Downtown Petaluma site eyed for affordable housing

A Bay Area developer is eying downtown Petaluma for its next affordable housing project, and they want your help designing it.

MidPen Housing of Foster City plans to build roughly 40 affordable rental apartments at 414 Petaluma Blvd. North, the current site of Magic Wand Car Wash. The nonprofit developer is hosting a series of meetings in Petaluma to ask residents what they want the project to look like.

“We could be like a market rate developer and just build something and say, ‘This is it,’” said Riley Weissenborn, project manager for MidPen. “But we want to make sure we listen to the community and are good community partners.”

The company held its first out reach meeting Monday at Petaluma High School, which it said was more of a listening session to gauge public feedback. MidPen will come back with a site plan in November, and perhaps some renderings of buildings at a future December meeting, according to Ali Gaylord, director of housing development for MidPen.

“We’re currently seeking community feedback,” she said. “We will take comments and come back with an initial site plan to react to. This is an iterative project.”

Councilman Mike Healy, attending the meeting, said the development should provide sufficient on-site parking to not inconvenience existing neighbors. The .68-acre site, which MidPen does not yet own, is just north of the future extension of Oak Street.

The North River apartments, a market rate project, is set to break ground just to the south, and developers of that project will construct an extension of Water Street to intersect with the new Oak Street extension. City plans show Water Street continuing north, eventually intersecting with Lakeville Street. MidPen would likely be required to improve Water Street in front of its property, officials said.

Part of the listening session will help MidPen determine the mix of apartments. Councilman Kevin McDonnell, who also attended the meeting, said he would push for two- and three-bedroom units, which appeal to low-income families.

“What I like is I’m hearing the theme is families,” he said. “That hits our market.”

Petaluma, mired in a regional housing crisis, has only approved 27 out of the 302 affordable housing units required to meet its regional target for low- and very low-income residents. Rents for affordable housing range between $607 and $1,685 depending on income level and the size of the unit.

MidPen, which has developed 8,500 homes in Northern California, built the Fetters Apartments in Fetters Hot Springs near Sonoma. It also includes a community room, computer lab and after school program classroom. Weissenborn said 800 people applied for the 60 units, which were awarded in a lottery.

As the developer continues the design phase of the project, it will start to secure $30 to $40 million in financing through a complex mix of state and federal sources, affordable housing tax credits and city affordable housing fees, said Abby Potluri, MidPen director of housing development for the East Bay.

If all goes well, Gaylord said MidPen could submit an application to the city early next year and break ground in mid-2020. In that scenario, apartments would be ready for tenants to move in at the beginning of 2022.

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)