The Collector
September 12, 2025
Major Milestone for McKinleyville’s Future Town Center
Capping off dozens of public meetings, workshops, and surveys over the last six years, the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee (MMAC) took its final vote on Wednesday to recommend county approval of the McKinleyville Town Center ordinance. Thanks to consistent education and advocacy efforts by CRTP and our members and supporters over the years, the ordinance includes major reforms to improve the walkability and bikeability of the the future Town Center.
Specifically, when the ordinance is adopted, future homes will be built more densely and mixed with commercial and civic spaces. Instead of buildings set back behind massive parking lots, parking will be more limited and located in shared lots behind buildings. Buildings will feature pedestrian-friendly frontages, and a transit center will eventually be built, along with a network of paved trails and car-free spaces. And, following a 4-2 committee vote on Wednesday, two lanes of Central Avenue will be repurposed for protected bike lanes, dramatically increasing safety and comfort for people walking, biking, and rolling.
Before any of this can happen, the ordinance has to be formally adopted by the county, which means a Planning Commission hearing – expected next Thursday – and then a vote by the Board of Supervisors. And even after the ordinance is adopted, it will take many years to see most of the promised changes to the Town Center area. Nevertheless, Wednesday’s vote by the MMAC marks a huge step forward in the years-long process to create a real, functional town center for Humboldt County’s third-largest community.
Volunteer for Bike Valet!
CRTP is providing bike valet for the new Arcata Friday Night Markets and the upcoming North Country Fair. We encourage everyone who can to bike to these events and leave their bikes with us for safekeeping!
We also still need volunteers for these events! If you’d like to help out with bike valet, please email CRTP Bike Valet Coordinator Jerry Von Dohlen at jvondohlen@humboldt.edu.
Sunset Interchange Open House Next Week
The City of Arcata and Caltrans are hosting an open house next Thursday from 5 – 7 pm at Arcata Elementary School to provide information about plans to dramatically redesign the Sunset Avenue Interchange. Current plans call for two large roundabouts to replace the complex and dangerous intersections on either side of the freeway. CRTP has successfully advocated for these roundabouts to include separated bike and pedestrian pathways, and to eliminate dangerous “slip lanes” that let drivers turn without slowing down.
We continue to advocate for raised crosswalks to slow traffic entering the roundabouts, push-button signals to allow blind pedestrians to cross the street safely, added bike facilities in several areas to prevent conflicts with pedestrians, and preservation of the existing bike lanes on H Street and LK Wood Boulevard. Come out on Thursday and ask the city to include these features to make the new intersections even safer!
More About That University Parking Lot
The environmental review comment period for Cal Poly Humboldt’s proposed new parking lot in the Arcata Bottoms closed this week, but the proposal continues to stir up controversy. CRTP’s official comment letter highlights the fact that the university can’t “take credit” for the cancellation of plans to build an unrelated parking structure somewhere else, and therefore the project needs to mitigate for the increased driving it will cause. We also argue that the project will increase hazards for bicyclists and pedestrians, and must mitigate those impacts by building better sidewalks and bike lanes.
News from Beyond the North Coast
Housing & Transit Funding (Mostly) Protected in Cap-and-Trade Deal
Governor Newsom and the state legislature have reached a tentative deal to reauthorize the state’s greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program. The deal appears to secure housing and transit funding that has been crucial for local projects including Eureka’s Linc Housing projects and EaRTH Center, Sorrel Place and the Yurok Indian Housing Authority’s 30th Street Commons in Arcata, and numerous bike, pedestrian, and transit projects. However, if funding comes in lower than expected in future years, money could be diverted to the state’s high-speed rail project instead. Meanwhile, apparently intent on canceling out any climate benefits that might be had from the cap-and-trade program, the governor also continues to push the legislature to pass laws promoting oil and gas production as part of the same package.
USDOT Is Still Holding Back Grant Funding
Despite court orders requiring the Trump administration to release already awarded grant funding for transportation safety and sustainability projects, the US Department of Transportation appears to be intentionally delaying paperwork until projects are no longer eligible. Many of those deadlines come as soon as the end of this month.
Why Are National Safety Data So Limited?
The only transportation safety data collected by the federal government is about traffic fatalities, and the information collected is extremely limited and often misleading. When people survive a crash, even if their injuries are extremely serious and long-lasting, the federal government doesn’t require that the crash be reported at all. If transportation officials really put safety first, wouldn’t they be more serious about understanding the nature of the problem?
The Collector is CRTP’s weekly transportation news roundup, published every Friday. We focus on North Coast news, but we also include relevant state, national and international transportation news – plus other items that we just find kind of interesting! To submit items for consideration, email colin@transportationpriorities.org.