Politics & Government

Planning Commision: Old Fire Station Development Belongs On a "Freeway Exit"

Planning commission said plans would create a parking shortage, extra traffic and a homogeneous entry to the city.

The planning commission voiced strong concerns Thursday that current plans to develop a vacant firehouse on Patten St. and Broadway, dubbed the ‘Old Fire Station project,’ would create a parking shortage, extra traffic and a homogeneous entry to the city.

“If I think of this being the gateway to historic downtown Sonoma — it looks like it belongs on a freeway exit," said Commissioner Michael George.

The just over 10,500-square-foot space sits in the city's historic overlay zone and is slated for series of commercial spaces, including several restaurants, retail space and a Peet’s coffee shop.

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Retail spaces generate foot-traffic, explained Planning Director David Goodison, and city staff hopes the development will be an economic game-changer for Broadway Street, which despite its prime location, is starting to be known as a doomed commercial space, after the and Shiso Restaurant.

But members of the commission and residents were concerned with parking plans, which allow for 33 spaces—a lot on First Street East and diagonal spaces on Patten Street—12 spaces less than the 45-mandated for the project by Sonoma’s retail code.

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To exit parking from a 90-degree angle on Patten Street, “you’d be taking your life in your hands," said George.

Joshua Weinberg, who lives adjacent to the project on Austin Avenue, recreated the 90-degree parking with neighbors and snapped pictures (see them at right). “It doesn’t look like the gateway to a residential neighborhood,” he said, showing the photos to the commission.

Weinberg said he, and other neighbors, felt there was limited communication from Foothill Partners: “they never even let us know what they were going to be doing – it doesn’t seem like a Sonoma approach.”

Additionally, city staff anticipates the development would drive and exorbinant amount of traffic to Broadway and West Napa Street, which will soon plummet below the minimum acceptable congestion grade of "D" to an "F," said Goodison.

Doug Wheely, founder of Foothill Partners the project's developer, took linguistic issue with complaints that the building felt like a “strip mall

“The center where is would be [a strip mall], the center where is would be one, but you wouldn’t say that about the Plaza,” said Wheely.

The developers, said Wheely, have been careful to keep congruity to Sonoma's downtown, even changing architects—the group hired Brian Williams, a Sacramento-based architect—mid-proposal.

Williams plan retained the building large utilitarian windows, and included outdoor public art—Williams suggested a communal firepit— “to give people a sense of arrival."

But residents objected to the building’s color (red) and its siding (stucco), though Wheely told commissioners the team was happy to modify the finish.

“This belongs in Corte Madera town center, I’m sorry but that’s what it looks like,” said Bonnie Brown.

 “What I see is pornography in the parking proposal,” said David Morell, who called the plan “unacceptable” and “dangerous.”

“In my opinion the building is very ugly” said Commissioner Matthew Tippell, though he believed the space “should be developed.”

Funding for the project, which is backed by the city's community development agency, will be solidified Monday, when the city council is schedule to vote .   ("[Opting in] is highly likely," said Planning Director David Goodison.)

The planning commission advised city council to order the revision of the building plans, perhaps using a local architect.

“Somebody who’s going to be designing something in the city where they live will have to be more sensitive to what they’re placing," said George.


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