This is going to be fun to
watch which cities make the best use of their SMART train stations to create
modern transportation, more affordable housing, jobs and promote their tourism.
Rohnert Park’s new downtown development plan is train station development on
steroids!
Rohnert Park is using their new
SMART train station project to create an entirely new downtown core in a city
that had no real downtown at all. There was no “there” there. This new Station
Avenue Project will create a new heart of the city that is fully accessible to
and from the SMART train line. Rohnert Park is creating a “sense of place.”
In Petaluma, we also have a
very well-articulated plan for our downtown SMART train station. It’s true that
downtown Petaluma already carries a strong “sense of place” but our long term
SMART station area plan will expand into the future our downtown as a must see,
pedestrian oriented destination that will be fully accessible to and from the
SMART train line.
We have the same huge
opportunity to create a “sense of place” on the east side of Petaluma as well.
The Corona Road SMART station may possibly see some new development at that
station location in the near future in addition to the Brody Ranch that is
already well under construction. In the end, we are going to wind up with more
housing sprawl that results in more car traffic on the roads or else we are
going to create an East Petaluma Train station destination that is pedestrian
friendly and (hopefully) provides less expensive housing. We are going to
provide more housing in east Petaluma where people no longer need their cars
and actually use the train or else we are going to have a suburban park and
ride train station where people mostly drive to the Corona Road station. Which
will it be?
This is a huge opportunity
for us in Petaluma to create a “sense of place” on the east side and to get
people out of their cars and onto the train.
Rohnert Park’s development is
ahead of our SMART station developments in Petaluma. Their train station development
project is much bigger than ours but what can we learn from it?
