Leakage. No, it’s not a term you heard on Seinfeld. But you’ll be hearing a lot more of it as we move toward this autumn’s City Council elections. I’m speaking of “retail leakage”, when money that could have been spent in Petaluma for retail purchases leaks out into places like Rohnert Park or the Internet, because we literally ain’t got the goods. Plugging up retail leakage involves making these goods available in Petaluma.
Retail leakage is bad. Petaluma loses local sales tax revenue, a major source of funding for the City. It puts more traffic on the highway, and we lose the opportunity for local jobs. So plugging retail leaks, like pursuing City-centered “smart growth” in a “revitalized downtown” has become a common cause among our City leaders.
But what is the smart way to plug retail leakage? It should favor locally-owned businesses, because they don’t leak profits and local reinvestments to distant corporate headquarters. Location is critical. The Council’s and Chamber of Commerce’s “Retail Leakage and Strategy Study” rated the alternatives for major retail expansion, considering accessibility, parcel size and shape, and environmental impact. Leading the list were the Kenilworth/Washington and McDowell corridors. Corona Reach, where Chelsea is seeking to expand its retail space, was rated worst. The Chelsea project is coming up before the City Council soon. Here are three reasons why should be rejected.
#1: Location. Because it’s not easily accessible, especially by transit, bike or foot, from any major residential or retail areas, Chelsea’s site would generate the worst traffic congestion of any of the alternatives. #2: Location: It’s in the floodplain, upstream from a downtown increasingly at risk of flooding (the new floodwall will keep the Payran neighborhood from absorbing floodwaters made more dangerous by global warming’s superstorms and swollen sea levels.) #3: Location: Corona Reach is the ideal spot for relocating and expanding the ball fields that will be lost when the Kenilworth Junior High site is developed. Imagine a real Central Park for Petaluma: expansive playing fields edged by a generous creekside natural area, accessible from by multi-use paths under the freeway and along Petaluma River.
How would we pay for this Central Park? Some funds could come from our County Open Space District. The OSD charter itself specifies riparian lands along the Petaluma River as a target for acquisition. Supervisor Kerns should give the public a chance to compare this purchase to Tolay, if we can’t have both. There are other conservation funding sources who could step in and help, especially for repeat flooding lands threatened by development. Last but not least is smart growth.
Smart growth pays for itself; it doesn’t force other taxpayers to subsidize its demand for service (e.g. police and fire) and infrastructure (e.g. streets, water/sewer, parks). Just as important, smart growth accounts for the cumulative impacts of multiple projects, and addresses them in a systematic way. The Chelsea expansion is one of many large projects proposed for the Northwest Petaluma area. Because all of them are being evaluated separately, we are missing a great opportunity. Former City Council member David Keller has a better idea, suggested in a letter to the City Council last year. When other large annexations were before the City, he said, the City created a Specific Plan and Special Benefit Assessment District. Carefully defined under State law, these mechanisms ensure that the needed services and infrastructure are wisely planned and adequately funded, and the costs are fairly allocated among the property owners who will benefit from the annexation. I know how this works. I’ve been paying for my part of the annexation of the Westridge Knolls neighborhood, and I enjoy the benefits of having the Westridge Open Space in my backyard. (see David’s letter at petalumatomorrow.org/nwpetaluma)
The City Council made a smart-growth decision in establishing the Downtown Theater district. On Monday, April 19, come tell the Council you want more of the same, with the creation of a Northwest Petaluma Annexation Specific Plan and Special Benefit Assessment District. Let’s keep the money in Petaluma, let the newcomers pay their fair share, and we’ll all enjoy Petaluma’s new prosperity.