Barlow Development: is it wise?

[treasure]

Just a thought.

Since flooding has occurred in and around downtown Sebastopol for as long as buildings have been built there, how much sense does it make to even try to invest yet more of our precious energy and resources in that same reluctant and problematic area?

Tara

[Barry]

Just a thought.
Since flooding has occurred in and around downtown Sebastopol for as long as buildings have been built there, how much sense does it make to even try to invest yet more of our precious energy and resources in that same reluctant and problematic area?

The plans are to flood-proof the buildings, essentially making them water-tight. Since the building then becomes a balloon that will want to float on the flood, it literally needs to be screwed down, which is the plan.

[rossmen]

what a wacco idea! imagine we had an earthquake and a flood at the same time... then the old fruit packing sheds which have been patched up into screwed down boats will float away down the laguna : ) cool!

The plans are to flood-proof the buildings, essentially making them water-tight. Since the building then becomes a balloon that will want to float on the flood, it literally needs to be screwed down, which is the plan.

[podfish]

The plans are to flood-proof the buildings, essentially making them water-tight. Since the building then becomes a balloon that will want to float on the flood, it literally needs to be screwed down, which is the plan.

cool. Put enough of them in and they'll pull the whole town above the floodwaters.

[Magick]

It is important to note that although the businesses that are interested in occupying the Barlow space are very cool the question still remains can the city support so many new businesses when so many established stores are failing. Where is the economic study that would determine the feasibility of such a plan for the town as a whole?
Many of the reasons the northeast plan did not come to fruition are still a reality. A flood, earthquake, liquefaction zone is not to be made light of. Displacement of water will have to go somewhere, Johnson st. etc..
Things to consider...

cool. Put enough of them in and they'll pull the whole town above the floodwaters.

[1104GT]

The Barlow seems to be everything we say we want; pedestrian friendly, local businesses, a place to expand our farmer's market, utilizing land at the center of town where public transit is most available etc. It's not going to be the end of "downtown". Last time I looked, it IS downtown. Maybe some new competition will make existing property owners invest in their decaying buildings.

As for economic feasibility, if the owner and financiers didn't think it was viable, they wouldn't build it. We're up to our ears in expensive, worthless reports. Do we really need another? Just because one established business fails doesn't mean another different one won't succeed. It has to do with the products, services, prices and quality of the products being sold along with the location of the store. No one should be surprised when an upstairs retail tenant in the Basso building fails. It's bad retail space.

The Northwest plan didn't go anywhere because there is a huge resistance to change in Sebastopol. We need to move beyond being a town of protestors and become a town of progressive planners.

Although I understand it's in the flood plane, that hasn't deterred businesses from operating there for decades. And as for displacement of water, do the math. When you calculate the volume of water displaced by all the Barlow buildings and compare it to the overall volume of the Laguna at flood stage, you will see that it compares with dropping a grain of sand in a large bucket of water. And that may be overstating it.

I plan to get out and support a good thing!