Opinion and Commentary By Donna Westfall – February 5, 2026
Yesterday, a friend and I went into Crescent City, City Hall and asked to see a couple of files connected to two apartment building projects.
WHY?
Let’s go back about 18 years. At 708 J St, the fire department had a burn and cleared the land of an old building. I recall former City Manager, Mike Young, telling me that the purpose was to build apartments for seniors. Whoo Hoo I thought. That sounds like a great idea.
Fast forward to this past week when we received a mailer from City Hall:
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING – PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING
On Thursday, February 12, 2026, at 5:30 PM, the Crescent City Planning Commission will be holding a Public Hearing during the regularly scheduled meeting, located at the Wastewater Treatment Plant Conference Room (210 Battery St., Crescent City, Ca. 95531) on the following applications and items:
AGENDA ITEM #2: A public Hearing to consider a Major Site Plan & Architectural Design Review…. for Elk Creek Builder’s proposed 14-unit Multi-Family Residential-Only Development, located at 708 J St.
Now here’s something that deserves questioning: The proposed project is determined to be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to DEQA Guidelines section 15332 (In-Fill Development Projects).
Don’t get me wrong. I despise all the rules, regulations and restrictions that our state has come up with, but I do want to know why this particular one is being exempt. Or are all the apartments being exempted from CEQA?
14 units. Seems like a nice small project and they’ve already started grading.
Let’s now look at another project: It’s for 162 units located at 1000-3000 David Street in Crescent City described as Three Multifamily Apartment Buildings.
In the Information Fields it’s described as Low income housing. (They’ve already paid $760,230 in sewer connection fees.) It’s called Battery Point Multifamily Apartments and the valuation of work is over $55 million.
A few questions to consider since smarter people than me or more skeptical than me have wondered:
- How many low income people do we have in this town?
- Will people be coming in from other areas to take advantage of these low income apartments?
- Will we end up like Minnesota and have immigrants that don’t speak English and not wanting to speak English but wanting to go on welfare?
- Will the owners of the apartments be required to pay property taxes or will they be exempt?
- Someone mentioned that the tenants would get free healthcare of eye care or dental care.
- Are any locals employed on this project or are most of them being brought in from outside?
- Who determines who can hold meetings at the Wastewater Treatment Plant?
- Who determines how many low income apartments can be built?
If you’re interested, try to attend Thursday’s meeting January 12th and ask questions, seek answers.
