Petaluma City Council to vote on future of fairgrounds property

The Petaluma City Council is set to vote Monday evening on next steps for the city’s 55-acre fairgrounds property after the expiration of its current lease at the end of 2023.

The vote at Monday’s 6 p.m. meeting will provide direction as to whether the current lease of the fairgrounds property will continue as is or if control of the site will be handed to the city for future management. The meeting agenda, initially titled a “Fairgrounds Workshop,” was revised Friday to include the words “Resolution Adopting Guiding Principles Regarding The Future of The City Fairgrounds Property.”

But Monday’s vote would not include specific decisions on how exactly the property will be used going forward, said city manager Peggy Flynn in an email Monday afternoon, who said that will become clearer over the next year as the city, fairgrounds stakeholders and community members conduct more discussion and planning.

Monday’s meeting follows months of public feedback and discussion by a 36-person randomly selected panel of residents who were chosen after 10,000 invitations were mailed to random addresses. The process was facilitated by the city-hired, Oregon-based nonprofit Healthy Democracy, which works to help government decision-making processes move forward in a fair manner.

After dozens of hours of meeting with stakeholders and hearing from residents on their relationships to the fairgrounds property, panelists provided the City Council with eight guidelines on how the property should be used, which were narrowed down to three possible visions in a final report posted to the city website last week.

Their visions included having the fairgrounds property represent a “welcoming public space that adapts to fit the needs of the diverse and changing community” and keep it as a “space for events that showcases nature and agriculture while being climate positive and removing greenhouse gas emissions.”

“We envision a safe, green open space that includes activities that can be enjoyed by the greater community; a place for the annual fair, as well as agricultural education, and to remain a center for evacuation services,” panelists said in their final recommendation report.

According to the report, the panelists also supported continuation of the annual, five-day fair as well as “continued and expanded” use of the Petaluma Speedway, which has remained at the center of recent debate.

The panelists said they hope to see a renewed, yet modified, lease with the 4th District Agricultural Association, which has been in charge of the lease for the past 50 years, as well as renovations to the property’s facilities to have an “emphasis on renewable energy and eco-friendly practices and landscaping.”

“The history and heritage of our community should be honored while also improving the property to meet current and future needs,” the panelist report said.

Meanwhile, the city staff report states that, in addition to the panelist guidelines, city staff recommends for the city to assume control over the fairgrounds property beginning Jan. 1, 2024, which would entail all operation responsibilities going to the city including facility and grounds maintenance, subuser interactions, event bookings and programming. The city would also “execute new agreements with existing tenants who are interested in extending their tenancies at the fairgrounds.”

Additionally, the city aims for the 4th District Agricultural Association to keep control of the annual fair.

The city staff report also noted an alternative to the staff recommendation – entering a new agreement with the agricultural association where the 4th DAA would continue to maintain the property and oversee subleases.

“While this option could hold some benefits, related to familiarity with the existing arrangement and maintaining existing legacy uses on the property, most of the guiding principles and community feedback is not addressed by this alternative,” staff said in their report. “While some of the community input referenced historic memories and uses of the fairgrounds, more relevantly, it also emphasized the need for more, expanded uses of the property.”

That would include more access for the public, new park space and trees, local food space, more flexible event space for diverse community gatherings, and better and more accessible facilities in times of emergency, the report said, implying that these changes would not necessarily be implemented if the current lease is simply renewed as is.

About a dozen businesses and organizations currently sublease space for year-round services at the fairgrounds property, including Live Oak Charter School, Java Hut coffee, Rebuilding Together, El Roy’s Express Mex, Happy Hearts Preschool, Petaluma Speedway, Play Dog Play and more.

Amelia Parreira is a staff writer for the Argus-Courier. She can be reached at amelia.parreira@arguscourier.com or 707-521-5208.