Last week, I attended a meeting with representatives from Regency,
the developer seeking City approval for their retail and residential project on
the old Kenilworth Junior High site. The meeting was arranged by the Petaluma Pedestrian
and Bicycle Advisory Committee. I was glad to see fellow columnist Jack Balshaw there. Jack’s got a lot of practical experience,
and I especially appreciate the attention he’s given to plans for the
fairgrounds area. Sometimes I envy his mastery of details, as I tend to write
about the high level, long term visionary stuff. So today I’ll look at some
issues on the ground level.
Regency intends to bring in stores that will keep a lot more
shoppers in Petaluma – that’s good. The housing is high density and walking
distance from downtown, the McDowell shopping centers, and the new transit
center. Very good. Now, how do we make sure the
residents walk and bike out, and likewise local shoppers can bike and walk in? First,
as I suggested, we need to make sure everyone knows about local bike paths and
routes, especially the Lynch Creek Trail. PBAC developed a comprehensive set of
recommendations for cross town bike traffic during the D Street bridge closure.
They included signs hanging from the stoplight arms at Washington & Ellis
Street which point to “Bike Trail to East Side”.
Now wouldn’t it be great if there was a safe bike-ped route from the Regency project directly across the
freeway to McDowell? There already is, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at
Regency’s proposed design. Traveling from the east, you’d descend from this
*existing* pedestrian overpass and find yourself amidst the dumpsters, diesels,
and loading docks along the butt-side of a monolithic bloc of strip-mall style
retail. Not likely to entice shoppers away from choking the Washington corridor
with their cars.
The PPBAC had a better idea, which we recommended years ago:
split the bloc, and create a pedestrian mini-plaza in the space between the two
buildings, faced by inviting store entries, perhaps with a food court. The east
end of that plaza would connect with the overpass via specialty paving that can
be crossed by slow-moving vehicles (like at G&G Market.) The west end would
extend this paving all the way across the parking lot in a tree lined corridor.
There, it would align with a similar path to the library, then along D Street
to the Rail Depot, Transit Center, and downtown. Your path from Peet’s to Panda’s (and beyond, via the creekside
trails) would be safe and pleasant.
The Theater District: excellent except for the new segment
of the River Trail behind the Waterfront Apartments. This six foot asphalt
strip with the funky two-by-six edging, though it apparently meets minimum design
standards, looks pitifully out of place. When it soon falls apart, it should be
replaced by a wider concrete or cantilevered boardwalk path. In addition, the uninviting
connection up to D Street should be bypassed with a more direct route.
Finally, there’s the sorely misunderstood conversion of
Petaluma Boulevard from four to three lanes (two with an alternating center
turning lane.) The Lakeville to Washington segment, known for sidewalk parked
cars, is already scheduled—no problem here. D to Mountain View: traffic is
light but dangerously fast, unsafe for cyclists and people emerging from their
cars – this should be a no-brainer. But the Washington to D downtown segment,
that’s a challenge. I think it can work. But critics (including my other fellow
columnist Don Bennett) need to understand how three lanes can (and repeatedly *has*
under similar circumstances in other towns) flow the same as four. It’s a
result of reducing the “friction” -- of the tight squeezes with busses and
trucks, from parallel parkers, doors opening, cars turning left and changing
lanes. And some people may chose, as I do, to use Sixth,
Copeland/Weller, and the freeway as alternatives. Reducing these conflicts
makes up for the loss of lanes, making our renewed downtown a better place for
shoppers and cyclists.
Let’s watch what happens on the first two Boulevard segments…
and, occasionally, raise our vision to the post-petroleum, post-global warming
world of our great-grandchildren.