Target center cleared of legal roadblocks

<p>A final settlement has been reached in the two lawsuits over the planned Target shopping center in which both lawsuits have been dropped and additional concessions have been made by Regency, the developers of the project.</p><p>Both Regency and the Petaluma Community Coalition, a community group seeking changes to the project, officially dropped their lawsuits, allowing the project to move forward.</p><p>“I'm pleased that the project is able to move forward now,” said Mayor Pam Torliatt, adding that “it's unfortunate the process that occurred that brought us to this point.” </p><p>The details of the agreement were finalized and signed by both parties and the city on Tuesday after the City Council approved the deal in closed session on Monday. A tentative version of the agreement was announced on June 14, when Regency and the community group, led by Paul Francis and Matt Maguire, announced they had reached a compromise that would allow the project to go forward. Tuesday's agreement formalizes that agreement and adds more provisions to the deal.</p><p>The deal stipulates that Regency will drop its lawsuit, filed in January over “unjustified” delays, and the Community Coalition will also drop theirs, which was filed in March over project impacts the group claimed were not addressed in the environmental review process.</p><p>Regency will pay the city's costs for responding to its lawsuit, which had come to about $25,000 as of June, according to City Attorney Eric Danly. The Community Coalition, in addition to dropping its lawsuit, will drop its appeal of the Planning Commission's approval of the shopping center's design.</p><p>Regency also agreed to design changes at the center, including more skylights on buildings, more bus stops if needed and a $40,000 payment to the city to be spent on traffic easement and pedestrian improvements. Regency may discuss reconfiguring Johnson Drive — which opponents say runs too close to the swim center and skatepark and exposes children to car exhaust — in the future when the lease on the land near the fairground opens up.</p><p>In addition to paying the Community Coalition's legal fees, Regency agreed to a lump-sum $100,000 payment to the group.</p><p>Councilmember Mike Healy said he voted against the agreement in closed session because the payment “sets an awful precedent where the city would agree to a settlement in which a developer would have to pay off the people who sued them.”</p><p>Healy said such payments are “extremely unusual” and makes it appear that Regency is “just paying them to go away.”</p><p>Maguire said the payment came out of the negotiations due to the many hours that he, Francis and other community members had spent on the project.</p><p>“Would we rather have had a cash settlement or rather have reconfiguration of Johnson Drive and traffic improvements? We would have rather had the changes to the project,” he said.</p><p>Maguire said that the council failed to negotiate the types of improvements that came out of the lawsuit, and that going to court to resolve a public issue represents a “failure of the public process.”</p><p>“I believe the City Council every step of the way was trying to limit the legal exposure to the city and get the best deal for the city,” said Torliatt. She said that while the legal process was “unfortunate,” “this agreement allows us to accomplish those two objectives.”</p><p>Torliatt said that the agreement appears to be the final hurdle for the project approval before Regency negotiates with Friedman's home improvement, whose representatives have said they would be interested in a store at the site once the center's approval is finalized.</p><p>“We now have the ability to see if Friedman's is a viable tenant at the location,” said Torliatt.</p><p>If Friedman's signs on, the project will need additional environmental and design review.</p><p>Regency representatives could not be reached for comment on their negotiations with Friedman's or when they plan to break ground at the site, previously occupied by Kenilworth Junior High School, at the corner of Highway 101 and East Washington Street.</p><p>(Contact Philip Riley at philip.riley@arguscourier.com)</p>