Deer Creek Plaza Community Meeting
Thurs Nov 20 6-8pm Luchessi Community Center

Large lots eyed for shopping October 2, 2008 C Young Argus-Courier

Most recently, a revised site plan for a 36-acre site on North McDowell Boulevard, across from Petaluma Valley Hospital, was the subject of a preliminary review by the Site Plan and Architectural Review Committee.

Deer Creek Plaza

The project: Formerly known as “the DSL site” under owner Downey Savings and Loan, the hay field between McDowell and Highway 101 was purchased about a month ago by Merlone Geier Partners of San Francisco.

MGP specializes in commercial retail shopping centers and acquired all of Downey’s real estate portfolio, said Greg Geertsen, managing director. Geertsen and his colleagues presented the city’s Site Plan and Architectural review Committee with a plan showing a large home improvement and garden store — possibly Lowe’s, which was previously announced for the site — along with other unnamed retailers, a health club, a pharmacy and medical offices.

The owners would restore Deer Creek through the site and create public plazas and open space along the waterway, MGP officials said.

The latest: SPARC and members of the public who attended the Sept. 25 meeting weren’t sold on the plan.

“I don’t see anything but a bunch of boxes scattered on this site,” said SPARC member Jack Rittenhouse.

“I don’t think it fits here in Petaluma,” SPARC member Dennis Elias said. “It’s still an automobile-centric site.”

Critics said the site plan lacked imagination and was disappointing, noting that the medical offices were shown in the northeast corner instead of closer to the hospital, where patients and doctors could walk back and forth. Several speakers said the wide-open parcel could give the east side of Petaluma a downtown-like urban center instead of a traditional shopping center.

“There’s an opportunity here for a significant and important community-serving center for the east side,” former council member David Keller said.

“I think you have an unbelievable opportunity to take this 40-acre site and make it spctacular,” SPARC Chair John Mills said.

What’s next: MGP officials said they will hold a community meeting with neighbors before making revisions to their plan. Whatever comes out of that process will likely be the subject of a second preliminary SPARC review, not yet scheduled.

“We certainly will go through a community-input process,” MGP Managing Director David Geiser said. “We know we’re going to make revisions to our plan.”............

Deer Creek Plaza Community Meeting
Thurs Nov 20 6-8pm Luchessi Community Center