The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: The Village

  • It takes a village

    It takes a village

    Proposed housing project survives but gets thrown back for modifications

    The controversial housing project, The Village, survives another round of votes from Arcata City Council. March 6 was the second public meeting at City Hall this year after The Village’s development was voted against last October. Although most community members who spoke out opposed the project, city council members, Sophia Pereira, Paul Pitino, and Susan Ornelas, voted to keep the project as long as it was sent back to developers, AMCAL, for alterations.

    “I appreciate looking at the other options AMCAL brought forward,” Pereira said. “But given the high demand for housing students will live in any type of housing that is available. We have homes built specifically for single families but we see students living in them because they need a place to live. We need to consider moving forward.”

    The Village’s original project called for a four 4-story building, 240 unit and 800 beds for purpose built student housing. Last year the community was divided on whether or not they wanted such a large infrastructure to be built in residential neighborhoods off campus.

    The plan was untimely voted against but the city council proposed a revision that included both students and open market housing. Mayor Bret Watson was the only person to vote against his fellow city council members but was originally a proponent for the revision.

    “Everyone needs housing and we have heard this on all levels,” Watson said. “But the only way that I am interested in this project is if it is 65 percent and 35 percent (student to open market ratio) and doesn’t exceed over 602 beds.”

    The new revisions for The Village has 400 beds strictly for student housing and 150 beds for open market and families. Of the 150 beds, half of them must be single bedroom and the other half available for units with two or three bedrooms.

    Although Watson wouldn’t budge from 602 beds, the rest of the city council allowed for a 5 percent increase or decrease to that number, which would make it around 630 beds in total. This allows AMCAL developer, David Moon, and his partners to develop a new plan that they can resubmit with Arcata City planning commission.

    “Our Turlock project is rated the number one student housing project in the state of California,” Moon said. “The property that sits behind the project has gone up in value by 10 percent and in two years we have had it 100 percent leased.”

    Not everyone is convinced with what Moon said. President of Arcata Coalition for Responsible Housing, Eric Jules said The Village is too big and ACRH does not support the project moving forward. Jules reminded the city council that HSU was once a partner of the project but is no longer involved.

    “This is a lot to ask for one area of the city,” Jules said. “We want a healthy development for the site and The Village isn’t that.”

    Other community members voiced concerns about traffic, pollution and effects on climate change that The Village might bring. Keenan Milton of Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities said the current climate change is occurring because of the last 100 years of building design.

    Milton said projects like The Village contribute to this and we need to change the way we build our infrastructure. Milton was also concerned with the amount of cars that would be added to the city because of The Village.

    “If you build a parking lot people will fill it up with cars,” Milton said. “Having parking attached to an apartment is a subsidy for people owning cars. People without cars should pay less rent.”

    There was one community member who fought for The Village project, Rollin Richmond. Richmond is a board member at The Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation and said housing is pertinent for the community and we need to provide housing for students.

    “Housing is an important issue and particularly in Arcata,” Richmond said. “Nineteen percent of students are homeless. I don’t have advice on the plan options to pick but we need housing.”

  • The Village is back

    The Village is back

    Controversial student housing gets another attempt in Arcata

    In August of last year Arcata City Council voted against a proposed housing development called Village Student Housing Project, or simply “The Village.” Although the city council opposed The Village project, they reserved the notion that if changes were made in development plans they would reconsider, that time has come.

    “What we are trying to do on the 30th is to bring community back together,” David Loya, director of community development for Arcata, said. “We want to get a sense of the concerns with the council and provide a working environment so our community can provide feedback to the council.”

    Humboldt County, along with the entire state of California, is falling short for affordable housing while the wealth gap between rich and poor grows larger. According to the nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California, the state is short of 1.5 million affordable rental homes. Humboldt County needs 3,300 new housing units with 1,300 of those being for low-income residents, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Loya said the staff at Arcata City Hall is excited to continue dialogue on The Village and that they support the project because of the housing crisis we are in.

    “Students can’t find housing in Arcata,” Loya said. “They look to McKinleyville or Eureka and the city needs to play a role in fighting for student housing.”

    The Village’s proposal was brought before the city council six times before being shut down by a split vote of two for and two abstaining with one vote absence. The city council received hundreds of letters and tens of hours of public testimony from divided community members. The original development plan for The Village was to be an off-campus student-only housing project, but city council members wanted the project to integrate more than just HSU students.

    City council member Susan Ornelas said in a letter written to The Village developer, David Moon, that “while we need student housing, we need every kind of housing in this community. We need professor housing, we need millennial professional housing, we need housing for young families.” Loya said Ornelas had discussions almost immediately with AMCAL after the project was opposed, addressing concerns with marketing housing instead of only student housing.

    “The project was critiqued by quite a bit of people because of its expense,” Loya said. “But the reality is it’s expensive to live anywhere in Arcata with the average rent being $600-650 per room. The apartments on Foster Ave. are upwards of $800 which isn’t really affordable to students, but that’s where they’re finding to live.”

    According to the City of Arcata, the project owner has reconsidered its development plans and has modified the project to include both open market and student oriented development as well as other “substantial changes.” Loya said the meeting will be open to the public and the developers will be there to answer questions.

    “We would love to hear students talk at the meeting and tell us any ideas they have about the project,” Loya said.

    City council meeting on The Village will be January 30, 2019 | 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. | Arcata City Hall Council Chamber | 736 F Street

  • Letter to the editor

    Letter to the editor

    New Student Housing Community in the Works for Lumberjacks!

    Dear Editor:

    I’m pleased to announce that The Village, a new housing choice, is in the works for students attending Humboldt State University. As you probably know, HSU currently has room on campus for only about 25 percent of the students enrolled, which has made it difficult for HSU students to find housing year after year.

    According to a report funded by HSU, the Arcata housing market is so constrained, some students sleep in their cars or camp in the woods while they look for housing. There is currently demand for roughly 800 new student housing beds in order to address students’ housing insecurity and to support their academic pursuits.

    After various inadequate attempts to increase housing options, the city is now on the verge of having the most viable new housing choice for students in many years.

    The Village isn’t just another apartment building, it is planned as a purpose-built student housing community only half a mile from campus that specifically meets students’ needs with academic amenities such as spacious study rooms, computer lab and presentation room for individual or group study and collaboration, a fitness center with on-demand fitness programs, outdoor community space and secure covered bicycle parking. The Village will also have 24-hour professional on-site management, as well as peer mentorship from resident assistants that will be responsive to students’ needs. This property will also include many sustainable features including solar power, a bicycle-share program and electric vehicle charging stations, and will be built to environmentally conscious Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver standards.

    The Village will help improve the reputation of the Arcata community by creating more healthy competition in the housing market and energizing the local economy that is largely fueled by HSU and its students, and will introduce more diversity into the housing mix to reflect the diversity of today’s students and their needs.

    Despite the many positive benefits The Village will bring to the community, there are those who are actively trying to prevent current and future Lumberjacks from making The Village their home while attending HSU.

    If you are in support of the positive housing choice The Village will offer to HSU students and the community of Arcata and want to find out more, please visit this website: https://www.thevillagearcata.com/. You can also contact the Arcata City Council and let them know you support more student housing in Arcata, especially purpose-built student housing communities like The Village.

    It’s all about choices. Your support of this project can help ensure The Village is able to offer HSU students an exciting, new place to call home, and one that HSU students deserve.

    Percival Vaz
    Chief Executive Officer
    AMCAL Equities, LLC