Northeast Area Plan Update

[monroe0719]

Sebastopol Preservation Coalition
The Planning Commission met Tuesday night. The results are disappointing, though perhaps not unexpected. Deliberations will continue in two weeks, but it seems pretty clear that six of the seven Commissioners (Yvette Williams van Aggelen being the only exception) feel that it is fine to do away with all traffic Levels of Service for not only the NE Area, but all of Downtown Sebastopol. 8,000 new daily car trips is just a fact of nature we should accept! The main theme that the six Commissioners kept repeating was that growth was, in their view, "inevitable" and that we may as well plan for it by approving the Northeast Area Plan and Environmental Impact Report. Some felt that creating more housing was a moral responsibility. And that density would bring public transit. One commissioner spoke of the City's need for sales tax revenue from retail stores. They indicated some awareness of reported water shortages but felt that the it was a matter of a disagreement among experts and that the City's water supply was adequate for this development, and that it was beyond the City's scope to determine impacts of the Sonoma County wells on Sebastopol's aquifer.
What they seemed to miss was the Planning Director's statement that this would be an expensive area to build in because it is largely a flood zone (so who would even want expensive condos in a multi-story development with a cement factory across the street?) and also that Sebastopol already has a hard time filing currently available commercial spaces. The PC¢s assumption was that those who oppose the NEAP oppose all housing and all growth, ignoring that we have consistently asked for growth and development to occur within the guidelines of our current General Plan, and close to the town Plaza and our existing town center. We would also like to see the increased public transit before the growth!


What happens next? After the Planning Commission completes its deliberations, it passes recommendations on to the City Council. Then the City Council will have a public hearing at which the public may give 3 minute presentations, just as we did for the Planning Commission. We plan to come out in full force, and hopefully with a visual presentation. Please plan to come to that very important City Council meeting; it may be your last chance to have a voice on the NE Area Plan.

We will announce the Council date when we learn of it, and we will plan to hold a SPC meeting in advance to prepare people for strong and effective presentations. We hope you will come!

Meanwhile, letters to the Press Democrat and Sonoma West are very effective in raising consciousness and bursting mythical bubbles. And emailing your Council Members can also be effective: www.ci.sebastopol.ca.us/citycouncil.shtml <https://www.ci.sebastopol.ca.us/citycouncil.shtml>
Support revitalization of the NE Area with an amended Plan consistent with the current General Plan.

Contributions are needed for legal and planning consultants. They are tax deductible when checks are made out OWL/SPC and sent to Clare Najarian, 357 Neva St, Sebastopol, CA 95472.

Info: [email protected], or Clare Najarian at 823-1405

[PeriodThree]

The opponents of the Northeast plan claim to want growth which is:

close to the town Plaza and our existing town center.

The Northeast plan area starts across the street from the Plaza, and goes approximately three blocks to Morris Street. I can see no un or under developed land which is closer to the town Plaza and existing town center.

The study area also includes some areas East of Morris Street, but no development is planned for that area.

Using the 'My Maps' feature of google maps I have created a little map of the area.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&...80ea58382&z=15

I was a little sloppy in the boundary line I drew, but not enough that I think it changes the meaning of the map.

I set it so that anyone can edit it. Please do edit the map to illustrate your areas of concern.

But please, may I respectfully ask the plan opponents to not argue for development of land which does not exist?

[Kenyon Webster]

The minutes of the Planning Commission's March 25, 2008 deliberations on the Northeast Area Specific Plan are posted on the City web site at: https://www.ci.sebastopol.ca.us/pdfs/planningcommission/03-25-08PCMinutes.pdf The Commissioners, Sebastopol citizens who serve the community without pay as a public service, had a thoughtful and lengthy discussion of the Plan issues.

This discussion followed the Commission's public hearing on the Plan on March 11. On April 8, the Commission completed their deliberations on the Northeast Plan, recommending by a 6-1 vote certification of the EIR, approval of the General Plan and Municipal Code amendments, and approval of the Specific Plan.

One aspect where the Commission forwarded comments rather than a recommendation is the Growth Management General Plan and Municipal Code amendments. There were divergent views on this and no majority position.

The Commission also made recommendations for some revisions to the Specific Plan. Official minutes have not yet been prepared, but from my informal notes, these included additional setbacks at certain locations, specification of some additional features that might merit a story bonus, a recommendation to make the pedestrian/bike only street north of the new square a street allowing vehicles, addition of language allowing for flexibility in the location of the civic building, encouragement of provision of a public bathroom in the civic building, encouragement that affordable housing preference be given to public workers and Sebastopol workers and residents, and support for consideration of the Abbott alternatives as well as potential 2-way streets in the downtown.

The Sebastopol Council public hearing on the Plan and related matters is scheduled for May 20 at the Community Center. Should anyone wish to provide the Council with written comments in time to be in the Council packet (so members have time to read them), they should be delivered to the City Clerk at 7120 Bodega Avenue, Sebastopol 95472 by or before close of business on May 14.

-Kenyon Webster, Sebastopol Planning Director

[Sciguy]

Folks:
I was there when the "consultant" trashed the idea of a pedestrian street. She claimed that pedestrian street ideas are popular ideas and that she hated to be a meanie but they always fail. They aren't used. They revert to car streets again. The planning commission ate it up and in a subsequent meeting I heard one commissioner make the comment that the pedestrian street should be held open for traffic because of the "consultant's" opinion.

Friends, I have done enough travelling to experience quite a few extremely successful walking streets. From my point of view, the consultant is blowing hot air and has no idea what she is talking about.

In Copenhagen, the Stroget is one of the famous walking streets of the world. People come from all over to start at city hall (where I married my second wife) to stroll down Stroget to Kongens Nytorv, the Royal Square. Along the way there are jugglers, street theatre, breakdancing and of course shopping.

In Barcelona, Ramblas is a famous walking street also. Like Stroget, it is thronging with pedestrians all day and night. There are art exhibits, people in silver paint pretending to be statues, music performances (I saw a great Andean group from Peru there) - on and on.

I was recently in San Jose Costa Rica where the downtown walking street actually anchors the retail center with shops spreading out into satellite streets near it.

In Istanbul, Istiklal Caddesi (Independence Street) leaves Taksim square and heads on down to the business section around Karakoy, the main bridge on the Golden Horn. People are happily strolling down Istiklal Caddesi all day long.

In Yugoslavia, there is a tradition called Setnja (also the name of a dance that we folkdancers do based on this tradition). Each evening, in each town, the main street is reserved for strollers for an hour or two. Families meet and greet and the young people get to see and meet each other.

There are more such streets all around the world. Maybe some other folks can report on them in Portland and Seattle and other American cities. How anyone can get up and state categorically that they are failures is mindblowing.

Of course it depends on how they are designed. If a pedestrian street is assigned to go from nowhere to almost nowhere, necessitating a turnaround at the end and providing no shopping or entertainment, of course it will not attract the kind of eager participation that these successful examples enjoy. Instead of roping off some deadend, thus insuring failure in advance, let's take the most vibrant and enjoyable street in Sebastopol and assign that to be a walking street. How about planning for success instead of failure. Let's invite the City Repair people from Portland to help us create something special. If you don't know about City Repair, play some of their Youtube videos or google them. And let our overpriced consultant keep her chair next time.

Paul Palmer

The minutes of the Planning Commission's March 25, 2008 deliberations on the Northeast Area Specific Plan are posted on the City web site at: https://www.ci.sebastopol.ca.us/pdfs/planningcommission/03-25-08PCMinutes.pdf The Commissioners, Sebastopol citizens who serve the community without pay as a public service, had a thoughtful and lengthy discussion of the Plan issues.

This discussion followed the Commission's public hearing on the Plan on March 11. On April 8, the Commission completed their deliberations on the Northeast Plan, recommending by a 6-1 vote certification of the EIR, approval of the General Plan and Municipal Code amendments, and approval of the Specific Plan.

One aspect where the Commission forwarded comments rather than a recommendation is the Growth Management General Plan and Municipal Code amendments. There were divergent views on this and no majority position.

The Commission also made recommendations for some revisions to the Specific Plan. Official minutes have not yet been prepared, but from my informal notes, these included additional setbacks at certain locations, specification of some additional features that might merit a story bonus, a recommendation to make the pedestrian/bike only street north of the new square a street allowing vehicles, addition of language allowing for flexibility in the location of the civic building, encouragement of provision of a public bathroom in the civic building, encouragement that affordable housing preference be given to public workers and Sebastopol workers and residents, and support for consideration of the Abbott alternatives as well as potential 2-way streets in the downtown.

The Sebastopol Council public hearing on the Plan and related matters is scheduled for May 20 at the Community Center. Should anyone wish to provide the Council with written comments in time to be in the Council packet (so members have time to read them), they should be delivered to the City Clerk at 7120 Bodega Avenue, Sebastopol 95472 by or before close of business on May 14.

-Kenyon Webster, Sebastopol Planning Director

[Dynamique]

It probably also depends on what else is in easy walking distance to the pedestrian street, like other pedestrian streets, transportation hubs, town squares, shops and cafes, etc. Probably the reason why the other streets referenced by the "consultant" failed is because they were isolated and not in the appropriate context.

I've heard that Portland has a free trolley that goes in a circle around the downtown area. People park at the perimeter of the city and then catch the trolley to the downtown area. The downtown is "walkable" i.e. oriented to pedestrian traffic rather than vehicular traffic.

Santa Rosa and Sebastopol would be wise to copy this model (with the exception of the highway through traffic, of course.) Use they money they had budgeted for this consultant to get the Portland folks down here to tell us the real story.

... Of course it depends on how they are designed. If a pedestrian street is assigned to go from nowhere to almost nowhere, necessitating a turnaround at the end and providing no shopping or entertainment, of course it will not attract the kind of eager participation that these successful examples enjoy. Instead of roping off some deadend, thus insuring failure in advance, let's take the most vibrant and enjoyable street in Sebastopol and assign that to be a walking street. How about planning for success instead of failure. Let's invite the City Repair people from Portland to help us create something special. If you don't know about City Repair, play some of their Youtube videos or google them. And let our overpriced consultant keep her chair next time.