enable the city’s consultants to develop a more complete masterplan, he said. The Crescent City Council contracted with Portland-based Crandall Arambula PC in December to develop the downtown specific masterplan. In June, councilors amended the contract to add an analysis on the cost of doing business in Downtown Crescent City as well as figure out a way to integrate Lighthouse Cove RV Park with Beachfront Park, Downtown Crescent City and development within the Crescent City Harbor District. Crescent City will use its EDA grant match of $94,000 in California Endowment Economic Resiliency Grant dollars and income from Community Development Block Grant programs to fund the first phase of the Downtown Specific Masterplan. Crescent City is using $18,000 from its fiscal year 2025 economic development budget and $22,000 in its 2025-26 fiscal year RV park budget for the Lighthouse Cove project, according to Wier. That project will rely on the market analysis conducted as part of the Downtown Specific Masterplan, Wier said. “It’s an absolutely wonderful location,” he said of the RV park. “We need to make sure we maximize what that means to the community.” A second phase of the Downtown Specific Masterplan project could include developing programs to help businesses comply with the plan, Wier said. Crandall Arambula is working with GreenWorks Design, the contractor spearheading the Beachfront Park expansion, as well as Johnson Economics. “We’re just in a discovery phase,” Arambula said. “We’re really looking for what your ideas are. We’ve done an assessment of your past planning documents and we’ve looked at the existing conditions of land-uses and your streets and sidewalks.” Crandall Arambula, GreenWorks and Johnson Economics looked at the city’s Economic Development Strategic Action Plan and its general plan, Arambula said. The masterplan will encompass the area between M and L streets in the east, including the Jedediah Smith Shopping Center, and D Street in the west. It will also include the area between Front Street and 7th Street. The core downtown area centers on 3rd Street between Front and 4th streets and from L Street to F streets. The old Tsunami Landing is within this area. Crandall Arambula and its partners will hold another public meeting on Nov. 6. Information from the land-use assessment and market study will be presented to a steering committee prior to that public meeting. It will also be available on a website focusing on the Downtown Masterplan. There will be future public meetings as the plan is refined, according to Arambula. The goal, he said, is to return to the Crescent City Council with a short list of projects that can be implemented within the first five years after the plan is adopted. During the presentation Wednesday, Arambula focused on retail in Downtown Crescent City as well as housing and economic development. He pointed out that commercial uses often include offices. “How many people have gone on vacation and have gone to a place because you’re looking for a great office district or a great housing district?” Arambula asked rhetorically. “People go downtown because they want to see something special or unique. If you look at great downtowns bar none, they all have great retail.” Great retail includes businesses that provide for people’s daily needs such as Safeway or Tractor Supply. They also include “experiential retail” that feature a dominance of local or regional shops. There are also restaurants, nightclubs and movie theaters as well as personal service providers such as salons and banks. According to Arambula, the right amount of retail is about 100,000 square feet. Crescent City has about 46,000 square feet of retail space in its core downtown area, he said. Roughly 23,000 square feet is from Grocery Outlet. There is also another 60,000 square feet available in underutilized buildings on 3rd and H streets, Arambula said. This includes the former Bank of America building that Crescent City owns. “You add your existing 46 plus 60, you’re starting to hit that magic 100,000 number,” Crandall said. “It’s not like you don’t have the space, but it’s going to take some time to do that.” Crandall also pointed to different areas adjacent to the Downtown Crescent City core that would be suitable for housing, both affordable and market-rate dwellings. “We think you’re strategically really well set up for additional housing downtown,” he said. “It’s focused on J Street, where there’s already some attached multifamily apartment housing and then along E there are some older residential cottage single-family housing and also some apartment buildings as we get into the downtown core. We want to strengthen those areas for housing.” Crescent City currently has about 206 housing units downtown and a healthy target is roughly 1,000, Arambula said. During public comment, people threw out ideas ranging from an entrepreneurial program for local youth to a safe place for the young to recreate. Matt Hildebrandt, former manager at the Fred Endert Municipal Swimming Pool, said that he’s been part of four different masterplan committees focusing on Beachfront Park. But the town itself doesn’t fit with the beauty that surrounds it. “I tell people all the time that we live in one of the most beautiful areas of the world,” he said. “And I also tell people that I wish we can do something about our ugly town that I love so much… I’m excited about what could happen.” Wier pointed out that to have a vibrant downtown, to be uniquely Crescent City, has to come from the community. Arambula is a facilitator and is meant to guide the community through what makes a successful downtown. He pointed out the plan could identify vacant buildings and provide the square footage of the retail area as well as identify the potential businesses that might be suitable for that location. “The city could be a key partner with either the vacant buildings or property owners or, even if you look at the Bank of America [building] that the city owns,” Wier said. “You spear that type of business that is identified as one of those key businesses we really want and you go out there and recruit and try to get those businesses in.” For more information about the Downtown Specific Masterplan and how to participate, visit ccdowntownplan.com.