Walking for a walkable community

At the January 27, 2020 City Council meeting, one of the Council Members stated that there was no need for either a coffee shop or a small corner grocery store at the proposed Corona Train station development because anyone could simply walk to either "Beyond the Glory" or to "Safeway." (That would be a 1.1 mile or 1.8 mile walk one way, respectively.)

This community walk, on the morning of February 1, 2020, was organized by Brian Barnacle. We walked the 1.1 mile from the Corona Train Station project to Beyond the Glory. Contrary to what a City Council Member stated, this is not a "walkable" trip. By definition, "walkable" is under 1/2 of a mile and has sidewalks the entire way.

 A livable community is one in which at least some trips can be made on foot. For the past 70 years we have been building out east Petaluma as a suburban sprawl bedroom community and, for many residents, every trip everywhere anytime is an automobile trip. This is a failed land use planning model. But even today we continue to build more automobile dependent single family housing.

7 Principles for Building Better Cities

Ted Talk: 7 Principles for Building Better Cities

Peter Calthorpe is a San Francisco based architect, urban designer and urban planner. He developed the concept of Transit Oriented Development in the early 1990’s. His clients include China which has some city blocks with 5,000 residents each and also the State of California which anticipates a population growth of 10 million more by 2050.

(Someday soon, Petaluma will have a population of 100,000 people. The “town” we are building today will be a city tomorrow.)

Summary of the TedTalk:

1) Preserve the natural environment, the history and the agriculture.

2) Mixed use. Create mixed use and mixed-income neighborhoods.

         Mixed incomes, mixed age groups, as well as mixed land use.

3) Walk. Design walkable streets and human scale neighborhoods.

4) Bike. Prioritize bicycle networks and auto-free streets.

5) Connect. Build street networks that provide many routes and many kinds of routes. Many kinds of streets instead of just one.

6) Ride. We have to invest more in transit.

7) Focus. Match density and mix to the transit capacity. Build the hierarchy of the city based on transit rather than on freeways. It’s a big paradigm shift.

“Walking, biking and transit are the way cities and communities thrive.”

Building a vibrant public transit corridor

Building the train tracks and stations is only the first step in developing a functional train system. Part two is the new land uses built within walking distance of the train stations and creating a vibrant public transit corridor.

Corona Station is our chance to begin building a pedestrian-friendly North McDowell corridor by creating a "destination" train station. A coffee shop and a small corner grocery store would be a huge step in this direction. Give the neighborhood something to walk to.




https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/1/17/las-lost-transit

Increasing automobile intensity

New Courtyard Marriott is being built.  It is close to highway 101 and the Lakeville Street interchange. Other side of 101 is the new Altura Apartments and also the new Marina Crossing Apartments. 

Petaluma continues to make big commitments to more automobiles in town.

Dear City Council,

As currently designed, the Corona train station will become yet another automobile dependent land use in East Petaluma.

*          If this were a transit oriented development site, we would build 3 or 4 stories of high density housing over the parking and utilize the entire 6.5 acres.

*          It appears as if SMART negotiated to save themselves $3 million by building an open air parking lot instead of a parking garage. This landmark intersection of Corona Road and North McDowell will be defined by an open air parking lot. Is this the best we can do?

*          The Corona Station housing development project is “packaged” as “multi-family” housing units. But actually there is an air gap between each housing unit. This project is really 116 single family houses.

*          This property is 6.5 acres. SMART wants to remove 1.27 acres and throw away the buildable housing density. Yet still, there is 5.23 acres for the developer to work with.

*          The North River Apartments will be 184 housing units plus 5,000 square feet of commercial on a total of 3.92 acres.

*          Marina Crossing Apartments are 92 housing units on 2.17 acres.

*          Haystack Pacifica at the downtown train station will be 178 housing units plus 24,855 square feet of ground floor commercial on a 4.1 acre parcel.

*          East Petaluma could sorely use a sense of place defined by a prominent building at this major Corona Road intersection.

*          Is this the best that we can do? One more suburban, automobile dependent single family housing subdivision conceived of and designed as if the new train station doesn’t even exist on site.

*          The General Plan and the Zoning Regulations are outdated for this train station but it could easily be fixed with amendments right now.

I strongly urge a much higher housing density at the Corona train station. We can do much better here. Let’s create a real train station here with a strong sense of place, identity and functional transit oriented development.

Please take a look at this 2 ¾ minute video showing the automobile intensity of walking along North McDowell up to the train station project site. Let's create a walkable sense of having arrived at this major intersection and train station.