Barry
05-14-2009, 12:46 PM
Petaluma Target center headed for summer showdown
Builder of long-planned but controversial shopping center says final hearings could begin in July
By Corey Young ([email protected])
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF
Published: Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Target center headed for summer showdown | Petaluma360.com | Petaluma Argus-Courier | Petaluma, CA (https://www.petaluma360.com/article/20090514/COMMUNITY/905139903/1362?Title=Target-center-headed-for-summer-showdown)
https://www.petaluma360.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=SR&Date=20090514&Category=COMMUNITY&ArtNo=905139903&Ref=AR&Profile=1362&MaxW=250&border=0
Terry Hankins / Argus-Courier Staff
This aerial view of the former Kenilworth Junior High
siteis where Regency Centers plans to build a
shopping center anchored by a Target store. The
33-acre property includes the Little League fields at
right, but not the fairgrounds property that includes the
auto speedway on the other side of Kenilworth Drive.
Five years after purchasing a chunk of central Petaluma land for a major shopping center, the project developer says its fate could be decided within months.
Regency Centers has completed its application for the Target-anchored “East Washington Place” project and expects that city hearings will begin in July, vice president Bruce Qualls said this week.
Those hearings will follow the re-lease of a re-vised environmental impact report that examines the latest version of the project, a 378,000-square-foot proposal with office space above some of the smaller shops.
Although an EIR isn’t required for the project, Regency felt the additional environmental studies would produce a more “rigorous” vetting of its plans, Qualls said.
Since the former Kenilworth Junior High School site on East Washington Street was purchased from the school district and several nationally known “big box” stores were announced as potential tenants, the project has been at the center of debates about retail growth in Petaluma.
Groups like the Petaluma Neighborhood Association and the Living Wage Coalition of Sonoma County have questioned the inclusion of big-box stores at East Washington Place and other development proposals, saying they could pose a threat to small businesses and existing retail jobs in Petaluma.
Before the General Plan’s adoption in 2008, some opponents of the projects sought to limit the size of new stores in Petaluma by including a cap of 20,00 sqaure feet in the planning document, but the proposal wasn’t adopted.
Most recently, East Washington Place was the first development proposal to be subject to the city’s new Fiscal and Economic Impact Assessment requirement, an effort to identify both the benefits and costs of large stores.
A city-commissioned study of the Regency project said it would create hundreds of jobs and bring in about $1.5 million in annual sales and property taxes, but critics said the report was based on flawed or outdated data that made its findings overly optimistic.
Debate over whether the project would be good or bad for Petaluma swirled at a City Council hearing on the FEIA last month, with members of the council’s progressive majority asking for more details on how a Target store would impact jobs and sales at existing retailers.
The fact that other tenants in the center are still unknown also creates uncertainty over the project’s impact on existing businesses, some council members said.
But it remains to be seen what role economic concerns about a proposed project will play in deciding its fate.
The FEIA requirement was written so that the council would not have to take a vote on whether a project would provide a benefit for the city, though some council members suggested strengthening the FEIA policy after saying the Regency report and a subsequent study on another project were inadequate.
That second project, Deer Creek Village on North McDowell Boulevard, was the subject of an FEIA hearing last week. Both projects are considered to be “conforming” with the General Plan because they match the mixed-use land designations for their respective sites.
City Attorney Eric Danly told the council that if the General Plan’s land use designation is satisfied by a project, and the project meets the city’s zoning code, there may not be a “discretionary entitlement opportunity” — meaning the council would not get to vote on whether to approve a project.
Local land-use legislation, such as the General Plan, “creates entitlements for conforming projects,” Danly told the council.
The council has asked city staff to revise the development review process so that large projects can get through preliminary hearings earlier, but be ultimately decided at the council level. Such a process hasn’t been adopted yet.
The council is expected to weigh in on the EIR for the Regency project, which will first be reviewed by the planning commission. The city-prepared report is not completed yet, but Qualls said that may happen in a month or so.
The project’s design, which Regency said will meet green-building standards but critics have called too similar to a strip mall, is also expected to be a hot topic at hearings before Petaluma’s Site Plan and Architectural Review Committee.
Former City Councilman Matt Maguire, in an Argus-Courier commentary last week, said problems with the project include traffic, “tired and unimaginative aesthetics” and “car dependency.”
Qualls defended the project’s environmental bonafides, saying Regency is exploring the use of solar electricity and recycled water, and will add more than 8,200 feet of bike lanes and new sidewalks for pedestrians to reach the site.
He also pointed to the re-opening of the pedestrian overcrossing above Highway 101 as a key point of access for the center. Regency is planning a plaza area where the overcrossing intersects with the project.
The company expects to tweak its project further based on comments at city hearings, Qualls said.
“You can’t be all things to all people, and I recognize that fact in the world,” he said. “But going forward, we will be working efficiently with the community and council to get this proposal refined and approved in the next four or five months.”
(Contact Corey Young at [email protected])
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Builder of long-planned but controversial shopping center says final hearings could begin in July
By Corey Young ([email protected])
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF
Published: Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Target center headed for summer showdown | Petaluma360.com | Petaluma Argus-Courier | Petaluma, CA (https://www.petaluma360.com/article/20090514/COMMUNITY/905139903/1362?Title=Target-center-headed-for-summer-showdown)
https://www.petaluma360.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=SR&Date=20090514&Category=COMMUNITY&ArtNo=905139903&Ref=AR&Profile=1362&MaxW=250&border=0
Terry Hankins / Argus-Courier Staff
This aerial view of the former Kenilworth Junior High
siteis where Regency Centers plans to build a
shopping center anchored by a Target store. The
33-acre property includes the Little League fields at
right, but not the fairgrounds property that includes the
auto speedway on the other side of Kenilworth Drive.
Five years after purchasing a chunk of central Petaluma land for a major shopping center, the project developer says its fate could be decided within months.
Regency Centers has completed its application for the Target-anchored “East Washington Place” project and expects that city hearings will begin in July, vice president Bruce Qualls said this week.
Those hearings will follow the re-lease of a re-vised environmental impact report that examines the latest version of the project, a 378,000-square-foot proposal with office space above some of the smaller shops.
Although an EIR isn’t required for the project, Regency felt the additional environmental studies would produce a more “rigorous” vetting of its plans, Qualls said.
Since the former Kenilworth Junior High School site on East Washington Street was purchased from the school district and several nationally known “big box” stores were announced as potential tenants, the project has been at the center of debates about retail growth in Petaluma.
Groups like the Petaluma Neighborhood Association and the Living Wage Coalition of Sonoma County have questioned the inclusion of big-box stores at East Washington Place and other development proposals, saying they could pose a threat to small businesses and existing retail jobs in Petaluma.
Before the General Plan’s adoption in 2008, some opponents of the projects sought to limit the size of new stores in Petaluma by including a cap of 20,00 sqaure feet in the planning document, but the proposal wasn’t adopted.
Most recently, East Washington Place was the first development proposal to be subject to the city’s new Fiscal and Economic Impact Assessment requirement, an effort to identify both the benefits and costs of large stores.
A city-commissioned study of the Regency project said it would create hundreds of jobs and bring in about $1.5 million in annual sales and property taxes, but critics said the report was based on flawed or outdated data that made its findings overly optimistic.
Debate over whether the project would be good or bad for Petaluma swirled at a City Council hearing on the FEIA last month, with members of the council’s progressive majority asking for more details on how a Target store would impact jobs and sales at existing retailers.
The fact that other tenants in the center are still unknown also creates uncertainty over the project’s impact on existing businesses, some council members said.
But it remains to be seen what role economic concerns about a proposed project will play in deciding its fate.
The FEIA requirement was written so that the council would not have to take a vote on whether a project would provide a benefit for the city, though some council members suggested strengthening the FEIA policy after saying the Regency report and a subsequent study on another project were inadequate.
That second project, Deer Creek Village on North McDowell Boulevard, was the subject of an FEIA hearing last week. Both projects are considered to be “conforming” with the General Plan because they match the mixed-use land designations for their respective sites.
City Attorney Eric Danly told the council that if the General Plan’s land use designation is satisfied by a project, and the project meets the city’s zoning code, there may not be a “discretionary entitlement opportunity” — meaning the council would not get to vote on whether to approve a project.
Local land-use legislation, such as the General Plan, “creates entitlements for conforming projects,” Danly told the council.
The council has asked city staff to revise the development review process so that large projects can get through preliminary hearings earlier, but be ultimately decided at the council level. Such a process hasn’t been adopted yet.
The council is expected to weigh in on the EIR for the Regency project, which will first be reviewed by the planning commission. The city-prepared report is not completed yet, but Qualls said that may happen in a month or so.
The project’s design, which Regency said will meet green-building standards but critics have called too similar to a strip mall, is also expected to be a hot topic at hearings before Petaluma’s Site Plan and Architectural Review Committee.
Former City Councilman Matt Maguire, in an Argus-Courier commentary last week, said problems with the project include traffic, “tired and unimaginative aesthetics” and “car dependency.”
Qualls defended the project’s environmental bonafides, saying Regency is exploring the use of solar electricity and recycled water, and will add more than 8,200 feet of bike lanes and new sidewalks for pedestrians to reach the site.
He also pointed to the re-opening of the pedestrian overcrossing above Highway 101 as a key point of access for the center. Regency is planning a plaza area where the overcrossing intersects with the project.
The company expects to tweak its project further based on comments at city hearings, Qualls said.
“You can’t be all things to all people, and I recognize that fact in the world,” he said. “But going forward, we will be working efficiently with the community and council to get this proposal refined and approved in the next four or five months.”
(Contact Corey Young at [email protected])
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