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Crescent City is in a good position to obtain a $3 million Clean California Grant to create a seamless gateway to the Beachfront Park area, staff told councilors.

But, while the council authorized City Manager Eric Wier to submit the application to Caltrans, the three councilors who attended Monday’s meeting also asked if they would need to discuss bridge loans soon.

“We’re talking about a funding cycle that’s very similar to the other projects we have going on, especially the Prop 68 funding,” Mayor Pro Tem Blake Inscore said. “I know we want this, but from a cash-flow standpoint, we have not made a decision yet about things such as bridge loans and so forth to make sure we have the cash available to do all the things we’re talking about doing.”

Crescent City is pursuing about $25 million in state and federal grant dollars, including an $18 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or RAISE grant, Wier said. Whether the city would need to consider taking out a bridge loan to address cash flow issues that may arise depends on how successful those applications are, he said.

Crescent City’s Clean California Grant application is due April 28. Like the RAISE Grant and Proposition 68 grants, the city doesn’t have to provide contributing funds to obtain it, Wier said.

It’s also not a grant that involves being reimbursed a lump sum at the end of the project, Public Works Director David Yaeger told councilors.

According to Wier, the city can apply for $1 million “up-front.”
The city has added a line-item in its 2023-24 budget of $60,000 as a place-holder for any bridge loan interest it may have to pay, Wier said. Still, that interest payment would be less than a percentage match for the projects Crescent City is undertaking, he told councilors.

The city’s Beachfront Park expansion — paid for by more than $8 million in state Proposition 68 grant dollars — is a catalyst for a project that will include improved pedestrian access in the area, a facelift for the Crescent City Cultural Center entrance and a cleanup of Elk Creek on the park’s east side.

Staff are proposing moving the Redwood Coast Transit Authority hub from its current location near the Cultural Center and the Point of Honor Monument down the street to between J and K streets. This will enable the city to add parking near the Point of Honor monument and provide for charter bus staging.

The gateway monuments will also include landscaping near the S Curves to mimic coastal dunes and other environmental features in the area. Tolowa basket patterns and other design elements will also be incorporated to acknowledge the city’s original inhabitants.

“The flow between this grant request and the (Beachfront Park) masterplan and the extension of the Tolowa trail and cultural elements will be seamless,” Yaeger said, referring to a proposed gateway to the Tolowa Interpretive Walk near the Cultural Center entrance and Elk Creek. “This is going to get us ahead on the Front Street project. We’re not building Front Street with these funds, but we’re doing these parking elements. We’re not doing storm drains, but it’s getting us toward the end goal.”

According to Wier, the Clean California Grant will pay for developing parking areas along Front Street between Play Street and the Cultural Center, but not the rebuild of the street itself.

Crescent City plans to use a combination of general fund dollars, Measure S funds, American Rescue Plan Act dollars, and funding from the Del Norte Local Transportation Commission to rebuild Front Street from G to I Street.

Further funding from the Del Norte Transportation Commission combined with $750,000 in federal Community Project Funding dollars will extend the Front Street reconstruction to Play Street.

As for the Cultural Center, the proposal for the Clean California grant is to remove the staircases and install a ground-level entrance. This coincides with another proposed endeavor to create an interagency visitor center in partnership with Redwood National and State Parks, the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau and the Redwood Parks Conservancy.

“You’d be able to park right on the street, right next to it, and be able to enter the Cultural Center at that ground level,” Wier said. “(We’d) create the Del Norte Discovery Center. This would be that destination and we could really tell people about our area and become that center of it. (The) landscape piece of it we can pick off in this particular grant and then there’ll be a future discussion regarding the overall center and improvements needed on that front.”

Wier said the city is working with the same consultant that’s spearheading the Beachfront Park redesign, SeaReach. Much of those projects have gone through the permitting process, he said. This includes to reaching out to California Coastal Commission representatives.

“They’re also very excited about this project and supportive of it,” he said. “It doesn’t mean achieving the Coastal Development Permit will be easy, but with them also supporting this and trying to find solutions, I think we have a very good grant application where we’ll be competitive.”

The Clean California Local Grant Program was created through Assembly Bill 149 and is one part of a $1.1 billion Clean California initiative that also includes litter abatement efforts, beautification and safety projects. Nearly $100 million in CCLGP is expected to be made available in the 2023-24 state budget.

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