A civic anchor at a turning point
What the fairgrounds is today — and why the city is planning its future now
The 55-acre fairgrounds at 175 Fairgrounds Drive has served Petaluma for generations as home to the annual Sonoma-Marin Fair, a regional emergency shelter during wildfires and disasters, and a base for a range of community services. The city owns the property outright but leases the bulk of it to the Fair Board. That lease arrangement, combined with decades of deferred infrastructure investment, has set the stage for a formal long-term planning process now underway.
What the fairgrounds is today
The fairgrounds encompasses the 55-acre parcel at 175 Fairgrounds Drive, most of which is leased to the Fourth District Agricultural Association (the Fair Board). The site also includes adjacent city-operated facilities — the Petaluma Library, the Swim Center, Kenilworth Park, and the Teen Center — though these occupy only about 4 acres. The fairgrounds proper hosts the annual Sonoma-Marin Fair and year-round events, serves as a regional emergency evacuation site, and houses several small licensees providing community services.
1- 55 acres total, city-owned
- ~131,000 attendees at 2024 fair
- MU1B zoning along East Washington St frontage
- Civic Facility (CF) zoning on remainder
City launches formal planning process
In December 2025, the city issued a formal Request for Proposals to hire a planning consultant. The RFP marks the beginning of a structured, community-engaged planning process intended to produce an implementable master plan — not just a vision document. The impetus: long-deferred infrastructure, evolving community needs, and the opportunity created by the lease arrangement with the Fair Board.
4- RFP issued: December 18, 2025
What the city is building toward
Three deliverables, one protected institution, and a long infrastructure to-do list
The Petaluma Fairgrounds Plan has three required deliverables: a comprehensive master plan for the whole campus, a conceptual design for a new Community Resilience Center, and a proposed infrastructure layout. The annual fair is explicitly protected throughout — the planning effort is about what happens alongside and beyond the fair, not instead of it. Funding for the infrastructure improvements the plan calls for has not yet been identified.
The three required deliverables
The RFP requires three concrete outputs: (1) a comprehensive master plan guiding adaptive reuse of the full campus; (2) a conceptual design for a Community Resilience Center of up to 10,000 square feet, intended to provide year-round emergency sheltering, community outreach, and services for vulnerable populations; and (3) a proposed infrastructure layout establishing utilities, transportation systems, and essential services needed for future development. Community engagement and special site studies — environmental, historic, soil conditions — are also required as part of the process.
4- CRC: up to 10,000 sq ft
- Community engagement required deliverable
The annual fair is protected
The RFP is explicit: the annual fair continues. The planning assumptions require proposals to maintain the fairgrounds as the site of the Sonoma-Marin Fair and to augment, not replace, existing community programming. Agricultural education and heritage are framed as a foundation for expanded year-round programming rather than a reason to preserve the status quo.
2Infrastructure: long deferred, funding unknown
The Draft General Plan calls for investing in water distribution, stormwater, natural gas, electric, and communications infrastructure at the fairgrounds. The RFP acknowledges that improvements and maintenance will require "exploration of sustainable funding" — meaning no funding source has been identified. How the city pays for these upgrades is an open question the plan is expected to address but has not yet answered.
7, 11- Funding sources: not yet identified
Beyond the fair: what the city wants to add
A resilience center, year-round programming, and a General Plan with teeth
The most significant new elements in the plan are the Community Resilience Center — a permanent facility tied to the city's 2021 Climate Emergency Framework — and a push for year-round agricultural programming. The Draft General Plan adds policy weight to both, while also directing the city to connect the fairgrounds to downtown by bike and foot and to use the site as a showcase for climate adaptation. The General Plan is pending adoption in Fall 2026.
Community Resilience Center
The most concrete new addition is a permanent Community Resilience Center — up to 10,000 square feet, either as a single facility or multiple smaller structures. The CRC is intended to serve vulnerable residents year-round: emergency sheltering, community outreach, and tailored support during and between disasters. Sonoma County's documented risks — wildfires, extreme heat, flooding, sea level rise — are cited as the rationale. The RFP requires a formal CRC Partnership of local nonprofits and community organizations to sustain the facility's operations.
3- Up to 10,000 sq ft
- Nonprofit partnership required for operations
Year-round agricultural programming
General Plan policies for the fairgrounds
The Draft General Plan (March 2026, pending adoption Fall 2026) includes specific policies directing the city to connect the fairgrounds to downtown Petaluma and across US-101 by active transportation, and to use the site to "showcase innovative climate adaptation planning and landscape strategies." These policies give the master plan process formal General Plan backing — and will become binding once the General Plan is adopted.
8, 9, 10- General Plan adoption: Fall 2026
Five things to follow as the plan develops
The decisions that are still ahead — and the questions the public record hasn't answered
The consultant has been selected — David Baker Architects was authorized by the City Council on May 4, 2026, marking the formal start of the master planning process. Most of the significant decisions are still ahead. These are the specific milestones worth tracking and the questions the public record hasn't yet answered.
Consultant selected: David Baker Architects
The City Council voted 7-0 on May 4, 2026 to authorize a Professional Services Agreement with David Baker Architects (DBA), a San Francisco Bay Area firm known for community-oriented design and affordable housing work. The contract total is up to approximately $885,000, fully reimbursed by the $1.19M CDBG-MIT federal grant — which also covers over $300K in city staff time. DBA’s team includes CMG Landscape Architecture, Civic Makers, Plan to Place, Fair and Pierce, and Bay Area Economics as subconsultants. The planning process is expected to wrap up before end of 2027, with final grant reporting into 2028. Community engagement begins immediately — including a presence at the Sonoma-Marin Fair itself under a ‘past, present, and future’ theme.
- Consultant: David Baker Architects
- Contract: up to ~$885K (CDBG-MIT funded)
- Vote: 7-0, May 4, 2026
- Timeline: plan complete late 2027
Fair Board lease negotiations
The city has been in closed-session negotiations with the Fourth District Agricultural Association over lease terms since at least January 2024. How that agreement gets resolved — duration, scope, terms of use — will shape what the city can actually build and program on the site. The lease negotiations are not public, but council votes authorizing or amending the agreement will be.
12Community engagement process
DBA's engagement process is launching immediately, building on the Healthy Democracy community advisory panel work and prioritizing hard-to-reach groups. An early touchpoint is planned at the Sonoma-Marin Fair itself, with a 'past, present, and future' theme. City staff will return to council at key milestones throughout the process. Public workshops will be the primary opportunity for residents to shape the plan before it's finalized, and will be noticed through standard city channels.
Funding plan
The RFP explicitly requires the plan to chart a path to sustainable funding for improvements and maintenance. As of now, no funding sources are identified for infrastructure upgrades. Watch for whether the master plan proposes new revenue mechanisms — leases, grants, public-private partnerships — and whether the council adopts them. Without a credible funding plan, the infrastructure improvements stay on paper.
11- Infrastructure funding: unidentified
General Plan adoption
The Draft General Plan (March 2026) contains the fairgrounds policies that will give the master plan formal legal backing. On May 18, 2026, Council voted 6-1 (Di Carly voting No) to direct staff to prepare the Final EIR and Final General Plan for adoption. Once adopted, the policies directing infrastructure investment, active transportation connections, and climate adaptation uses at the fairgrounds become binding city policy. The public comment period has closed.
7- May 18 vote: 6-1 to advance Final EIR and Final GP
- Adoption target: Fall 2026
Public Safety Facility confirmed at $71.6M — sited on Fairgrounds, bids due May 21
At the May 11 budget workshop, Senior Project Manager Paul Gagan confirmed the Public Safety Facility's full scope and timeline: a new police headquarters, fire station, and Emergency Operations Center on the Fairgrounds at a total estimated project cost of $71.6 million — the second-largest CIP investment in FY26-27. Three design-build entities were prequalified through an RFQ and are actively reviewing bid documents; bids are due May 21, 2026. Council is expected to award the contract on July 6, 2026, with project completion targeted for Spring 2028. This siting decision establishes a major permanent institutional footprint at the Fairgrounds well before the David Baker Architects master plan is finalized.
13- Total project cost: $71.6M
- Bids due: May 21, 2026
- Contract award: targeted July 6, 2026
- Completion: Spring 2028
Operations update: year-round agriculture underway, Luma Ice frozen
At the same May 11 budget workshop, Parks & Recreation staff reported that year-round agricultural programming at the Fairgrounds is advancing — this cycle in partnership with a local agricultural consultant, with equipment inventory being assembled ahead of the 2026 fair. Eight licensed tenant agreements are being extended. Staff recommended a freeze on Luma Ice (the annual winter skating event) in the FY26-27 budget, with funds redirected to building improvements and smaller-scale year-round programming. The Sonoma-Marin Fair is confirmed for June 18–21, 2026.
14- Fair: June 18–21, 2026
- Luma Ice: frozen in FY26-27 budget
- Year-round agriculture: consultant hired, underway