General Plan Advisory Committee
General Plan Advisory Committee
Thu, January 19, 2023
Agenda items
Vote records
Discussion summary
Transcript
Meeting summaryAI-generated
General Plan Advisory Committee — January 19, 2023
This was the first GPAC meeting of 2023, focused almost entirely on historic and cultural resources policy. Consultants from Page & Turnbull presented draft goals and policy frameworks for the historic preservation element of Petaluma's General Plan update, drawing substantial discussion from committee members with direct expertise in architecture, historic preservation, and development.
General Public Comment
Four members of the public spoke during the opening comment period.
Darren urged the committee to embed soil health monitoring into the General Plan, describing a handheld device (a "microbiometer") that measures soil biology. He argued that collecting baseline data on soil ecology across city-managed open spaces could yield long-term insights on environmental and public health.
Amy Hogan (speaking under a family member's login) spoke on behalf of an ongoing effort to preserve La Cresta Ridge and English Hill — approximately 23 combined acres of privately owned hillside land near downtown. She described the land's historic, ecological, and recreational significance, noting views, oak woodlands, natural springs, and a potential wildlife and pedestrian corridor connecting downtown to Helen Putnam Park.
Susan Kurtz introduced herself as an applicant for a GPAC vacancy, highlighting her 23 years of environmental volunteer work in Petaluma, an ongoing wildlife corridors and crossings mapping project for Sonoma and Marin counties, a habitat garden grant application for Petaluma schools, and a newly incorporated land trust (Conservation Trust of the North Bay). She also cautioned that some wildlife corridor information previously submitted about La Cresta Ridge was inaccurate.
Elizabeth (a second La Cresta advocate) added that the 13.7-acre La Cresta parcel is owned by Cal Water Services — not open space — and encouraged the GPAC to advocate for designating both parcels as open space in the General Plan.
Project and Staff Updates
Staff provided updates on several ongoing workstreams:
Climate and greenhouse gas strategies are continuing, with engagement planned with the Climate Action Commission.
Floodplain and sea level rise modeling is complex and still under review. Staff noted that recent storms provided a real-world test of the models being developed; updated modeling is expected to accompany land use discussions later in the quarter.
GPAC membership: All 16 current members agreed to continue. Approximately 20 applications were received for new vacancies, with City Council appointments expected February 6.
Housing Element: A draft was submitted to the state in November. Preliminary comments arrived from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). Staff is preparing clarifications and redlined revisions, with an official HCD comment letter due January 27. The General Plan team must return a revised draft to HCD by March 31. The February GPAC meeting may focus on housing element comments.
General Plan policy frameworks: Administrative drafts are being developed for all major topic areas, with departmental review underway.
Historic Resources: Policy and Strategy Ideas (Main Agenda Item)
Christina Daikús and Hannah Simpson of Page & Turnbull presented five draft goals for the historic preservation element of the General Plan. This is an advisory body with no binding vote; the discussion below represents committee input that will shape the administrative draft.
Overview of Petaluma's historic context: The consultants noted that Petaluma ranks among California's top cities for historic building stock quality and integrity. Roughly 40% of properties are "age-eligible" (45+ years old, the threshold used for CEQA review). The city currently lacks a comprehensive inventory of eligible resources.
Goal 1 — Protect the existing historic built environment
Policies cover: maintaining historic districts through design review; requiring review before demolition of age-eligible properties; identifying previously unrecognized resources through the development review process; providing preservation incentives (fee reductions, tax credits, grants); staff education; and penalizing demolition by neglect.
Key committee discussion:
Aaron Chimeleski asked whether every 45-year-old building would automatically be treated as historic. Consultants clarified that age-eligibility is a threshold for consideration, not automatic designation — a property must also demonstrate historic significance (association with significant people, events, or architecture) and retain sufficient physical integrity.
Stephanie Blake, who runs a placemaking firm with adaptive reuse experience, raised the real-world problem of vacant downtown historic buildings where absentee landlords have no incentive to act — pointing specifically to a long-vacant bank building at 199 South Petaluma Boulevard. She suggested exploring policies around interim/temporary use and phased improvements.
Bill Reinhardt (HCPC representative) offered extensive comments: he called for an explicit upfront statement that petaluma's character and economic value derive from its historic integrity; urged establishing a permanent funding mechanism for preservation (e.g., a dedicated development fee); noted the city's CLG (Certified Local Government) application has been pending for 15 years; recommended stronger and more definitive policy language (e.g., "adopt" rather than "consider" a Mills Act program); and suggested adding a policy to maintain authenticity within historic districts — avoiding fake-historic construction and ersatz materials.
Bill Wilbur supported the CLG push and noted that the process for property owners navigating historic review is unclear and frustrating. He recommended that authority to use the State Historic Building Code rest with the HCPC rather than the Chief Building Official, since that determination has varied inconsistently across administrations. He also raised concern about plastic/artificial lawns appearing in historic districts and flagged a specific access dispute on the Golden Concourse that has left a historic building facade unrepaired for years.
On objective design standards: staff (Heather) explained the city is still working on these and they will go through Planning Commission and Council before taking effect. The consultants noted that some state laws (e.g., SB 35) screen out historic district properties, providing some built-in recognition of their unique character.
Goal 2 — Acknowledge diverse history and expand the resource inventory
Policies cover: conducting a comprehensive citywide survey of age-eligible properties; developing a historic context statement; creating a centralized digital database; pursuing Certified Local Government (CLG) status; encouraging continued use of historic industrial and agricultural properties; supporting adaptive reuse; and protecting heritage landscape features including the Heritage Tree list.
Staff clarified that the remaining barrier to CLG status is an ordinance amendment, not a completed survey — and that finalizing that amendment is now being actively coordinated.
Bill Reinhardt recommended adding protection for historic corridors — specifically the railroad corridors and the riverfront — as character-defining features that currently fall outside formal protection. He noted that when the HCPC discussed landmarking the railroad tracks, SMART immediately removed tracks on its property. He also advocated for flexibility in Secretary of the Interior standards to allow appropriate intensification of historic downtown buildings (e.g., adding a story) when adaptive reuse demands it, while still protecting core industrial buildings that remain in active use.
Staff noted that the Central Petaluma Specific Plan includes deed notice language for new users near industrial areas, which could be a model for broader application.
Goal 3 — Connect historic preservation to climate resilience and sustainability
The guiding concept: "the greenest building is the one that's already built." Policies promote proactive retrofits, energy efficiency, salvage ordinances for demolished building materials, and relief from zoning requirements to encourage adaptive reuse.
Bill Wilbur suggested distinguishing between windows (and other elements) that must meet strict historic standards for individually designated landmarks versus contributing structures within districts — noting that modern wood-clad and fiberglass windows have improved significantly since the 1990s, when vinyl replacement windows were the only alternative. Consultants agreed this tiered approach was worth exploring and noted design guidelines are outdated and due for revision. Bill Reinhardt asked that "the greenest building is the one that already exists" be written into the preamble of Goal 3.
Goal 4 — Recognize Native American communities as active preservation participants
Policies cover: respectful treatment of archaeological resources; tribal consultation in the development review process; supporting cultural events; and developing educational signage and programming.
Aaron Chimeleski asked whether there is a map of sites significant to indigenous communities, noting the value of layered place-based history (e.g., the Fairgrounds as a WWII Japanese internment site). Consultants explained that specific archaeological site locations are often confidential to prevent vandalism, but that tribes themselves may identify places important to them in ways separate from formal archaeological inventory. Staff noted that improving the relationship with the Graton Rancheria has been an ongoing priority and requires sensitivity about what information is shared publicly.
Hannah Simpson emphasized thinking beyond buildings to "intangible cultural heritage" — festivals, Legacy businesses, community practices — as things cities are increasingly trying to recognize. Yancey Jacobo suggested murals as a venue for sharing community history and experience.
Bill Reinhardt noted that the goal language is aspirational but lacks clear assignment of responsibility for action — who will actually do the outreach and relationship-building — and recommended that the administrative draft specify implementors and timelines.
Goal 5 — Heritage tourism and public education
Policies cover: interpretive signage and public art; partnering with local organizations on tours and programming; engaging the Chamber of Commerce and regional tourism industry; and pursuing designation as a Preserve America Community (a federal advisory council program that provides recognition, grant eligibility, and tourism support).
Bill Reinhardt recommended engaging Petaluma elementary schools, noting students likely know more about California Missions than about local historic districts.
Aaron Chimeleski questioned the name "Preserve America Community" as sounding racially exclusionary in tone (though acknowledged its formal meaning). She also highlighted suggestions from GPAC member Mary Dooley (attending difficulties) around consistent street tree planting and sidewalk maintenance in historic districts, and noted the Trestle as a candidate for adaptive reuse for bikes and pedestrians.
Closing Public Comment
Two members of the public commented following the presentation.
Taryn called it one of the best city meetings she had attended and urged: exploring whether the river could be formally designated a historic landmark; adopting Mill Valley–style "character district" mapping; integrating historic design sensibility into objective standards for new development so that new buildings respect local architectural heritage; and codifying protections through ordinance rather than aspirational language.
Darren asked whether a consistent historic design reference or standards document already exists for developer and public use, suggesting such a resource would complement all the policies being discussed.
Key Takeaways
No binding votes were taken. This is an advisory committee; all discussion will inform the administrative draft of the General Plan's historic preservation element.
A permanent, dedicated funding source for historic preservation was identified by multiple committee members as the single most critical missing piece — without it, policies risk remaining unimplemented as they did after the last General Plan.
Certified Local Government (CLG) status — which would unlock grants and enable a Mills Act tax incentive program — is close to completion, pending a single ordinance amendment. Staff committed to moving this forward.
A comprehensive citywide survey of age-eligible properties was broadly supported as a foundational step that would streamline development review, provide transparency to property owners, and enable proactive historic resource protection.
Expanding what counts as "historic" emerged as a major theme: railroad corridors, the riverfront, industrial buildings, indigenous cultural landscapes, and intangible community heritage all deserve recognition beyond the traditional focus on Victorian-era architecture.
AI-generated summary from voice-to-text transcript. Not the official record. Verify important details with the source documents linked above.
What happened at this meeting
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order and recording began. The chair welcomed attendees to the first GPAC meeting of 2023 and announced the focus would be on historic and cultural resources. Consultants from Raymond Associates, Free Immune Associates, and Page and Turnbull (historic preservation specialists) were introduced to present on the topic.
ROLL CALL, LOGISTICS AND MEETING OVERVIEW
Roll call was conducted with the following members present: Dave Alden, Stephanie Blake, Phil Boyle, Aaron Chimeleski, Jesse Feller, Ali Gaylord, Yancey Jacobo, Roger Leventhal, Ileana Madrigal, Roberto Juarez, Chris Rebelow, Bill Reinhardt, Josh Simmons, and Bill Wilbur. Mary Dooley's attendance was questioned and Sierra Downey was unable to join. Ron provided logistics reminders about Zoom meeting mechanics, muting/unmuting, video expectations, the raise hand feature, and Spanish interpretation availability.
GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT During General Public Comment, the public is invited to make comments on items of public interest that are within the Committee’s subject matter jurisdiction and that are not listed on the current agenda. Public comments are limited to two minutes per person. Depending on the number of persons wishing to address the Committee, time will be allocated in equal shares totaling no more than twenty minutes.
# General Public Comment Summary
During the general public comment period moderated by Daniel, commenter Darren raised concerns about environmental considerations that would be addressed later in the meeting. Multiple public speakers advocated for the preservation of La Cresta Ridge (13.7 acres) and English Hill (10 acres) in Petaluma, with Susan Kurtz—an environmental expert applying to join GPAC—emphasizing the ecological importance of these properties, including their wildlife habitat and natural features, while cautioning the committee to carefully review natural environment data that may contain inaccuracies. Elizabeth urged the committee to designate these 23 combined acres as open space to provide connectivity from downtown to Helen Putnam Park as the town grows. Another commenter praised staff presentations and proposed several heritage preservation measures, including making the river a historic landmark, establishing character districts similar to Mill Valley's model, and incorporating historic design standards into ordinances rather than voluntary guidelines. Darren also questioned whether the city has developed historical design reference standards that developers could consistently reference, similar to existing permeable surface standards.
During the general public comment period moderated by Daniel, commenter Darren raised concerns about environmental considerations that would be addressed later in the meeting. Multiple public speakers advocated for the preservation of La Cresta Ridge (13.7 acres) and English Hill (10 acres) in Petaluma, with Susan Kurtz—an environmental expert applying to join GPAC—emphasizing the ecological importance of these properties, including their wildlife habitat and natural features, while cautioning the committee to carefully review natural environment data that may contain inaccuracies. Elizabeth urged the committee to designate these 23 combined acres as open space to provide connectivity from downtown to Helen Putnam Park as the town grows. Another commenter praised staff presentations and proposed several heritage preservation measures, including making the river a historic landmark, establishing character districts similar to Mill Valley's model, and incorporating historic design standards into ordinances rather than voluntary guidelines. Darren also questioned whether the city has developed historical design reference standards that developers could consistently reference, similar to existing permeable surface standards.
PROJECT AND STAFF UPDATES a. Updates on initiatives related to the GPU b. Clarifying questions from GPAC members
# PROJECT AND STAFF UPDATES
Staff provided updates on multiple GPU initiatives, with Ron and Christina reporting continued work on climate and greenhouse gas production strategies in coordination with the climate action commission. Additional progress includes floodplain and sea level rise modeling—which requires coordination across police, fire, and other departments—with floodplain modeling expected later this quarter alongside land use discussions, and housing element updates with preliminary HCD comments to be redlined and posted for public review before the January 27th official comment deadline. Staff noted that recent flooding has provided valuable opportunities to validate their mathematical models against actual observed data. Administrative drafts for General Plan policy frameworks are being developed across multiple city departments, and all 16 current GPAC members have committed to continuing for at least another year, with approximately 20 new applications to be presented to Council on February 6th for appointment. Committee member Eliana raised a question about accessibility for the upcoming community mapping discussion regarding river updates, recommending both in-person and online options, which staff agreed to coordinate with anticipated engagement in early March 2023.
Staff provided updates on multiple GPU initiatives, with Ron and Christina reporting continued work on climate and greenhouse gas production strategies in coordination with the climate action commission. Additional progress includes floodplain and sea level rise modeling—which requires coordination across police, fire, and other departments—with floodplain modeling expected later this quarter alongside land use discussions, and housing element updates with preliminary HCD comments to be redlined and posted for public review before the January 27th official comment deadline. Staff noted that recent flooding has provided valuable opportunities to validate their mathematical models against actual observed data. Administrative drafts for General Plan policy frameworks are being developed across multiple city departments, and all 16 current GPAC members have committed to continuing for at least another year, with approximately 20 new applications to be presented to Council on February 6th for appointment. Committee member Eliana raised a question about accessibility for the upcoming community mapping discussion regarding river updates, recommending both in-person and online options, which staff agreed to coordinate with anticipated engagement in early March 2023.
GENERAL PLAN POLICY AND STRATEGY IDEAS - HISTORIC RESOURCES a. Presentation by representatives from Page & Turnbull on the current status of General Plan work related to historic resources, with a focus on policy and strategy ideas in light of GPAC Working Group recommendations b. Clarifying questions from GPAC members c. Public comment d. Discussion between the consultants, City staff, and GPAC members regarding historic resources policy and strategy ideas
# Summary: Historic Resources Policy and Strategy Discussion
Staff, alongside architectural historians Christina Daigus and Hannah from Page and Turnbull, presented a comprehensive historic resources framework for the General Plan update, covering Petaluma's top-tier historic building stock, existing regulatory frameworks, and proposed policy updates aligned with current best practices. The presentation outlined five preliminary goals: (1) retaining and enhancing the historic built environment through designation and project review; (2) acknowledging diverse history by expanding surveys beyond previously designated properties; (3) connecting sustainability with historic preservation through adaptive reuse; (4) recognizing Native American communities as active participants in tribal cultural resource preservation; and (5) promoting heritage tourism and public engagement. Committee members, particularly Bill Reinhardt, emphasized the need for explicit language on permanent funding mechanisms, objective design standards that allow modern materials while maintaining historic character, protection of overlooked resources like industrial buildings and railroad corridors, and clear responsibility assignments with specific implementors and timeframes for all action items. Key implementation strategies discussed included demolition review for 45+ year-old properties, design guidelines based on Secretary of Interior standards, incentive programs (tax credits, state historic building code, fee reductions), salvage ordinances, and pursuit of Certified Local Government status to unlock grant opportunities—though staff noted that uncertain future funding and challenging market conditions in Petaluma require balancing ambitious goals with realistic implementation and tailored incentive/disincentive approaches.
Staff, alongside architectural historians Christina Daigus and Hannah from Page and Turnbull, presented a comprehensive historic resources framework for the General Plan update, covering Petaluma's top-tier historic building stock, existing regulatory frameworks, and proposed policy updates aligned with current best practices. The presentation outlined five preliminary goals: (1) retaining and enhancing the historic built environment through designation and project review; (2) acknowledging diverse history by expanding surveys beyond previously designated properties; (3) connecting sustainability with historic preservation through adaptive reuse; (4) recognizing Native American communities as active participants in tribal cultural resource preservation; and (5) promoting heritage tourism and public engagement. Committee members, particularly Bill Reinhardt, emphasized the need for explicit language on permanent funding mechanisms, objective design standards that allow modern materials while maintaining historic character, protection of overlooked resources like industrial buildings and railroad corridors, and clear responsibility assignments with specific implementors and timeframes for all action items. Key implementation strategies discussed included demolition review for 45+ year-old properties, design guidelines based on Secretary of Interior standards, incentive programs (tax credits, state historic building code, fee reductions), salvage ordinances, and pursuit of Certified Local Government status to unlock grant opportunities—though staff noted that uncertain future funding and challenging market conditions in Petaluma require balancing ambitious goals with realistic implementation and tailored incentive/disincentive approaches.
Agenda items (8)
Procedural (8)
1ProceduralCALL TO ORDER
What happened
The meeting was called to order and recording began. The chair welcomed attendees to the first GPAC meeting of 2023 and announced the focus would be on historic and cultural resources. Consultants from Raymond Associates, Free Immune Associates, and Page and Turnbull (historic preservation specialists) were introduced to present on the topic.2ProceduralROLL CALL, LOGISTICS AND MEETING OVERVIEW
What happened
Roll call was conducted with the following members present: Dave Alden, Stephanie Blake, Phil Boyle, Aaron Chimeleski, Jesse Feller, Ali Gaylord, Yancey Jacobo, Roger Leventhal, Ileana Madrigal, Roberto Juarez, Chris Rebelow, Bill Reinhardt, Josh Simmons, and Bill Wilbur. Mary Dooley's attendance was questioned and Sierra Downey was unable to join. Ron provided logistics reminders about Zoom meeting mechanics, muting/unmuting, video expectations, the raise hand feature, and Spanish interpretation availability.3ProceduralGENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT During General Public Comment, the public is invited to make comments on items of public interest that are within the Committee’s subject matter jurisdiction and that are not listed on the current agenda. Public comments are limited to two minutes per person. Depending on the number of persons wishing to address the Committee, time will be allocated in equal shares totaling no more than twenty minutes.
What happened
# General Public Comment SummaryDuring the general public comment period moderated by Daniel, commenter Darren raised concerns about environmental considerations that would be addressed later in the meeting. Multiple public speakers advocated for the preservation of La Cresta Ridge (13.7 acres) and English Hill (10 acres) in Petaluma, with Susan Kurtz—an environmental expert applying to join GPAC—emphasizing the ecological importance of these properties, including their wildlife habitat and natural features, while cautioning the committee to carefully review natural environment data that may contain inaccuracies. Elizabeth urged the committee to designate these 23 combined acres as open space to provide connectivity from downtown to Helen Putnam Park as the town grows. Another commenter praised staff presentations and proposed several heritage preservation measures, including making the river a historic landmark, establishing character districts similar to Mill Valley's model, and incorporating historic design standards into ordinances rather than voluntary guidelines. Darren also questioned whether the city has developed historical design reference standards that developers could consistently reference, similar to existing permeable surface standards.
4ProceduralPROJECT AND STAFF UPDATES a. Updates on initiatives related to the GPU b. Clarifying questions from GPAC members
What happened
# PROJECT AND STAFF UPDATESStaff provided updates on multiple GPU initiatives, with Ron and Christina reporting continued work on climate and greenhouse gas production strategies in coordination with the climate action commission. Additional progress includes floodplain and sea level rise modeling—which requires coordination across police, fire, and other departments—with floodplain modeling expected later this quarter alongside land use discussions, and housing element updates with preliminary HCD comments to be redlined and posted for public review before the January 27th official comment deadline. Staff noted that recent flooding has provided valuable opportunities to validate their mathematical models against actual observed data. Administrative drafts for General Plan policy frameworks are being developed across multiple city departments, and all 16 current GPAC members have committed to continuing for at least another year, with approximately 20 new applications to be presented to Council on February 6th for appointment. Committee member Eliana raised a question about accessibility for the upcoming community mapping discussion regarding river updates, recommending both in-person and online options, which staff agreed to coordinate with anticipated engagement in early March 2023.
5ProceduralGENERAL PLAN POLICY AND STRATEGY IDEAS - HISTORIC RESOURCES a. Presentation by representatives from Page & Turnbull on the current status of General Plan work related to historic resources, with a focus on policy and strategy ideas in light of GPAC Working Group recommendations b. Clarifying questions from GPAC members c. Public comment d. Discussion between the consultants, City staff, and GPAC members regarding historic resources policy and strategy ideas
What happened
# Summary: Historic Resources Policy and Strategy DiscussionStaff, alongside architectural historians Christina Daigus and Hannah from Page and Turnbull, presented a comprehensive historic resources framework for the General Plan update, covering Petaluma's top-tier historic building stock, existing regulatory frameworks, and proposed policy updates aligned with current best practices. The presentation outlined five preliminary goals: (1) retaining and enhancing the historic built environment through designation and project review; (2) acknowledging diverse history by expanding surveys beyond previously designated properties; (3) connecting sustainability with historic preservation through adaptive reuse; (4) recognizing Native American communities as active participants in tribal cultural resource preservation; and (5) promoting heritage tourism and public engagement. Committee members, particularly Bill Reinhardt, emphasized the need for explicit language on permanent funding mechanisms, objective design standards that allow modern materials while maintaining historic character, protection of overlooked resources like industrial buildings and railroad corridors, and clear responsibility assignments with specific implementors and timeframes for all action items. Key implementation strategies discussed included demolition review for 45+ year-old properties, design guidelines based on Secretary of Interior standards, incentive programs (tax credits, state historic building code, fee reductions), salvage ordinances, and pursuit of Certified Local Government status to unlock grant opportunities—though staff noted that uncertain future funding and challenging market conditions in Petaluma require balancing ambitious goals with realistic implementation and tailored incentive/disincentive approaches.
6ProceduralCOMMITTEE MEMBER GENERAL COMMENT Open time for thoughts, reflection, and closing comments from GPAC members
What happened
# Committee Member General Comment SummaryDuring the general comment period, GPAC member Darren advocated for embedding soil health analysis into the General Plan, proposing that Parks and Rec and Public Works use microbiometer devices to measure bacterial and fungal populations in city-owned spaces as part of their regular processes to capture long-term ecological data, noting that other organizations are already building public databases correlating soil health with public health outcomes. Committee member Amy Hogan emphasized the importance of preserving La Cresta Ridge and Ravine, highlighting its historical significance as Petaluma's original 1938 western city boundary and its value as a long-standing passive recreation area for residents, supported by historical photographs dating from 1910-1920. Committee chair Ron noted that no additional comments were raised and expressed the committee's anticipation for the February meeting and incoming GPAC members.
7ProceduralWRAP-UP
What happened
Christina Paul provided closing remarks, thanking the translators, PCA staff, Ron and other committee members, and noting the importance of public access, Spanish language recording, and website posting of meeting materials. She indicated new members would be joining the committee for future meetings.8ProceduralADJOURN Any member of the public who needs accommodations should email the City Clerk at cityclerk@cityofpetaluma.org or by calling 707-778-4360. The City Clerk will use their best efforts to provide reasonable accommodations to provide as much accessibility as possible while also maintaining public safety in accordance with the City procedure for resolving reasonable accommodation requests.
Verbatim transcript available
73 transcript segments indexed
So Daniel can go ahead and let everybody in okay and we'll go ahead and start recording yes recording in progress good evening everybody and welcome to the first gpac meeting of 2023 happy New Year uh we're glad to be back here with you so we are going to be focusing on historic and cultural resources for this meeting and we have Ron with Raymond Associates Michelle with free immune Associates and then Hannah and Christina dycus from page and Turnbull who are our historic preservation Consultants um I will go ahead and jump into our agenda we have live Spanish interpretation for this meeting and I will turn it over to Monica who is going to let folks know how to join that the interpretation interpretation is interpretations we are ready to be assigned thank you Maria I apologize Maria that you were kicking that off no problem okay so those folks are going to move over to the translation Channel and Daniel why don't you go ahead and let us know when that is complete okay Christina I see you Maria are now interpreters perfect thanks so much all right I am going to go through roll call Dave Alden here Stephanie Blake here welcome Phil Boyle yeah Aaron chimeleski oh I see her coming in right now um welcome Aaron if you can hear us Mary Dooley no there was some question about her being able to join Sierra Downey is not going to be able to join this evening Jesse Feller Ali Gaylord yes Yancey jacobo president Roger Leventhal I'm here Ileana Madrigal Crescent Roberto Juarez Chris
rebelow here Bill Reinhardt here Josh Simmons and Bill Wilbur I'm here great thank you all for joining us this evening let's get started Ron are you going to to take over this bit yes for our tax exchange yesterday thank you yeah um again welcome everybody Happy New Year hope everybody has weathered uh the series of storms well and everybody's safe and healthy um yeah we can cover this pretty quickly a lot of the same um basic mechanics of the zoom meeting that we cover every meeting that will have quick reminder is always helpful [Music] um for those of you who are joining you can either join on your audio device on your phone or through Zoom there's also a closed caption available for folks who would like that option once you are connected we ask that if you're not speaking to please mute yourself to unmute yourself you simply toggle the same button in Zoom or if you're connecting by phone press star 6 to mute and unmute likewise for video we asked the gpac members keep their video on if possible during the meeting and with the public we invite you to turn your video on if you are sharing public comment at one of the two public comment periods also gpac members and for members of the public during public comment um if you have something that I can share it helps if you use the raise hand feature again for folks who are connecting by phone you can raise your hand by pressing star nine [Music] um and please again remain muted until you're called upon um and during public
comment uh Daniel will moderate that and if you'd like to speak you raise your hand and then he'll let you know when it's your turn to speak and assist you in turning off your hand and then finally if you do have technical difficulties during the meeting we ask that you reach out to Daniel Harrison who's our Zoom host for this evening his email is on the screen likewise if you're if you want to participate in the interpretation Channel and listen to the meeting in Spanish but are having trouble doing that please email Maria at the email address at the bottom of the screen foreign ER primarily to folks like me who tend to speak too quickly to please be considerate of the interpreters who are who have a pretty exhausting job um and it's easier for them if we all speak slowly and clearly and if we always remember if we're using acronyms to please explain them on first use but avoid using them whenever possible okay um so tonight's meeting um again happy to see everybody glad uh glad we're able to reconvene early in the new year and keep this planning process moving forward tonight's meeting is very much like uh the most recent meetings we've had but Focus continuing to be on discussions around policy and strategy ideas for the general plan as usual we'll start with general public comment and then some quick updates from staff on other aspects of the general Plan update or other related City projects but the bulk of our time tonight will be committed to a discussion of historic
resources policy and strategy ideas as Christina mentioned we're lucky to have Christina daikus and Hannah Simpson from Paige and Turnbull who are our lead Consulting team members from agent turnbill who are focusing specifically on historic resources um and we know that Petaluma is a unique example of historic resources so this is very important section of the general plan and so they'll share with us some of their initial ideas for how to preserve those resources and engage you in a discussion about that and in the midst of that we'll have another round of public comment where folks can comment on that agenda item and then we'll wrap up with some final historic resources focused gpac discussion and then he need final thoughts from the gpack so at this point Daniel I'll stop sharing screen and allow you to share and use your timer to assist with public comment great thank you Ron so we'll now move forward with general public comments um I see one hand raise just a reminder for the public if you'd like to give your public comment please utilize the raise hand feature so right now I see one hand raise um and that is Darren so Darren I'll go ahead and ask you to unmute yourself as soon as you see the screen share with my timer the floor will be yours and you'll have three minutes for your comment thank you thank you Daniel uh my comments are really going to center around environmental considerations I know that environment and open space issues are are going to come back to the
gpac after Rincon takes into consideration some of the feedback from the last meeting and and I just want to reiterate a couple issues that I've said a few times it would be amazing to see at least rhetoric if a policy framework hasn't quite caught up yet but rhetoric and maybe some steps toward analyzing and taking consideration of soil Health in the city of Petaluma I've sent out a couple emails to open space and natural resources committee members and City staff talking about a small device called a microbiometer which is an amazing tool to measure soil uh the populations basically bacteria and fungi and soil and I think it could be really easily integrated into current processes by Parks and Rec and public works as we're managing city-owned open spaces and you can argue really any City space you could start taking samples and identifying what the soil ecology is in different areas around Petaluma and in doing a lot of research in this field I'm sure you know so many everyone on gpac is aware of how important soil is I think that's really risen in Collective Consciousness over the past few years but I think we have a real opportunity to embed into our general plan that we will at least be measuring capturing data and that's where a lot of especially good environmental and ecological analysis starts is by capturing data over a y area consistently over time we don't know exactly what information will be yielded but in hearing from other groups there's a right now a
collective putting together a giant database public database of soil health and kind of soil biota if you will around the country and they're already overlaying initial data with things like public health Maps um maps I mean there's so many different factors you could cross check against soil Health in a relative area and they're already finding some correlation so that's one huge theme that I would love to see embedded I mean there's other big things that came out of that discussion about environment you know open space and natural resource things like the rights of nature supporting biodiversity but I think this is something really tangible that in 10 20 years our city is going to stand out as being really Forward Thinking to actually put that into policy to really be diving into so ecology collecting that data taking that seriously and like I said once you have the data who knows what insights it could yield but we have a database all these different spots around Petaluma all these different times you can map the effects of environmental or climate change again you can compare that to it to other measures of health and happiness so I just wanted to to reiterate that and see if I could plant seeds with anyone at the meeting thank you thanks Darren um the next hand we have is Holly Hogan so I'll go ahead and ask to unmute that looks like you've unmuted yourself and the floor is now yours volley hi it's actually Amy Hogan my um daughter was using my computer and I didn't
realize before I signed on but it so it's actually Amy Hogan I didn't want to leave and come back um I'm here because firstly I want to thank you all for your time and energy that you've already put into the gpac it's very important work and we do realize the important it will have import the impact it will have on petaluma's future for the last 21 years um Elizabeth Mori and I and several others have been involved with the preservation of La Cresta Ridge and Ravine and wanted to make sure that this was something that was on your radar as you do your work English Hill was also on our list at the time back then but now it is in part of the entire project as it shares a border with La Cresta and provides the necessary connection to the downtown area as you're probably aware laquester Ridge and the surrounding Hills have provided passive Recreation for the residents of Petaluma for many many years of historical significance is the original Western City boundary that ran across the Ridge Top If you place the 1938 State atlas map of Petaluma on top of a current map the overlay shows this evidence very well we think is it is an important historic point to preserve if you've ever walked across it you would appreciate what the pioneers of this town embraced as they gazed across the valley I was helping with an exhibit at the Petaluma Historical Library and Museum on photographer Joe Wayne and came across a photograph of his family lined up on the tree branch at the top of the hill
um so obviously people have been hiking on it for over a hundred years the expansive views east west north and south are breathtaking and rejuvenating and should be preserved for all residents to enjoy the environmental elements of this property of both of these properties are also vital from Natural Springs to ephemeral drains to Oak woodlands and natural grasses the land supports an ecosystem that provides food and nesting for foxes coyotes deer plus Hawks and Kites and many more I have a complete list if you're interested the wildlife Corridor is also very important to the animals that travel in this area preserving the property will provide a connection from downtown all the way out to Helen Putnam Park something our community could definitely use we wanted to be sure this property is on your radar as you do your work you can visit our website to see maps and videos of the area and learn more about the history of the properties it's at www.lacrest and Ravine thank you very much thank you and um Susan Kurtz um you uh I asked you to unmute and as soon as you're ready I'll start the timer thanks um good evening everyone Susan Kirk's here um you're going to be having some vacancies or you have some vacancies and you'll be having some more so best wishes to those who will be moving on um I have submitted an application to join you on the gpac and my area of expertise is in our natural environment open space and species areas that have been rather deficient with all due respect
uh and in the meeting where this was covered it was very clear there wasn't a translation of information to the Consultants who made a presentation and and I think you may agree with me I'd really like to see our information about our natural environment our Open Spaces our green spaces our habitat areas our species which is one of your number one priorities with Equity um be accurate I think it's very important my experience is over 23 years of living in our environment volunteering in our environment and so I would just encourage you to review all of the applications that are coming in and it certainly is my hope that the city council will feel as appropriate for me to join you on the committee uh three things that I did not include in that application that I'd like to share with you from a high level I'm working on a wildlife corridors and crossings mapping project it's a three-part series for Sonoma County and Marin County and the pedal in the valley portion is done but it's not not in the form that I would like to to have it and once this project is complete of course the information can be made available with appropriate credits but um Paul the lane option network is supporting my work um and we've had so many hundreds of people contribute to this project which is kind of interesting and really exciting because it's a ground up substantive project and um green info Network out of Oakland is partnering with me for the Grant application to make a story map and a static
map for that project secondly I'm working on a Grant application for Habitat Gardens within our city public schools with the school garden network with a couple of schools in Petaluma native Songbird care and conservation the Drone Audubon and plan and lastly I and two women in in our area have Incorporated a new land trust conservation Trust of the North Bay which will serve Petaluma and should be considered I think in your discussions about our future and then lastly for the prior comments on La Cresta Ridge the information that has been provided to you about the wildlife Corridor is unfortunately inaccurate um and it's important to understand that thank you foreign and Elizabeth um I'll go ahead and ask you to unmute um as soon as you're ready we'll start the timer thank you thanks I wanted to add a little more information to the comments that uh Amy provided um we began working on preserving the the Cresta Ridge about 20 years ago and that parcel is 13.7 Acres um many people think that that's open space and they enjoy it as such but it's actually owned by Cal Water Services and so it's private property adjacent to that is another parcel which we've added to our preservation effort this is called English Hill and that's 10 acres so the total effort now is focused on preserving um the um 23 Acres this involves this includes um uh Oak Woodland as well as the Fantastic views from the Ridgeline and one of the things that we want to point out is that this offers connectivity
from downtown to the Helen Putnam Park by virtue of the path that goes through West Haven um so Amy has covered most of the Germaine topics but I would like to emphasize that we um encourage the general plan committee to advocate for designating these Parcels as open space and um we will all need more of that as the town continues to grow and uh we appreciate your support in that area thank you thank you for your comment um I don't see any more hands raised so I'll go ahead and stop my screen sharing and turn it over to my colleagues Ron and Christina thanks Daniel I will jump in and give some project on staff updates We are continuing to work on our climate and greenhouse gas production strategies and working to engage with the climate action commission that has this hasn't changed a lot over the course of the holidays and getting into the new year but it's something that you still have very much top of mind next slide please we are also continuing to look at the floodplain and sea level rise the modeling that the city has undertaken is is quite complex and so it's taking us some time to make sure that we as staff fully understand it and get an opportunity to engage with a variety of different staff like police and and fire and so on and it has been a really interesting time with all of the flooding that we saw over the course of the last couple of weeks to uh to be comparing the maths that we have been trying to proof uh with with the flooding that we've actually seen so
that work is continuing and we expect that we will be bringing forward some updated floodplain modeling in concert with our land use discussions later in this quarter next slide please um again thank you so much for two years of service on the gpac we were really glad to hear that all of our 16 current gpac members have elected to stay on um for at least the next year so super grateful for that we put up an application and invitation to apply to serve on the gpac in December and we closed application window on the 17th of this week and we are working to get a packet ready to share with Council so that they can appoint new folks on February 6th we got about 20 or so applications I haven't done a final count with the housing element we sent our uh we sent our draft in November of last year and we I want to say about a week ago it's all happening very quickly um got some preliminary draft D notes from Housing and Community Development at the state and we are working on providing them with some clarifications and we'll be posting some redlined elements of the housing element pieces of the housing element tomorrow to to give back to them and for some public review before they give us their official comment letter on January 27th we then will be bringing the comments that we get from Housing and Community Development that's hcd to Planning Commission and city council for feedback and we will be then working on making edits and bringing that material back to Planning Commission gpac
and Council it may be that our February meeting actually is focused on those comments we need to finalize that but it's something that we're going to be bringing back to you all for your for your thinking and we are compelled to required to get our draft out to back to hcd on March 31st so it's all it's all happening fairly quickly but we're going to be working hard to keep you in the loop and we'll make sure to to reach out to folks who have been involved in the housing conversation in the housing working group to to check in on that and then we may go into this but we will have new members we expect to have new members at our February meeting and we're anticipating a refresh of the working groups given the given the change in membership and so it may be that that group gets added to or shifts around a little bit yeah more broadly thinking about the general plan process I just went through comments on the on the housing element we are working on administrative drafts for General plan policy Frameworks that follow the topics that are the largest topics that are covered in the general plan and roughly match the existing conditions reports that we have gotten as well as the topics that we've been going through in the course of the last couple of months staff is going to be doing some administrative review with the Consultants as well as engaging multiple departments across the city to make sure that we really get as much feedback on those pieces as possible and we're also going
to be engaging gpac working groups and and working out our schedule for next steps we are also working on the climate action plan I don't think I got through all of that but I think the other pieces I I essentially had gotten through okay so if you want any day-to-day updates or week-to-week updates or to know kind of in general what is happening at the city you are very welcome to sign up for the community update and to subscribe to notices when agendas come out for various boards and commissions and and for City Council all right does anybody have any immediate questions Eliana please go ahead thank you I was just wondering about the mapping the river the discussion of updated mapping with the community will that be in person be assume or both that's a good question we have not figured that out yet do you have a recommendation um I believe it should be both for accessibility but I feel like in person if it's like you know if it's early how early in 2023 like next month March I think closer to March we haven't we haven't gotten everything worked out yet I I will highly recommend both great okay thank you anybody else okay there will be more opportunities all right I'm gonna hand it back to you Ron thank you great thank you Christina um Lots going on as usual um so okay now in the main agenda item for tonight it's almost seven o'clock so we're right on schedule we want to give our team from page and terminal here today at least you know 65 or excuse me 75 or 90 minutes to
introduce to you and talk with you about the range of ideas they're considering and their historic resources policy framework but first just a little bit of reminder context before I turn it over to them uh We've covered this before but just so everybody understands again why we're doing this and how this phase fits in with the bigger picture with the general Plan update um again the purpose of policy Frameworks is to outline goals policies and actions for each element or or topic area of the general plan um it is it builds on everything that comes before um including the existing conditions work that Christina mentioned as well as the very solid Vision pillars and guiding principles that you helped craft based on all the initial Community input that we received um so these Frameworks are really designed very much to build on you know take design to address key findings from the existing traditions and realize the vision the community has for Petaluma consistent with the pillars and principles and then what follows and this is the groundwork for really the first draft of the general plan so it's kind of a high level take at kind of putting the skeleton of the plan together um preceding the more detailed complete administrative draft that would come um and this is these have been under development for some time through going through a somewhat iterative process starting with a series of strategy meetings um late last summer followed by this series of gpac meetings focusing on
the same topics all influencing the administrative droughts which are then under discussion with City departments and staff who whose work relates directly to those topics as Christina mentioned will also continue to work with the gpac um as that review is underway most likely through the working groups and then what we'll do is take all that input and revise the Frameworks into public drafts and then take them all out for public review and input before we then turn our attention to the admin draft and so again purpose tonight is is really that first phase where we're really interested very much in the gpax input on Initial Ideas we got great recommendations from the gpac working groups which we're building on and these are kind of checks to make sure that we're on the right path and see what additional ideas you have or what should be addressed so with that context it's our pleasure tonight to have with us Christina and Hannah from agent Turnbull they are one of the leading firms in the state if not nationally on historic preservations incredible set of experts they have in that firm we're very lucky to have them on this project they've given a tremendous amount of thought to how you petaluma's General plan can be tailored to Unique resources here in a way that's consistent with what people really like to see and so at this point I'm going to continue to sharing slides but turn it over to them we'll walk you through some of the initial ideas broken up at periods for Q a
interim discussion and then wrap up with some finals thanks everyone move on to the next slide as Ron said I'm Christina daigus I'm the the other Christina and I'm an architectural historian and cultural resources planner as well as an associate principal at page and Turnbull we're based in San Francisco and have offices around California really focusing on historic preservation throughout the state uh this is a quick run through of what we'll be presenting tonight including a brief overview of existing conditions uh the discussion of historic preservation and general plans more generally uh Community Direction and our policy and strategy ideas with um q a uh opportunities for your comment throughout next slide please in uh so Petaluma we recognize I'm sure you do too is in the top tier of uh cities in California in terms of the amount of historic building stock the quality the Integrity um it's really a wonderful aspect of your city uh there is one National a register history anybody else losing Christina's audio okay [Music] we lost you there for a minute we lost your audio you froze on all of us can you hear me now yes okay sorry about that hopefully it won't happen too often uh well you can you can read this slide um just showing that there are a number of uh recognized historic resources throughout the city as well as a robust regulatory framework uh and we are looking at that and ways that it can be revised and bolstered as part of this General plan process next slide
uh Petaluma has a number of what we call age eligible properties and I'm going to Define that because we bring that term up again later um in the California Environmental Quality act or sequa uh there is a general threshold of consideration for historic resources that are at least 50 years old it's not a hard and fast rule in fact it's kind of based on the national register of historic places which has a threshold of 50 years for consideration of properties with historic significance but in fact for SQL properties that are less than 50 years old could be considered historic resources if historic significance is identified but we are suggesting a threshold of approximately 45 years because that gives a little bit of shelf life if there is a project and an environmental review to consider buildings that are or will soon be 50 years old and considered historic um of notes Petaluma doesn't maintain a comprehensive list of eligible historic resources so these are ones that are not officially designated on an inventory and you can see from this map that approximately 40 of properties in Petaluma are currently age eligible so that's at least 45 years old um from the 1970s we're looking at okay next slide and again thank you so historic preservation is not a required General plan element but it is in petaluma's existing General plan and it's definitely a high value in the city so we are updating uh that information to current best practices um any new design standards or design
guidelines relating to Residential Properties will need to conform to State requirements and objective design standards in many of these State housing laws designated historic resources um are excluded uh but again these eligible historic resources or any properties and projects adjacent to Historic resources will need to have objective design standards next slide uh so we have a few slides here with the the vision statement the pillars and principles and what we want to convey is that throughout there are many um uh at many times that historic resources history uh these you know roots in agriculture the important communities are mentioned again and again and these all relate to Historic preservation and historic resources so you can kind of just kind of take a look at some of the bolded texts here and the vision statement um and then if we go to the next slides uh here are some of the pillars with uh context sense of place Community character historic neighborhoods and there's also a connection with historic preservation and climate action resilience and sustainability that we want to bring out in this uh General plan chapter next slide and then again with the guiding principles either just a handful that relate uh pretty directly to Historic resources that talk about the importance of the river um importance of uh appropriate infill development maintaining historic character and so on next slide we have received some good City staff input um one comment that uh or recurring
theme about uh the contributions of the coast miwak peoples recognizing and celebrating that um recognizing that the current General plan does have a number of good policies but uh could be um improved upon whether that's a Clarity and implementation or otherwise uh and that there have been some constrained resources that have limited implementation so hopefully we will be able to improve on that um and next slide please and then with gpac input there have been comments that do relate to Historic resources uh we've had a couple of comments about renovating The Trestle as well as adaptive reuse um and a number of comments from Bill Reinhardt hcpc representation that we are also working into our policy goals policies and actions next slide please there any questions at this time we'll give a little opportunity before we move on foreign none we'll keep going and I'll pass the uh microphone on to Hannah for the next few slides oh actually I see uh Bill raised his hand oh great Phil yeah thank you uh just a clarification uh talking about historic districts and and um the objective design standards um when you're working within a historic district how do the objective design standards apply [Music] I think it depends on the city and how they frame their design standards um uh we have we have seen in other cities who have been trying to develop objective design standards for neighborhoods that um there are different standards for historic contributing properties themselves and then
standards for adjacent properties that are non-contributing to the district within the boundaries um and it's It's tricky to uh take what have typically been kind of qualitative design guidelines often for historic districts and make them objective which is really like adding specific numbers and um materials and things like that it's definitely a work in progress for many cities throughout the state um Heather do you have a comment about that yeah I was I was very carefully bill um it's not easy and we really grappled with that when we were looking at the state requirements about accessory dwelling units and the state said you you can't even if you're in a historic district you can't require discretionary review anymore if it meets certain standards and so we were looking at that and we developed a couple a couple things that went above and beyond what you might do in a not in a historic district but still we had to keep it as it's black or white either do or you don't so things like design it to be compatible with that's subjective right so we talked about trying to use I think it's like similar similar color palettes exterior materials I think there was something about like the window orientation some of some of those things to to complement the house but it is a very it's a hard thing to Grapple with in our historic districts because you also don't want everything to look cookie cutter or too matchy or you know the whole other part of historic preservation is you don't
try to create something that looks historic so it's it's a it's something we're definitely grappling with hmm okay thank you I just wanted to add also that some of the state regulations that rely on objective standards like SB 35 screen out projects that are in historic districts so there is a recognition from the state that these are that these are unique cases so we're we're working on objective design standards for the city and it may be that that is a multi-stage process where we establish Baseline objective standards and then we establish additional standards for the historic district that that remains to be seen but it's something in mind but don't the objective design standards take effect in what April or something aren't they coming up right now no no we need to go to the Planning Commission and city council with the objective design standards for full review and I imagine that there will be some Community engagement as well before those go into effect oh okay thank you all right thanks well I will um pick it up with our policy and strategy ideas um we just want to remind everyone that these are preliminary working ideas um we're really excited to hear any comments feedback and additional ideas you all um might have so as Ron and Christina both mentioned we'll be kind of pausing um periodically uh between different goals and policies to leave room for some discussions fine um so this is a summary of the historic and cultural preservation proposed goals that we have
um outlined at this stage um hopefully you all have had a chance to some of this uh try to summarize some of these right now and then um get into a little bit more detail as we progress through the presentation so the first goal is um really focused on retaining and enhancing the quality of the historic built environment in Petaluma by protecting the historic resources that Petaluma has and has designated already so that includes the historic districts and individual resources that Christina showed on the previous map slide um goal two is focused on um acknowledging the diverse history and communities in Petaluma by banding our understanding of the historic resources in Petaluma and ensuring that additional historic resources are identified and protected through various efforts like historic resources surveys and so on and then goal three is a goal that is really connected to um thinking about sustainability and historic preservation as kind of a Nexus with sustainability and thinking about adaptive reuse and climate resilience in connection with the historic built environment and goal four is focused on recognizing the Native American Community as an active participant in preservation within Petaluma and protecting tribal cultural resources and goal five is focused on Heritage tourism and public engagement and Outreach related to Historic preservation so we'll get into a little bit more detail on all of these as we go forward um but as a starting point um we kind of wanted
to throw out a few questions and get a sense of um what the preservation priorities the gpac might have what um you have any initial thoughts on the proposed goals and um policies I guess I've technically only showed you the goals um but if you have any initial thoughts um we're we're open to those um I think these are just going to be questions for you to ponder in the back of your mind as I go through first section of the presentation and then we'll have an opportunity to discuss so goal number one Petaluma has a unique and irreplaceable cultural heritage that is maintained through the implementation of policies and programs that retain and enhance the quality of the historic built environment um so this policy um this goal has a number of associated policies um one of the policies is about maintaining the existing historic districts um through project review another policy is related to ensuring that any proposed demolition of historic resources is reviewed by the city and all kind of means available are used to encourage the preservation of those historic resources to avoid demolition another policy is related to this issue that Christina touched on which is that there are quite a lot of historic research sources in Petaluma that have already been identified but there are also many more age-eligible properties in Petaluma that um perhaps have not been looked at before or maybe were identified in a survey in the 1970s but have never been officially designated um so we're
hoping that this consideration will be a key component of the development review process um related to this we think that providing incentives for preservation is really critical to making sure that preservation um is a is a positive force within the community it's something that people want to engage in and um there's adequate support for for these projects um and of course we also think that um ensuring that City staff responsible for decisions related to preservation um are are well versed in this topic is very critical um and likewise avoiding what we call in in the field demolition by neglect um which is to say uh buildings or properties that are kind of left out to the elements uh to disintegrate or um kind of fall down over time as a means of um of demolishing them or just through just through neglect this is is something that we think the community would like to avoid so we have some some thoughts on that next slide so we have um outlined some implementation actions I'm not going to go through each of these word for word I do want to note that there are some um implementation actions and policies that Petaluma is already working on and in the kind of General plan framework we still want to highlight those and make sure that those policies and actions are continued into the future but the grade out ones are ones that are kind of already in progress so just just so you know what what that means um so like I mentioned um maintaining historic districts um through uh
different design guidelines and design standards utilizing the Secretary of interior standards to review projects is a key action um in regards to proposed demolition review we are recommending that demolition review include properties that are 45 years or older to align with the sequa best practices that Christina mentioned um and in consideration of age eligible properties um we think it's also helpful to make sure that the review process and permit review process are really clear for residents and project applicants um and and make sure that those clarifications are clearly communicated through code updates and um in the city's website to kind of make the process a bit more transparent thanks Hannah and I see that Aaron's hand is up and I also see that um I saw Stephanie's hand pop-up we're gonna I think take a couple more slides and then and then have yeah time for a question great foreign likewise um with like I mentioned with incentives um there are some existing incentives like the state historic building code as well as some incentives that I think Petaluma has considered in the past and we would like to um continue to consider or push push forward including implementation of tax credit programs or thinking about fee reductions for project applications or pre-application meetings to kind of help folks understand what the process is to make sure they're on their way to appropriate projects with historic resources um and other kinds of grant funding potentially related
to City staff uh this is you know an ongoing kind of education process for all of us I think the field is always evolving and always learning and developing new best practices so just making sure that education is kind of ongoing with staff and the the community and folks involved in this process and then in terms of avoiding demolition by neglect um strategies that have been implemented in in other cities include fines or different penalties for property owners that do um neglect to maintain their properties which is a requirement of the the ordinance but ensuring that there's kind of a mechanism to address that and um you know fines that are levied for these kinds of things are often used for a dedicated historic preservation fund which can then go in to fund different um you know either grants or initiatives related to preservation so um goal two this is a another wordy one so thanks for bearing with us um Petaluma recognizes and celebrates its diverse history and communities by protecting and identifying historic and archaeological resources for the aesthetic cultural educational environmental and economic contributions that they make to maintaining and enhancing petaluma's character identity and quality of life um so I mentioned previously this goal is really about continuing to push petaluma's historic preservation program forward to continue to identify and designate historic resources to look perhaps broader than previously in terms of the types of resources that are
being um designated to reflect the more diverse and complex history that Petaluma has so that might include food properties that are related to Industrial and agricultural history that are currently not designated and also ensuring that landscape features are recognized as kind of character defining features within the city's districts too so kind of having a broad Outlook about what is what is historic in petalum next slide so some of the implementation actions related to this uh policy about identifying and designating additional historic resources we've provided a few recommendations including conducting city-wide comprehensive survey of age-eligible properties providing a framework a historic context statement to understand petaluma's history also thinking about establishing a central living digital database of information since we do understand that this is an evolving um thing there's a you know properties are being evaluated often for smaller specific plans for different environmental impact reports or just on a case-by-case basis sometimes for different uh projects so making sure that information is stored where it's accessible and also understanding that a historic resource inventory is a living document properties are always going to be added it's not that there's just one set of historic resources and we're kind of done we're always going to be identifying new historic resources um and also attaining certified local government status is I think something that
Petaluma has been working towards and is an exciting opportunity that unlocks a lot of grant opportunities and um would be a first step also in implementing a local Mills Act tax program and so there's a lot of different incentives related to that next slide and related to encouraging the continued use of historic industrial and agricultural Properties or appropriate adaptive reuses we're really interested in hearing what folks have to say about this we really recognize that there's a important history related to the Waterfront in petaluma's development so that the warehouse District along the river and other kind of waterfront properties are really characteristic of a certain aspect of petaluma's development and continuing to support Agricultural and Industrial businesses locally seems like it could be a really important thing within Petaluma but we also want to recognize that use you know needs of the community change and ensuring that appropriate adaptive reuse of buildings is possible and encouraged when appropriate because many of these buildings can find a new life depending on what the the needs of the community are uh and the last policy again is related to uh landscape features especially trees and the Heritage treeless which is um something that's an ongoing project for Petaluma so something that's continuing to be updated already so I think now is a good opportunity to answer some questions and get some initial feedback um some of our kind of initial questions are
you know generally what are your thoughts about these goals and policies um specifically related to goal one we're curious to know uh what folks think different residents and businesses might need or want to be able to conduct preservation or Rehabilitation or adaptive reuse projects um has there been any interest or is there are there any thoughts about transfer of development rights within the downtown commercial districts specifically related to gold two if there's any historic resources that are currently not protected or particularly vulnerable that you're aware of that you think needs to be recognized um and if there's you know generally anything that you think should be added to this kind of initial list that we've put forward so um Aaron has her hand raised and then Stephanie um so so this is not my area of expertise obviously I just one thing is like yeah 40 is eligible but does it always make it necessary to value a historical track home like you know I just the practicalities of it I'm hoping that are being really considered too in our new development of what is historic and why it's historic um it might just be low hanging fruit that I'm talking about but again this isn't my wheelhouse um uh wondering you know and that applies to like the preservation priorities like retaining and enhancing is great but like the the flexibility to like identify when that's a valuable project or overly costly or you know how that applies you know when we're thinking about it um
specifically like 1.1 um like bringing it up like for trying to bring in something trying to bring a historical item up to code and all that like I know there was talk of like incentives and how to do that but like how do I say it like you know are are we really thoughtful about the requests that are being put in you know people who are like trying to validate like this is a historical place and this is why like do we when they review that is that the process like do they thoroughly examine that or how does that yeah I'd love to hear from Hannah and Christina on that because I I know that this is a question that we've talked about you know is everything that's older than 45 years valuable historically and how do we determine that yeah this is a really great question and I think the short answer is no just being a certain number of years old doesn't mean that it's a historic resource um so there's a number of of reasons that a property can be um found to be a historic resource it depends um on whether you're looking at petaluma's local criteria or the state or national criteria but generally speaking a property needs to have a significant association either for its architectural design or construction that could be like an engineer a particularly interestingly engineered Bridge or something like that um or with a specific historic person or group of people who have a you know a demonstrable and significant impact on petaluma's History um or with significant um events in
petaluma's history or you know perhaps more National or state level history um you know that might be something related to let's say petaluma's egg and poultry history since that was you know such a significant period of development something like that and a property also needs to have what we call Historic Integrity so it needs to have enough of the building Fabric and features still there to kind of convey that so these are things that we would consider and if we're you know sometimes that evaluation is done on a property by property level um but often cities will conduct large city-wide surveys to kind of undertake that effort all at once and get a really comprehensive understanding of what historic resources might be out there it also kind of helps streamline review processes and Property Owners kind of have a better understanding of you know whether or not they have a historic resource and in those cases you know it there you wouldn't need to look at every single 1970s tracked house to make that determination we often undertake surveys with kind of a tiered methodology where we'll do a reconnaissance or windshield survey of a neighborhood um to kind of get a baseline understanding of what's out there and you know you never know sometimes there's a really old building tucked tucked among the subdivision um so that's something we might pick up on and you know occasionally some post-war tract housing is significant and in those cases we would be able to identify that but
it's certainly not to say that anything is anything that's age eligible or meets a certain age is historic so those are the kinds of things that we're looking at and I think you also had a question about bringing things up to code and one [Music] correct me if I'm misremembering the question but one thing I would say about that is that it is understood that historic buildings were built at a different time and maybe don't meet current code requirements there are things that do require trigger certain code upgrades but there also is um this California state historic building code allows for certain um exceptions and leniencies with certain code requirements with that understanding that historic buildings were were built at a different time but you know so that's kind of the balance between maintaining a historic resource but still meeting the kind of most critical life safety and accessibility requirements especially for public spaces I mean and that just I mean since everything's so connected it's just like the work that we are going to try and encourage for preserving you know by all means like how how much is that gonna like dictate like our rules and regulations for bringing things up for Petaluma specifically I just you know I know it's kind of a rabbit hole so I don't want to necessarily fall down at because I could um but yeah it's just I like some of the con like the incentives ideas like but again like how practical are they for Petaluma just like somebody like do you
ever mention like the ones that are suggested are they realistic for us to accomplish like some of the incentives for preserving and then being able to upgrade your historically assigned building or whatnot yeah that's a great question um in terms of you know is the city going to have money for incentives um as something that we will have to keep looking at and also something that could potentially change over time you know we don't necessarily know how much money the city is going to have 10 years from now and that was something that we really well not many of us here but some of us here half of us here anyway ran into with the last General plan is that it put in place some requirements like Staffing levels and so on right before a recession and the city just wasn't able to to meet that um so we have to be really mindful of implementation for the plan and work on setting out a framework which will be part of our work um and then allow flexibility for for future community and decision makers to to make good decisions and then also put in place some some checks to make sure that the general plan is is up to date and and maybe that means that every few years different elements get looked at you know is it every five years or something like that that will be something that we that we think about also as part of our implementation and general plan polishing sorry everybody for taking up so much space um that was all I had for one the first section so I'm going to defer to the
next person thank you thank you and I'm just gonna let Ron go that's what I'm gonna do yeah sorry um yeah Aaron if you have additional questions go ahead and raise your hand again and get yourself back in the queue but first we'll take Stephanie and then bill and while you unmute Stephanie um Taryn I just want to note that right now we're doing questions and comments for gpac members and at the end of the presentation we will have a public comment period hi thanks everyone so this is an area I have some expertise and I do have a business that does Place making and many development specifically for um historic properties and adaptive reuse and so I guess I'm just curious in terms of girl goal one sort of practically speaking I had personal experience with the bank on you know Washington and Petaluma so 199 South Petaluma Boulevard and I just wonder there's this really interesting sort of period between how you might incentivize a landlord and sort of when you might penalize someone for bringing a you know sort of waiting so long to demolish the building and a lot of what I discovered in a two-year negotiation with the current landlord there is the property taxes are so low he lives in Israel there's zero incentive to make any change and so I think that's one Challenge and sort of issue a lot of the work that we do with skylight has been focused in New York La Detroit where working on The High Line large train stations post offices as California goes green power plants and
there's a lot of room in terms of interim use and policies and ways in which attendant who might have an idea and a way to sort of create a sustainable Revenue stream could come in and sort of phase the improvements and things necessary outside of life and safety and so I think there's two pieces here one you know I think that a lot of these goals and different policies feel right in theory but I wonder sort of walking through maybe how it might apply to the current plight of you know some major intersection this bank has been vacant for such a long time there's a For Lease sign up how we might think about that with a landlord who doesn't really have an incentive to make any changes and you know knowing what I know at this point it's in disrepair there's significant costs that are only mounting as time goes on that would make any tenant if it's not the gap or another bank coming in make it very hard to come in and do something where the landlord doesn't have incentive and the second piece is thinking about sort of policies around temporary use or ways to gradually phase in improvements is another piece that I was just curious how that's being thought of I think that's a great suggestion it's definitely um something that we all have to kind of grapple with right now I think that retail environments are changing so much right now I mean they had been already even before covid and so it's definitely a great suggestion to think about um what are ways that you know maybe could
permitting be streamlined or like what resources might business owners be able to utilize to to do some kind of interim use with these buildings that are are sitting vacant um I know other cities have also implemented certain fines or taxes related to if you like your building sit empty for X long like you start having to pay for it so there's kind of a negative incentive but you know it could could be something that is considered you know just got me thinking sorry uh maybe one thing we should do particularly for this element when we go through public review on this is get together some stakeholders folks like Stephanie that first-hand experience with properties and really try to get you know find that sweet spot between the mix of incentives and you know keratin sticks so that for The Unique environment and market and Petaluma the GP and then the policies that get refined as part of the implementation of the GP are really are really getting the result that people are after and it would be I mean I think it's also really helpful to hear from you know someone like you Stephanie who has experience in other cities and states if there's you know policies or programs that have worked in in other places um outside of Petaluma that we could learn from um you know that's also really great information to hear and I was just gonna add also the overlap on on exactly what we're talking about Stephanie with like Economic Development so there's some things that are kind of more related to
the the preservation or the designation or you know but then like you said developing some incentives or some programs from the economic development side yeah we work really closely with NYC EDC um in New York specifically for this purpose and to rehabilitate and fundraise against China so happy to share more at a later date thank you and as Aaron alluded there's overlap with affordable housing priorities as well but um why don't we take Bill and then uh the other bill great thanks everyone well first of all I just want to say I think that Paige and turnable has done a terrific job with this the framework is really good and I think you've hit most of the almost all the major points so I have several thoughts and they're not really well organized I apologize for that so I think I'm going to probably dump them out up front here and maybe some of them are better applied to the later goals but um I'll just go through my notes um first of all I believe that in the front end of this element somehow a couple of things need to be stated first of all that petaluma's character and its historic Integrity are kind of derived from its history as an agricultural and Industrial town and the rail history and things like that and the river history and I it's sort of loosely stated but I think it's explicitly needs to be something that you know our character is derived from this history secondly um another statement needs to be made that the historic Integrity of Petaluma provides economic
benefit to everybody um I think you know home individual home land values are elevated the downtown business district you know it brings it brings tourism it brings so there's just there's an economic benefit to maintaining this and the reason why I bring that up and why I think it needs to be stated up front is because you know getting into goal number one the most important thing that we can do is to establish a permanent funding mechanism to um to you know to support historic preservation and what we found since the last General plan is that we had all these great ideas but if there's no money generated through any of these programs these things are always back burnered we've been struggling with this for years I mean look at our you know our um CLG application 15 years it's still not approved so there's just this if we do one thing we need to establish a permanent funding mechanism and whether that's a development fee you know another one percent or half percent on permits or something like that it's got to be done and that way that will feed all these other things otherwise again nothing's going to get done it's just it's a constant back burner struggle um a couple specific policy things okay policy 1.5 I agree um you know staff should be on board but really I think more importantly all staff and all department heads should be aware of the community benefits of cultural resources and they ideally would be on board and that means you know not only in planning and
Community Development but I think building fire um Public Works I mean really we as a city need to all be on board and and um subscribing to this hopefully um then I see policy 1.6 demolition by neglect that's an interesting uh one you know I agree especially with what Stephanie's saying about um if there's no incentive you know I think the threat of fines sort of inspires people to then you know go ahead and demolish or or just I I don't know if there's fines I think there are other ways to do it and I think we started talking about that and I think there's really some exploration to be done there um I would recommend we add a policy 1.7 would be to maintain the Integrity of our historic districts and um and kind of acknowledge that our integrity is derived from the authenticity of the building stock that we have that it reflects all great buildings from their time they're not all you know it's not a little Victorian dollhouse Village it's um it's really an amalgam of all of our history and so to preserve this we have to avoid you know full historic buildings and fake materials but just something that states that we it's a it's a policy to maintain the integrity and to not encourage any kind of you know um fake historic buildings or such um in general we'd like to see more definitive language you know instead of consider adopting a military back program we need to adopt a millzac program but we can't do that without money so if you know the chicken and egg are here but um
but that's something that we really need and we need to figure out a way to fund that and I think that will really help a lot of people I think that would help Stephanie's client I think we you know the hcpc has seen applications that could really be helped by Mills act you know they can't afford to do what they need to do but with some tax incentive they may be able to um another thing maybe it's a goal somehow but to remove the stigma that's associated with historic preservation you know everybody likes our Historic downtown and they point to and they talk about and they come and see it but if somebody files an application it's a giant burden and it's costly and it's unclear and I see that there's a lot of great policy ideas that will really help with that but I really think it needs to be a goal you know to remove the stigma to to make it celebrated rather than um you know then a burden um let's see uh yeah you know evaluation standards for we need some real objective standards not only with the historic districts you know um in building permanent applications but also some very simple objective standards for evaluating buildings that are age eligible you know like um Aaron was saying you know what are we going to do there should be a real simple checklist that says yeah that's not a contributor and something that doesn't require any kind of comprehensive evaluation but just you know a checklist um anyway so a couple things on goal number two and I'm sorry I'm rambling on
um I would say that we could add somehow to protect their we have corridors in town where our history really lives um you know the railroad corridors the tracks the facilities you know those are overlooked as historic resources but they're really character defining features of Petaluma and um you know and the hcpc we we threatened a kind of landmark the railroad tracks and the first thing that smart did was Jack out all the tracks on their property you know as soon as they heard about that it's ridiculous but anyway these are places where our history can be seen and you know people to come to visit they once you pick up the tracks you don't know what why the use the character of that street exists um let's see so and also the river you know that should be a historic district of its own if you walk along the river you know every 10 feet there's something poking out of the bank that that just sort of tells a story of something that was there in the past and um I don't know if we can somehow you know put an overlay on the on the river and on the um the railway corridors and just say these are of historic interest and they should receive some level of evaluation um so I think corridors would be a good way to to look at that um also I fully I agree again with Stephanie that you know we need to be open and flexible for reuse of our encourage you know our our historic buildings um sometimes we had a couple of one application I could think of where the Secretary of interior standards
were just too rigorous it was a downtown historic building and it was determined that no they they couldn't add a story when they really need to intensify so I think you know we need to allow for that we need to allow these buildings to evolve and the Secretary of interior standards are a good start but you know every every case is special so I I don't know if we need to be able to calibrate that or um you know just have some license that we don't anyway we can evaluate those um but at the same time I also think this is important that we protect the existing industrial buildings that we have um you know like the the feed mills and things like that I you know those are probably not going to get repurposed they'll probably get redeveloped but um while they're there they need to be protected and encourage you know and I don't know if there's a program we can do to encourage them to stay um but we need to make sure they have a right to continue to do business and um you know new people don't move in and chase them out because they're too noisy and they're doing what they've been doing for 100 Years anyway now I'm rambling I apologize oh that's it from me for now and any response or follow-up I feel like those were all great suggestions bill and I know we're taking lots of notes furiously behind the scenes here and I think that I don't think I heard any specific questions that need to be answered but um you know these are definitely things that we want to consider and explore
further um so thank you so much can I add one thing to that in with the um with the central Petaluma specific plan we had some languages language in about um when new users especially residential went into areas adjacent to or nearby industrial users having something that they kind of had to sign or they had to put on their leases or they had to record with their deeds saying you're moving into an area where there's industry and we want this industry here and so kind of heads up it's going to be noisy or there's going to be forklifts going down the street you live on or whatever so that kind of comes to mind with like binding ways to protect some of those industrial users like the feed mills that there's not an easy re repurposing of those buildings right the the use is really key and so something for us to talk about and think about is is there a desire to identify some of those and have some of that language carry forward for new users around those areas that might not be covered currently under the central Petaluma specific plan great um Bill Wilbur and then I think we'll probably need to move on just to make sure we have enough time for the other goal areas and some generals sure uh Bill Reinhardt nailed a lot of the uh the issues that I thought were important so um I can reduce my time but I uh it was mentioned that the CLG status was something that was brought up the last time we updated our general plan uh it still is I don't know exactly what the status is but one
thing I thought that was still outstanding was this survey of um you know historic potentially historic buildings and it just seems to me that if we got that list we could have complete CLG status we had more access to Grants would allows more funding it solves so many problems in addition to giving some transparency to the owners of these properties and what kind of review process they're going to be facing when they come into the building department I would say that that is the number one irritation I hear from property owners when they come to me to do a remodel or an addition is like what's the process how long is this going to take and and it's uh it's never an easy answer to give them in addition um the historic building code right now uh is decided by the Chief Building official whether or not it applies I would recommend since Chief Building officials seem to come and go that the ability to use the historic building code be decided by our hcpc committee or a group because a lot of times we've had Chief Building officials who just think that the billing code is there for reason is for Public Safety and the historic building code is outdated and often they they just won't consider it and I think that's a detriment to what we're trying to do in historic preservation um we talked about historic Landscapes I was glad that was brought up I am seeing uh plastic Lawns starting to go in because of the drought and do we really want fake lawns in historic districts um there's no
answer to that but I think that it needs to be spelled out um foreign also [Music] Interiors I know Interiors are not part of our historic code in any way but I think there are buildings that are designed in such a way that they're exteriors and Interiors are intrinsically combined and the best example I can think of tonight is the Crothers building or more recently the couches Etc building which is becoming Amy's headquarters that huge curved window on the corner of that building its purpose is to flood the interior uh with light and the interior and its balconies and um mezzanines in there are curved back so that the light from that curved window floods all the way in the back and I think we're just dodged a bull that we're very lucky that they're retaining that interior they're not they're not filling out complete floors to boost the rental rate or anything they appreciate the billing for what it is but other buildings may not be so lucky and I think that we should amend our codes to at least have the opportunity to assess some of these interiors that that are just as important as a billy next year there's really not a way to separate a good architectural design on some of these buildings and um lastly um this is a more specific thing but our golden Concourse our pedestrian walkway from the parking garage to the river the section from the parking garage to Kentucky Street is not city property that is private property with a public easement on it and it infringes on the
rights of the owners of the historic buildings on either side of the golden Concourse to do work on their buildings because they're they're still covered with remnants of the historic building that existed there where the golden Concourse is today and it's a total stalemate um that's why the the side of the um building at 133 Kentucky has plaster peeled away from it and it's been like that for what four or five years now and can't be touched because the owner of that public space won't allow the work to be done that's all I have and if it wasn't obvious bills one of at least two architects that are on the gpac um any thoughts comments I'm particularly interested in your response to the idea of somehow considering the interior of the yeah I think it's a good question some cities do have some Provisions for landmarking or um designating Interiors of public spaces or city-owned buildings because I think it's recognized that those are publicly accessible and contribute to kind of the public value of the city um you know there's kind of a different consideration with private property rights for historic residences um and generally with sequa the California Environmental Quality act review it's primarily looking at the exterior but I guess I would say that there is um language within the Secretary of interior standards um guidelines that um indicates that alterations at the interior that affect the exterior character of a building should be considered um so in the case of the
Carruthers building actually I think that you know things like infilling floor plates or you know doing something behind that that large double height window would be within the purview of review because it is it would potentially be affecting the exterior character and that like truly character defining feature of that curved corner window so I think there is um you know some room for looking at those kinds of things where in the case that Bill's identified where an interior feature really does um have some effect on the exterior character of a of a building and I don't know if Christina or Heather had any uh any comments related to the CLG status if they're um I can what what that I can touch on that um so the it is not bill it's not a survey of um I think you mentioned survey of um that needs complete we have to change our ordinance so we submitted all of the draft materials to the state um and then during covet things went a little bit quiet but we have had a meeting with representatives from State historic preservation office before they will recommend approval of our CLG application we need to um amend our ordinance um to reduce some of the review Authority on certain things so um in the background Isabelle and I were just messaging saying let's get that wrapped up and and back before but that that was the final um thing that needed done you may remember that originally we had to break apart the hcpc and the and the Planning Commission that was one of the state's things
they didn't like when the two were combined um so we did that we did modify some of our ordinance and now we need to do this other modification thank you heather um and Taryn as Christina mentioned earlier we have a period of public comment after the presentation and then before gpac final discussion of historic resources so we'll look forward to hearing your comment or question at that um at this point uh Hannah are you continuing or returning it back over to Christina or yeah I'm going to hand it back to Christina daikus foreign so we are moving on to our last three goals um we'll have some questions after this one and then I think the four and five are kind of grouped together like one and two were with questions so uh goal three just to refresh your memory from the beginning of our presentation um relates to the connection between historic preservation and climate resilience and Energy Efficiency so the wording is that existing buildings including identified historic resources contribute both to the character and vitality of Petaluma as well as a sustainable future through the recognition of embodied energy promotion of adaptive reuse and Rehabilitation of existing buildings for climate resilience and Energy Efficiency so this kind of gets to the idea that the greenest building is the one that's already built um so some of the policies relate to proactive retrofit and Rehabilitation adaptive reuse Etc um uh being able to continue their live uh in the midst of or against
potential threats uh from all kinds of environmental factors including flooding that we've probably experience been experiencing in the last couple weeks certainly wildfires Etc and the second policy relates to encouraging Salvage of re of usable building materials when demolition is the only project alternative uh and the third relates to um retaining uh the original use of historic resources we're kind of thinking again of some of these industrial and agricultural properties uh in particular if it's feasible and then supporting sensitive adaptive reuse next slide uh so again some of the action items that we have thought of that we're certainly interested in your thoughts um proactive retrofit and Rehabilitation uh involving providing resources from the city's website considering Grant programs um utilizing various uh guidelines for reviewing projects that relate to retrofit and Energy Efficiency there is a lot of information out there it just needs to be more easily accessible to those in the community um preparing a salvage ordinance would be a way to encourage Salvage of usable building materials or some kind of like guidance and procedure um and then uh considering relief from certain zoning requirements requirements to encourage continued original use may be a way to retain some original uses or a sensitive adaptive reuses again with the idea of just continuing to use existing buildings rather than necessarily needing to replace them so that you're keeping some of that
historic character while also maintaining and maintaining a vital City uh next slide so we're uh to our discussion questions already um what are your thoughts about goal three and its policies what incentives do residents and businesses need or want to be able to conduct preservation Rehabilitation and adaptive reuse projects and are there other policies that you would recommend adding that we haven't thought of yet [Music] we expect to hear from the folks focused on climate during this particular part of q a Bill why don't you go ahead is your is your hands left over from last time Bill or do you have an additional comment on this goal oh no it's a new comment go ahead um just uh this isn't a clear thought it's kind of off the cuff idea but um windows are always an issue when somebody wants to do a remodel to their home in a historic district and I'm thinking that maybe we should make a distinction in some of these projects between uh contributing house or structure in a historic district and uh you know a landmark structure now we allowed fiberglass buildings to go into the silk Mill which is on the national register but we can't we can't use the in a historic district uh for a home that's just a contributing structure um you know my thinking is that if we're trying to make these homes more energy efficient and easier to maintain wood windows are really high maintenance and if you can get a wood clad window or a fiberglass window that has the same sash Dimensions as the
windows that are um well that should be in there maybe they've already been replaced um but that are sized appropriately I I think they should be allowed and unless it is a landmark building and then I I think if you're doing a restoration there should be a different standard applied you know there's there's there's restoration Rehabilitation and adaptive reuse and and they have different different definitions and I think maybe the application for how we handle these buildings shouldn't be just one one size fits all that's just an idea off the top of my head thanks any response Christina or should we go to Bill weiner um no I think that's an interesting idea and uh something that we can definitely discuss if they're kind of a hierarchy of treatments based on uh individually significant buildings uh versus contributors to Historic districts versus potentially non-contributors within historic districts to we'll definitely explore that idea and just chiming in I think that that does kind of relate to one of our earlier goals and policy suggestions which would be to um to identify that hierarchy within the historic districts because as they're currently defined um our understanding is that there's not really that tiered distinction but there there could be and that could help streamline review um and kind of give additional assurances to Property Owners um you know related to things Beyond just windows can can I add also Hannah and Christina just for thought when I think a lot of
what was going on too when the guidelines were originally adopted was non-wood windows were kind of they were white vinyl right that was like the only thing that that people thought about her that's what I think we were really trying to avoid was was that people taking out their wood windows to put in the standard White um window replacement windows have changed a lot too in the last you know since the 90s um so there's a lot more options there's a lot different um caliber and quality and still um able to get some of the the shadowing in the in the detail um so it might be a bigger conversation of like there might be some that if windows need replaced this is a good option I think a lot of this could be um included in updates to the design guidelines documents which are quite old so I think there are probably a lot of ways that they could be improved and clarified and this is just one of those yeah thank you Reiner round two okay well I'm gonna weigh in just since Wilbur brought it up but because I've been thinking a lot about objective design standards and I agree that Windows have changed so um you know maybe the standard is that they have true divided lights and they don't have to be wood anyway that my comment was and this was just a follow-up because um Christina even said it but I thought in the very front end in the Preamble of the the goal the thing that you said was the greenest building is the one that already exists and when people say that that resonates with
people and so I was just thinking add that line to the front end and I think that carries a lot of weight so that's all that's our slogan in historic preservation although there is certainly Nuance to that and an explanation behind it but all right thank you any additional questions or comments at this point or we'll move on to goal four as a presenter okay so uh goal four is a bit of a shift from the last one um this is really about uh involving the local Native American community so the local Native American Community is an active participant in the preservation of tribal cultural resources and the celebration of the contributions of their Community to petaluma's history and Current public life so this relates to both to recognizing and treating respectfully with the involvement of the Native American Community archaeological resources and instituting or making sure that resource mitigation plans and monitoring programs uh are in place when there are proposed projects that may affect sensitive archaeological remains if they're discovered as well as collaborating to recognize more broadly the the contributions of the Native American Community to Petaluma both in the past and in the present next slide [Music] so a couple of these things you'll see are grayed out because the city is doing these things which is great but they are actions that can be and should be continued as well as some other ways that um requirements can be developed to make sure that the archaeological
identification and treatment process is um uh respectful and um you know fully aligned with the local travel Nation values um and then again with the collaboration idea uh actions relating to supporting or hosting cultural events and developing educational signage and programming next slide um and I'll just mention before moving on that again this that topic was brought up by City staff and gpac members um it's a value that is held by a local community so if it felt important to um present it as its own goal uh so then the last one goal five relates to Heritage tourism and public education and uh engagement in education it's getting a little late I'm getting a little tongue-tied um but as I think one of the bills mentioned earlier uh this really does tie to the local business economy and Heritage tourism is definitely a draw to downtown Petaluma in the neighborhoods so encouraging greater public participation and education regarding the preservation of historic resources leveraging that cultural heritage to promote Heritage tourism and benefits to the local economies and if we go to the next slide I think we will see some of those actions um so this includes uh signage or plaques interpretive art other ways um you know we're interested to hear if you have other thoughts about creative ways to commemorate the past um as well as working with local groups to provide tours in education opportunities and we've presented a couple of ideas we've already heard uh about a couple of
other organizations that perhaps we can list or can just you know apply to this particular action item uh and then working with local businesses Property Owners the Chamber of Commerce the regional tourism industry to promote this unique experience and um that may include businesses including the history about their their historic buildings or the downtown on their website or social media um and lastly is an idea to look into the designation of a preserve America Community which is an initiative through the advisory Council on historic preservation which is a federal organization um and I'll stop my head I don't remember what some of the details are but um so I wish I could say a little bit more about that one but uh I think that it could um provide some additional uh support and ideas for Heritage tourism next slide please so we have questions for both of those goals here uh the first is really about goal four uh what stakeholders have left been left out of preservation in Petaluma in the past whether structurally intentionally or unintentionally and how might these stakeholders be included or engaged in the future and then relating to goal five uh what are creative ways that the city can engage the public and local organizations and businesses to promote preservation and education how can local businesses benefit from and engage with historic preservation and are there any other policies that you recommend adding related to these two goals thank you Christina and Christina
Paul if you haven't already I want to bring goal five to the attention of the economic development conversation coming up same way you did with arts and culture any comments questions I think Aaron go ahead yeah um I'm actually I like that for kind of answered my question back in 2.1 where you know we're looking at Native landmarks and they're out like looking at indigenous communities and what they identify but I'm hoping maybe that we there's a list already started or a site you know development reference for Petaluma itself like I'd like to know like someone mentioned it as not shaming because it's not it's just admitting like that say uh the line and Twine is actually built on you know this location that the indigenous believe is such and such um I'd love to have that mapped out and be able to reference that and share that with people and confirm with our local indigenous community whose land we are on so Erin that's a super interesting question um Christina and Hannah and Heather do you guys want to say anything about indigenous sites are inventory of indigenous sites you know how we can treat those mindfully and respectfully and how we can be public or not about them right yeah um archaeological sites definitely have some uh restrictions on public um public knowledge because there is a concern that they could be uh uh vandalized I guess you could say um so there's a certain amount of protection around them but I don't think that that means that the local tribal
Community couldn't identify places that are important to them in their Community um with you know that that's a little bit of a different thing than um specifically identifying the location of remains or of other kind of archaeological resources that may have been identified by by archaeologists uh so perhaps that's the an Avenue that could be taken Heather or Isabel if you get anything to add otherwise we'll go to the winner yeah just wondering like how you how you would um respect that without it making like because there's like archaeologist findings and research and protection and then there's the everyday which is just as important for some indigenous cultures it's just a so I'm wondering how we're going to make that distinction and be able to to respect that space um on a public you know yeah I think that will that involves a lot of um communication about values and um working closely together to kind of strike that balance of how do you um how do you recognize and celebrate that aspect of petaluma's history and community I don't think I have anything to add Ron it's it's a sensitive topic because obviously we don't want to put any information out there that is you know confidential to the tribe or they feel like you know they it opens anything up so I it's a it's a good great you know topic for discussion on where we can hit a balance there to you know be aware and acknowledge without um you know we've worked really hard on our um improving the relationship with for
instance the um the Creighton um Rancheria um and a lot of that was understanding that there was a lot of um previous concern because they didn't feel like things were respected and some of that was the information transmitting the information so um I don't I don't know exactly what the answer is but interesting topic to to dig into and think about and think about what options we have and one thing that all oh sorry Christina go ahead you know Hannah go ahead I think one thing I would add to this conversation to is you know in addition to recognizing specific sites um I think that another thing that we've heard from the community and we're really interested in in kind of the the field today is also thinking about how we can share kind of more layered histories and different stories related even to sites that are already recognized as historic resources so you know for example you know the downtown commercial district is kind of recognized for its Commerce and architecture but there's many different layers to history that include you know labor movements different ethnic communities who have lived and worked in a place what was there before there was downtown and so just also thinking about different stories that we can tell when we're doing interpretation or recognizing sites and kind of thinking more nuanced and kind of um in in terms of the different kind of overlooked histories even of the the sites that we already recognize I just wanted to like build on Hannah's Hannah's
shortly I mean I mean perfectly with like like Fairgrounds being an internment for you know Japanese in our community so like honoring those things there is a lot of layers and we need to like show that representation thank you and I just wanted to add as the person who's least qualified to talk about historic resources it does strike me that this seems like an evolving area of the practice kind of a Leading Edge of historic and cultural discussion you know how do we how do we manifest and recognize history that that we don't see like the Victorian on the corner you know is there some kind of physicality that we can can recognize how does that come about how do we trigger people's knowledge how do we add to people's knowledge I don't I don't know that a lot of cities have figured that out so this is an exciting exciting thing for us to be to be thinking about and creating is that right Christina definitely yeah yeah uh yeah and in some ways it is um it relates to the idea of intangible cultural heritage also which is an interesting offshoot in uh historic preservation because we are used to really grounding our practice in the built environment and what physically exists but uh there's a recognition that things that are important to communities in their history are not always physical buildings they um you know they might be Legacy businesses uh which we've I think we've kind of worked into one of our policies somewhere or festivals and celebrations and they're kind of still
rooted within an environment but not necessarily tied directly to a particular property so you know this kind of veers a little bit off the track of uh goal four but I think all of these topics are really interrelated and I would agree with Christina that these are things that cities are um around the state and the country are trying to uh expand their um you know the historically narrow view of what is important and what what is um significant about the city uh beyond the white narrative and the pretty architectural buildings of the 19th century thank you good discussion by a great question Aaron thank you Yancy I saw your hand go up I was wondering if that's if you're comments specific to this conversation yes it is um I just want to say thank you for kind of elevating um the other historical important aspects of our community that don't have a physical space tied to them and going along with that I think this came up in our sense of place conversation too like murals we love the murals that are like in downtown and so are as a way to also share experience and provide a space for learning I think that that might be a possible venue for that as well foreign thanks for your patience bill reinert just one comment on each of the goals and uh first of all with regard to Gold four and I think Nancy kind of set this up um I think the concepts in there are fantastic and long overdue and I agree it's been exciting and involving you know way to start celebrating our prehistoric and
and also our deeper history but what I I don't see anywhere in the goal or the policies is anything related to action or you know assignment of responsibility for this you know it says collaborate but I I kind of read that until that I love that but who's going to do that you know right now we have documentation that we review when there's a development application and we require archaeological studies and historic evaluations but you know to to truly if we want to connect with the people that are still here that have stories to tell I mean I think there needs to be more in there about how this is going to occur and I know this is a general plan but something to be thinking about because right now I see some great ideas but not really a connection to um you know real action um with regard to goal five um Outreach I do have some ideas I think I got a list on the list that I've submitted a couple times but the one thing I think is really what we should do is try and engage the young people a little more um and maybe that means getting programs in the elementary schools you know they probably know more about the California missions than they do about you know petaluma's historic districts um so that's just one thought but I I think that should be in a policy is again trying to engage the schools in the general plan I know we have a lot of issues with the crossover but um I would like to make that recommendation thanks thank you Bill and just one quick thought part of your
comment was related to the general plan and policy Frameworks generally excellent point about well really two things the the language we use in policies like there's a big difference between explore or consider and just doing something and I make a note of that so that we're very deliberate moving forward you know starting with the public right after these Frameworks of being deliberate about which verb or you know which terms we use and making sure we're clearing what the meaning is um so I think that's an excellent point and then related to like the who um yeah at this stage we don't get into that level of detail but definitely in the admin draft general plan for each action there would be a clearly identified you know implementor as well as a time frame and going back to I think one of Bill Wilbur's earlier comments a sense of prioritization I think but sometimes like as someone pointed out earlier sometimes you got to do something something first there's step a or maybe it was what you said earlier Bill Reiner like first get the funding in place or get a sustainable funding source established get your Cog status established the law Falls from there right and so so that level of prioritization will be included in the admin draft general plan as well but but your related comments at this point are super helpful and I'm sure it helps the page and turn Bill team think about how it's going to translate this framework into that end seeing no further comments or questions our
next agenda item is public comment we very much appreciate tearing your patience and the patients of other members of the public who are here tonight Daniel I'm going to again turn it over to you to facilitate this um so feel free to share your timer and invite the public to raise their hand great thank you Ron just one moment while I get the timer sign up for us and uh we'll begin with general public comment if anyone would like to utilize the raised hand feature to make a public comment at this time please do so and I'm not seeing any hands raise um so that will go ahead and conclude public comments um unless we see anything but other than that Ron I'll turn it back over to you and thank you um and so at this stage I'll turn it back to Christina dycus and Hannah who will facilitate kind of a thought a final kind of all things considered um gpac discussion on historic resource coming back to those yeah sorry exactly yeah so this brings us back to those first questions that uh Hannah posed towards the beginning of our presentation um really this just encapsulates you know anything else that we may not have uh discussed yet um if we miss anything uh if uh if you have any other additional ideas uh now is the time we'd love to hear them go ahead sorry um I just wanted to um comment on 5.2 C like The Preserve America communities I know that's like a government created thing but did anybody else cringe when they read that line what what the title is preserve America Community like
how white and scary was that sounding to you like I'm just just throwing that out there um uh and if we have to have that on any of our paperwork um I did want to also lift up Mary Dooley uh I really liked the E which was show pride in our public spaces plant Street trees consistently in the historical districts um as in you know as a municipal responsibility fix the sidewalks for a consistent look I I thought that was kind of a nice way to tie in um because since everything isn't cookie cutter and you're highlighting that there may be one easy thing to do kind of stuff like that and then also G regarding the Trestle this is like talking about preserving stuff as like their intended purpose which I thought is probably not as much when as necessary all the time because like we don't need a train going through the Trestle anymore but restoring The Trestle for other uses for bike pedestrian use is kind of cool um so just being able to again keep that flexibility in mind when we're thinking of that so and that's it thank you for a good presentation though thanks I just looked up The Preserve America um communities so I'm going to tell you a little bit more about it okay cool uh yeah so it is um it's it's kind of an honorary recognition for communities that protect and celebrate their Heritage use their historic assets for economic development and community revitalization and encourage people to experience and appreciate their local historic resources through education and
Heritage tourism programs so that's why it really dovetails nicely with that last goal um the benefits include a certificate of recognition authorization to use The Preserve America logo on uh various Materials Science Flags banners promotional materials a listing in The web-based Preserve America Community directory National and Regional press releases eligibility for preserve America grants when funded by Congress and enhanced Community visibility and pride and then there's a list of cities throughout the country that I never you can get the history it's good thank you for watching it yeah thank you Howie I think I just have a few few General kind of comments not necessarily specific to any goals but I really enjoyed the conversation about the historic recognition of non-building resources because I think we really think you know when we think of historic Petaluma we think of the west side or downtown and I think there's probably so much more that could be done and recognized um and maybe they're not buildings maybe there's interpretive signage along trails and other things that people can just experience in their daily lives and I I really also want to just comment on you know I think sometimes historical preservation focuses so much on the buildings and not the people and how the people are experiencing that historic um context so um I like that the focus on the economic development and potential interim uses making the interim uses easier um I think you know historic
preservation walks the line of you know don't change anything make everything Frozen in Time versus how can we evolve and actually um you know make sure that we're recognizing context but also allowing changes to naturally happen and so I think it's just really important to keep that in mind when we're talking about policies and how to up to evolve um and make sure that happens wisely um and one other comment I'm not really sure how to phrase this but I'm also thinking of the built environment as far as you know we look we talk about you know historical buildings but also thinking about historical modes of transportation and Mobility that are much more on the human scale that you know that is really represented in our historical districts like when you think of downtown Petaluma you're thinking of people Meandering walking around the streets going into shops nobody takes a historical walk down East Washington to the freeway so you know how can we make sure that like the historical feel of some of the good things about uh Petaluma can you translate to other locations that maybe aren't historical but we want to have that um that kind of context and general feeling and not leave other neighborhoods that aren't historic behind thanks all good comments thanks any additional questions or comments or ideas specific to Historic resources bill okay I'll weigh in um I should know this as a planner but I guess I'm close to a retired planner um acronym definition what is CLG uh certified
local government got it all right thank you okay um so a couple things in terms of sites um I'm thinking of a Native American site that isn't a Native American I don't believe is a building or structure is at the intersection of Lakeville and the Pelham River there is there's an old house there and I believe that's a very significant Native American site so if that ever gets turned into hopefully a park or mainly developed that that site will be recognized and historians correct me if I've if I got the wrong have the wrong site um another historic aspect not dealing with buildings somewhat dealing with buildings in one case um two things one is um Telecom Valley you know paluma was one of the early Telecom values up there on North McDowell and second is the history of um Petaluma and The Burning Man festival um as you know we have a lot of artists that have created Burning Man and so that'd be really cool um thing to recognize so those are just two um unusual perhaps historic things I'd like to point out that's it thanks remember any man field trip for the gpac um any any any additional questions okay well thank you all uh great presentation Christina and Heather and obviously a reflection of all the hard work you've been doing very much appreciated and excellent comments and questions from gpac and now I'm seeing taryn's hand and I I think just as a courtesy and the spirit of open meetings we should take her comment at this point I'm sorry if we had to step out earlier when
we did put the comment but why don't we do that now Daniel if you don't mind good I'm so Taryn I'm going to go ahead and share my screen with the timer and I'll ask you to unmute yourself uh when you're ready with your comment I will start the timer thank you hey yeah thank you very much this has been one of the very best if not the best meeting with the city that I've ever attended what an amazing amount a great presentation to team Hannah and uh I'm sorry is it Christine um Christina hi um excellent and um I wish that this kind of level of discussion and level of detail and thoughtfulness we could have brought into the Planning Commission meetings because I think they used to be like this when I first moved here like 15 years ago and this is great this is the kind of thinking that's going to keep our town great so in the spirit of um let's see here of keeping our town great as it grows I love the comments about covering off in contracts with new homeowners that um if they're moving to an industrial section they can't complain about it later because then it puts pressure on our precious industrial economy areas um can we make the river a historic Landmark is that possible rather than just recognize it as valuable can we integrate Mill Valley um does character districts where they go around and like your recon reconnaissance surveys they identify the distinct areas for what they are and how they came to be and what era they're from and they really honor that on a um an area
or air by area basis um the um neighborhoods even if they were just built in the 60s they really honor when things came to be and they strengthen it over time and a lot of people aren't happy about the way we just get these out of the box things like that new hotel well both new hotels in town like home to Suites can we please integrate a lot of this wonderful thinking into our design standards so we can carry forward the elements of our heritage our and how our architecture reflects Our Heritage into new buildings that get developed I know Bill you said you didn't like them mimicking historic buildings I don't mind if we have to um personally I'm not an architect if we have elements that um are respectful of what's been here before rather than just sitting putting something up that's generic or is exactly the same thing that appears down in Modesto I think we have we can be like Santa Barbara where everything has to have some respect for what's there before it goes in um let's see what else uh uh we're gonna add input um put things into an ordinance rather than just saying we we'd like people to um uh consider protecting their property put it into an ordinance thank you thank you for your comment um and I see one more hand raise so we'll continue with the public comment with Darren and the floor will be yours uh whenever you're ready Darren thanks thanks Daniel and I'll be really brief but just building on that comment hearing all the great discussion here this evening uh
you wonder if and this might already exist if there's already kind of a not a lookbook but a a set of Standards or a kind of historical design reference uh that could be used by developers in public um and for public projects but just this is something I've heard with permeable surfaces that if you make a set of Standards it's something you can consistently reference whether it's through planning whatever the case may be and I'm wondering if that exists already or if that's something the city should think about making thank you thanks for your comments um I don't see any more hands raised so I'll turn it back over to you Ron and that will close the public comment for this evening great thank you Daniel and thank you members of the public um we've come to the point uh in our meeting which we which is the way we include all of the gpac meetings with a final opportunity for any gpac members to share any thoughts either related to the agenda items for tonight or other topics related to the gpac the general plan where we dated matters any final gpac thoughts seeing none um we'll look forward to seeing you all in February um presumably with some additional gpac members joining um and with that I'll turn it over to Christina Paul to close us out thank you everybody thank you to our translators who have been working hard this whole time and to PCA staff for coming to all of these meetings and making sure that they're public to Ron and Christina and um and Hannah and all of the gpec
folks and Remy folks including Michelle who also make sure that all of these things are recorded and recorded in Spanish and posted on the website and all this stuff thanks everybody we look forward to next time and we will have some new members let me know if there's anything that comes up in the meantime good evening foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign