Another Hopeful Sign in Napa

Early in the history of this blog, I bemoaned the closure of Copia in Napa, not so much for the loss of what Copia could have met to the Napa Valley, although that was also a loss, but for how the idle parcel undermined the fledgling walkability of Napa.  I specifically suggested mixed-use development on the under-utilized portions of the Copia site as a way to build a more comprehensive urban fabric.

Two years later, I cheered when a local developer began making serious noises doing the exact kind of mixed-use development that I had proposed.

Eighteen months, that effort has faded away, but another, seemingly more solid development concept is being put forth, one that incorporates a revitalization of the original Copia concept by the Culinary Institute of America combined with mixed-use development by Triad Development.

In my earlier posts, I had been thinking of the mixed-use development on the north side of First Street, occupying the same site as Copia.  The current proposal calls for the mixed-use development on the south side of First.  Honestly, I didn’t realize that the Copia ownership extended south of First, but I don’t care where the mixed-use fits, as long as it extended the core of urban walkability from downtown Napa past Soscal Avenue.

Based on the history of failed hopes since the 2008 closure of Copia, I know that this new proposal won’t have an easy path to implementation, but the role of the Culinary Institute seems to make this the strongest proposal yet and well worth following.  It must be time for another trip to downtown Napa, the Oxbow Market, and the Copia site.

Next time, I’ll rejoice that Pope Francis seems to be devoted urbanist.

As always, your questions or comments will be appreciated.  Please comment below or email me.  And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)

North Bay Great Streets: Yountville and Napa

Early in the holiday season, I made a plan to visit much of the North Bay seeking out great streets.  My criteria were to be the great street standards as set forth by the Project for Public Spaces.

Within the constraints of short visits, not all of standards could be assessed, but some certainly could.  In brief downtown observations, I couldn’t judge the year-round management of a street, but could observe the mixture of uses and the vitality of a sidewalk.

With the rainy December, holiday obligations, and other writing goals, such as the on-going “Intro to Urbanism”, my great streets project has gone slower than hoped, but hasn’t been forgotten.  It will proceed and it will proceed to conclusion.

In previous posts, I’ve noted several points that seemed particularly pertinent to great street performance in the North Bay.  These are the questions of whether the primary street in downtown still functions as the regional highway, how the downtown has responded where a bypass has been constructed, whether traffic is sufficiently calm that pedestrians can jaywalk with care, and whether the local residents live and gather along the street.

 In the post on Petaluma and Cotati, I found that the Boulevard in Petaluma had recovered well from a bypass and was an interesting street, but still carried more traffic than desirable, while Old Redwood Highway in Cotati hadn’t bounced back from the bypass, feeling rather moribund.

In the post on Calistoga and St. Helena, I loved the setting of both primary downtown streets, but found that the dual functions as regional highways resulted in too much traffic and a mixture of business that catered more to tourists than to local residents.

Today, I’ll continuing moving southward in the Napa Valley.

Yountville: Yountville offers a mixture of good and bad, but with the bad quickly outweighing the good.

Highway 29 has long bypassed Yountville, departing Washington Street for a new alignment west of town.  It was an opportunity for the broad community to reclaim the street.  But what happened was the market, likely aided and abetted by City Hall, claimed the street for tourism.

Washington Street through the heart of Yountville is a marvelous pedestrian place, if you’re a wine tourist.  With smooth walking surfaces winding near a calm street and providing easy access to wine shops and upscale restaurants, it’s darned near Disneyland for wine tourists.  And there have been times when I’ve enjoyed it in that role.

But if you’re a local resident of more modest means, looking for a light meal after a youth baseball game or for sidewalk conversation with your neighbors, Washington Street offers little to meet your needs.  It’s the same shortfall I noted in St. Helena and Calistoga, with less history but more gloss.

And that’s a shame.

Napa: I once lived in Napa.  It was only for a little more than a year, but my wife and I enjoyed our time and hold fond memories of downtown.

From that history, I had expectations of my great street search.  I anticipated that my decision would be between First Street and Second Street.  Both have a bit more traffic than I’d prefer, but not overwhelming so.

First Street is the center of Napa’s effort to grab a share of the wine tourism market.  It has a reasonably active sidewalk with a good mixture of storefronts, but is targeted more toward tourists than locals.  Plus much of the architecture comes from an unfortunate era of American building design and undermines the street vitality.

Second Street has the greater level of architecture distinction, especially when the repairs to the recent earthquake damage are complete, and meets more needs of local residents, but many of the functions are governmental or service related, so the street life except during the heart of the day is lacking.

Picking between First and Second Streets wasn’t going to easy.

An unexpected treat, a seasonal ice rink on Second Street, moved the needle toward Second Street, but then I found a surprise.  While cruising downtown, I wandered Main Street heading north, from the recently-built upscale Riverfront project, past a few comfortable eateries and older buildings cleaned up to meet consumer needs, and to the periphery of a comfortable middle-class neighborhood within walking distance of downtown.  I fell in love.

Main Street, between Fifth Street and Napa Street, isn’t a perfect great street.  There are dead areas and the residential areas that it serves could use selective infusion of capital.  But it has eye-popping potential.

Of the North Bay towns about which I’ve thus far written, Petaluma Boulevard in Petaluma has the best current value as a great street.  But, with a little careful nurturing, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Main Street as one of the best North Bay streets by 2025.  Not wine-tourist special, but local residents

enjoying their town special.  I wish every North Bay town had a Main Street to cultivate.

Petaluma Urban Chat

Before closing, I’ll update those who have been following the Petaluma Urban Chat consideration of possible re-use of the Sonoma Marin Fairgrounds.

We had a good turnout for the January 13 meeting where we kicked off a conceptual design effort.  Three teams are currently working on designs.

On January 27, there will be a 5:30pm work session at Taps on East Washington Street for the teams to hone their initial thoughts and to begin working toward the group presentation.  Everyone is welcome, although those not on a team will find themselves mostly looking over shoulders as sketch pens fly.

On February 10, the three teams will present their visions.  The entire Urban Chat group will select a plan, or perhaps a combination of plans, to finalize for community presentation.  Everyone with an interest in the future of the Fairgrounds site is welcome.  Once again, the meeting will be at Taps, starting at 5:30pm.

In my next post, I’ll return to the “Intro to Urbanism” effort, considering what make good public spaces.

As always, your questions or comments will be appreciated.  Please comment below or email me.  And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)

New Year, New Beginnings

Although drivable suburban remains the default land-use choice in much of the North Bay, there bits of good news as 2014 gets underway.

State Farm site in Rohnert Park: Like many, I was concerned about the loss of jobs when State Farm closed their regional office in Rohnert Park.  But out of that bad news may have a glimmer of hope for urbanism in the community.

Southern California developer Suncal, which specializes in mixed-use projects, has acquired the property and initiated planning, with the cautiously enthusiastic endorsement of the Press Democrat.  Combined with the decision to site the Rohnert Park SMART station adjoining the State Farm site, it’s a promising situation.

Before folks make plans for selling their cars and moving into downtown Rohnert Park, several cautions should be noted.  First, financing is often difficult for mixed-use projects, especially in communities where they have little history.

Second, surprise hurdles can arise, regardless of the past successes of the developer.  One need look no further that the difficulties that bedeviled Suncal over their proposed development in Alameda, a project that is now apparently dead.

Third, urbanism works best when it connects to other urbanist projects, building toward a critical mass.  But the State Farm site is largely surrounded by collectors, arterials, and low-density, single-use sites.  There is enough area within the State Farm site that a credible site plan can be developed, but single-developer, isolated projects are far from the urbanist ideal.  The proximity of the train station mitigates the isolation of the site, but doesn’t fully remedy it.

That’s not to argue that a single-developer project can’t be a good place to live.  But it likely won’t have the same urbanist flavor that the Petaluma Station Area may be able to create with its short walk to the historic downtown.

Of course, in the absence of an urban heritage, a bootstrap project is the only hope and the State Farm site is probably the best bootstrap site in Rohnert Park.

Copia in Napa: Almost two years ago, I wrote about the Copia site in Napa.  At the time, as shown above, the building was vacant and the grounds were falling into disrepair, the cutting-edge concept having failed to find a foothold.  I was concerned that the vacant site, if not truly a drag on the adjoining Oxbow Public Market and nearby downtown Napa, was inhibiting the urbanist growth that seemed possible.

Two years later, there haven’t been many physical changes, but there is a serious urbanist proposal under consideration.  And there are elements of the community pushing back with thinking that seems more in line with drivable suburbia.

Although I’m concerned about the pushback, I’m pleased that the discussion is underway.  The site has sat vacant for too long.

River Front in Petaluma: Several months ago, a representative of Basin Street Development spoke with Petaluma Urban Chat about the proposed River Front project along the Petaluma River and near the interchange of Highway 101 and Lakeville Boulevard.

At the time, review of the project environmental documents by the Petaluma Planning Commission was scheduled for the following week.  But the Basin Street representative advised us that issues had arisen about the environmental documents, resulting in a hearing delay.  The project has now returned to the Planning Commission agenda and will be heard at 7pm on Tuesday, January 14 at the Petaluma City Hall.

Although much further along in the development process, River Front shares characteristics with the State Farm site in Rohnert Park.  As proposed, River Front is a competent and reasonable urbanist project with a retail and multi-family core surrounded by small lot single-family homes.

Some at Urban Chat were concerned that the project failed to give adequate attention to the Petaluma River, but I can see the logic of putting the higher density core closer to the access point from Lakeville Boulevard.

But River Front, like the State Farm site, lacks the surrounding urbanist context that would allow it to organically flow into other urbanist neighborhoods.  Instead, any need that can’t be met within River Front will require a car trip.

Nor does River Front have the rail access of the State Farm site.   At one time, the second Petaluma SMART station was planned to adjoin the River Front site, but the station was long ago moved to the Corona Road site, where it still remains unfunded.

None of this is meant as a criticism of the Basin Street proposal.  Internally, it’s a good plan.  But the context issues highlight the problem of returning urbanism to communities that have too long been built to the drivable suburban paradigm.

Notes and Updates

Petaluma Urban Chat: Another month has flown past, with the holidays having further shortened the weeks.  Another meeting of Petaluma Urban Chat is upon us.

We’ll meet on Tuesday, January 14.  We’ll convene at 5:30 at the Aqus Cafe at 2nd and H Streets.  The discussion will begin at 5:45.  (At least a few of us, including this writer, will move directly from the Urban Chat meeting to the Planning Commission hearing on the River Front project.)

We’ll return to our study of “The Smart Growth Manual” by Duany, Speck, and Lydon.  All are welcome.  Even if you haven’t read the book, you should enjoy the discussion.

East Washington Place: Three months ago, I wrote about how a new Petaluma retail development had been completed without the bus stop that would have provided good access for transit riders.  I can now report that service changes were put into place several days ago to serve East Washington Place.

The solution is still interim, with further changes likely later in the year, but it’s a move in the right direction.  (Disclaimer: I serve on the Petaluma Transit Advisory Committee, so participated in the service change decisions.)

On a less positive note, changes to the Transit Advisory Committee authorizing resolution that would reduce the possibility of future transit omissions haven’t proceeded as quickly as hoped.  But the year is still young.

As always, your questions or comments will be appreciated.  Please comment below or email me.  And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)