After years of political trench warfare over a six-story hotel in the heart of downtown, Petaluma’s City Council quietly hit the reset button last Tuesday. In a unanimous vote, the council repealed the Downtown Housing and Economic Opportunity Overlay, effectively ending the long-running fight and restoring downtown zoning to the city’s existing height and density limits. The decision wiped out the need for a pending citizen referendum and followed months of petitions, public hearings and a developer redesign that had already taken much of the heat out of the debate.
Earlier this year, city staff certified 6,462 petition signatures seeking to suspend the overlay, putting the council in a bind over whether to let voters decide in a pricey special election or simply pull the law themselves. According to The Press Democrat, the certified petition would have frozen the General Plan amendment tied to the overlay and blocked any six-story development in the affected downtown blocks. Several speakers and business groups urged the council to find a path that would respect the petition drive without saddling taxpayers with the cost of a one-issue election.
Scaled-Down Design Removes Need for Overlay
Meanwhile, the developer behind the Appellation project stepped back from the original high-rise vision. A revised proposal now calls for a four-story hotel, roughly 45 feet tall with about 56 rooms, a design that city environmental documents say no longer relies on the overlay. An addendum to the certified EIR from the City of Petaluma states the modified project matches an environmentally preferable alternative already analyzed and will move forward through Historic Site Plan and Architectural Review instead of under the overlay’s special rules. City planners say the smaller footprint reduces visual and other environmental impacts compared with the original six-story proposal.
Council Reaction and the Local Tradeoffs
Mayor Kevin McDonnell told local reporters that repealing the overlay helped cool a bitter public fight and opened the door to dial back the social media warfare. KRCB quoted him calling for an end to the harsher online attacks and saying he hoped Petaluma could get back to peace and love. Several council members, along with some of the petition organizers, said they backed repeal largely to avoid the cost of a special election, and councilors referenced estimates that a standalone vote could run the city into the low hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those price tags and timing options were a key part of the council’s deliberations, according to The Press Democrat.
Next Steps for the Appellation Site
Supporters of the new plan argue the smaller Appellation design still brings hotel jobs, restaurant space and fresh transient-occupancy tax revenue to downtown, even without the extra stories. Opponents are not exactly packing up their yard signs, continuing to press for stronger protections for the city’s historic core and for parking they view as adequate for neighbors and visitors alike. Project materials from EKN Development and Appellation describe a culinary-focused boutique hotel at the corner of Petaluma Boulevard South and B Street, but the revised proposal must first win Historic Site Plan and Architectural Review and clear other discretionary approvals before any shovels hit the ground. For now, the public battle has quieted, yet design and zoning arguments are likely to resurface as the city takes a closer look at what gets built on that corner.
