Council ratifies submission of California Jobs First grant application for Redwood Discovery Center

The Crescent City Council on Tuesday ratified the city’s application to the California Jobs First catalyst grant program for the Redwood Discovery Center project, a joint visitor and cultural center envisioned to combine state and national park visitor services, chamber of commerce visitor information and interpretive exhibits.

City Manager Weir and staff described the grant application as a next step to make a previously studied feasibility plan “shovel ready.” Weir said the application requested roughly $985,000 to complete environmental documents, finish plans, specifications and estimates (PS&E), and support design of park trail and botanical garden elements and a web-based economic analysis platform. “This would get it to shovel-ready status so the project could be competitive for implementation funds,” Weir said.

City staff and partners have already invested about $160,000 in feasibility work funded by the city, the Redwood Parks Conservancy and state and national park partners, according to the presentation. Council heard that the full build-out is a larger undertaking — staff provided a rough order-of-magnitude build estimate in the meeting of $10 million to $12 million — and that the project could be staged, with an initial build phase closer to $1 million to enclose the building’s front entry and create expanded gift shop/exhibit space.

The proposal describes reworking the building’s front entry, reducing stair flights, improving accessibility to the auditorium and elevator, creating joint front-desk staffing for rangers and chamber staff, and adding interpretive exhibits, an accessible deck to the Tall Trees interpretive trail and office space for partners. Staff said letters of support came from State and National Parks, the Chamber of Commerce and the Redwood Parks Conservancy. Staff also noted the program is competitive within the four-county North Coast region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino and Lake counties); the region has about $14 million in catalyst funding with a subset reserved for administration and a portion for catalyst projects.

Council ratified the application submission by unanimous vote. The recorded vote shows: Council member Dooley — yes; Council member Greenough — yes; Mayor Pro Tem Wright — yes; Mayor Altman — yes.

Staff emphasized the application is competitive and that implementation funding remains limited; the council’s ratification permits staff to pursue the funding and pursue follow-up design and environmental work if the application is awarded.