Photo by Paul Critz
Chris Williams unveiled a future Crescent City Harbor he says will draw people in and provide economic benefit for everyone in the area.
Williams, planning director for Irvine-based TCA Architects, imagined a tree-lined Starfish Way as the port’s main thoroughfare featuring breweries, wine tasting and places to rent kayaks or charter whale watching tours. There were grand entrances, plazas with restaurants and retailers, a concert venue at Whaler Island and bungalows for rent near two expanded RV parks.
But frequent public commenter Sandy Moreno pointed out that the Crescent Harbor Vision Plan that Williams presented to the Board of Commissioners on Wednesday was the latest in a series of attempts to develop the harbor over the past two decades.
“We are a population of 7,000 people,” Moreno said. “And I don’t know what our poverty level is, but I think there are some very wealthy places in our area, but there are a lot of poor places in our area. We are reliant on tourism and, because nine months out of the year we don’t have tourism, I wonder how feasible this plan is really.”
Williams’ 16-page PowerPoint presentation is the product of an agreement the Harbor District Board of Commissioners entered into with TCA Architects on Feb. 26. It’s also part of an agreement the Harbor District made with Commercial Real Estate Development Enterprises and its managing director Steve Opp in August.
Williams will present this master plan as part of the Crescent City Harbor presentation at the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce Economic Summit on April 16. The theme of the economic summit is tourism as an economic driver.
Williams’ presentation focused primarily on the tourism-centered possibilities at the harbor. Interim Harbormaster Mike Rademaker also drew commissioners’ attention to efforts to secure an additional $5 million in grants to make up for a shortfall in the budget for the Citizens Dock and seawall rebuilds.
Under new seismic standards from the State of California, the two structures were initially required to be able to withstand an 8.0 magnitude earthquake, Rademaker said. Harbor District staff have been able to negotiate a revised threshold of a magnitude 7.2 earthquake, but “that’s still going to explode the budget.”
“Truly the shortfall is more like $10 million,” Rademaker told commissioners on Wednesday. “But we’re taking some of this funding that’s allocated for some of the extra projects that were going to be in the parking lot area and reallocating it toward the sea wall and Citizens Dock [projects].”
Rademaker said his goal at the economic summit is to convince Crescent City and Del Norte County officials to provide letters of support for an additional grant the Harbor District is pursuing through Redwoods Region RISE.
The Board of Commissioners’ response to Williams’ presentation will inform Rademaker and Community System Solutions CEO Mike Bahr on how to tailor their own talks for next week’s economic summit.
During his presentation, Williams noted that the Harbor District has about 40 acres that it could redevelop, though some projects could be realized faster than others. For example, “gateway signage” at the port’s Citizens Dock and Anchor Way roads entrances, seating areas, a food truck court and bungalows for rent near Port o’ Pints’ current spot was proffered as a Phase 1.
Phase 2 includes the rebuilt Citizens Dock with the Harbor District Office moved closer to Marine Way as well as “anchor hotels” and a parking area near Schmidt’s House of Jambalaya that could double as a venue for festivals.
The third phase involves possibly expanding Redwood Harbor Village RV park and using tree-lined thoroughfares to connect the port’s visitor-facing components together, making them accessible for pedestrians.
“One of the biggest things is we want some type of celebrated entry to bring people into this entire area instead of just a sign that sits off to the side,” he said. “People are going to look at it and go, ‘I want to go there.’”
Phase 4 bookends Starfish Way with a plaza at one end and more restaurants and retailers on both sides.
The fifth phase focuses on future parking improvements and the possible addition of a park and a connection to the California Coastal Trail, boardwalk and pedestrian crossing on U.S. 101. It also addresses a future hotel and a reserve area for the harbor’s dredge tailings. It’s in this phase that an amphitheater at Whaler Island appears.
Following Williams’ presentation, Del Norte Triplicate editor and writer, Roger Gitlin, compared the Harbor District’s vision to Monterey’s Cannery Row, which has turned into “something different than a harbor.”
Gitlin also asked for a cost estimate for the vision and its different phases.
In response to Gitlin’s comment, Williams pointed out that the Crescent City Harbor Vision Plan is a work in progress. It will be flexible and will change as things change. He also pointed out that though his presentation focused on tourism, the vision doesn’t turn its back on commercial fishing. This includes focusing on restaurants that use locally-caught seafood, Williams said, and holding fishing competitions and festivals.
Rademaker answered Moreno’s questions about whether the Harbor District’s vision plan is feasible by referring to Opp, who, he said, is the finance part of the puzzle, and the Harbor District’s RV parks.
“We need to demonstrate through the RV parks that there is a demand, that we can attract the visitation that’ll justify the investment in Phase 2 [with the] hotels,” Rademaker said. “A lot of this remains to be seen, but we’re doing it in a smart way, in phases to utilize what we have now with the RV parks.”
In March, the Crescent City Harbor District entered into an agreement with the Crescent City Elks Lodge #1689 to operate Redwood Harbor Village and Bayside RV parks. This agreement allows the Elks Lodge to market and promote the parks and offer a 20 percent discount to its members, according to a CCHD news release on March 29.
The Harbor District also began using NewBook to manage reservations and “ensure a seamless booking process while maintaining full control over pricing, availability and policies.”
On Wednesday, Harbor Commissioner Rick Shepherd echoed Wiliams’ statement that the plan doesn’t ignore the commercial fishing fleet. In fact, said Shepherd, a long-time commercial fisherman himself, the vision generates much-needed revenue to keep the commercial fishing industry thriving. Without that revenue, the harbor won’t exist, the commissioner said.
“I don’t want to look into the past anymore,” he said. “I want to look into the future. We need to move forward with this harbor so that we can exist.”
