SMART deal could be key to building second Petaluma station

As work continues on the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit system ahead of expected commuter rail service in late 2016, we have been vocal about making sure Petaluma, specifically the east side of town, doesn’t get left behind.

A second Petaluma station, to go along with the one under construction on Lakeville Street, was part of the original SMART plan that was approved by voters in 2008. It was envisioned for Corona Road and North McDowell Boulevard, close to business parks and population centers on the east side.

Then the recession hit and the SMART board had to make some tough choices, cutting sections of the Larkspur-Cloverdale line north of Santa Rosa and south of San Rafael. The second Petaluma station was a casualty of the tough financial times.

As the economy has improved, and with the help of grant funding, SMART has been able to incrementally add back pieces of the project that were dropped. A few weeks ago, the agency’s leaders gave General Manager Farhad Mansourian the authority to negotiate a deal for an east side station that could end up costing SMART next to nothing.

The site in question is the former Adobe Lumber yard on Old Redwood Highway. While it’s about a mile north of the Corona Road site, the Old Redwood location has its advantages.

It is located near the Redwood Business park with 5,000 jobs, including the soon-to-be-relocated Fireman’s Fund. A train stop at that site could allow for a side track to be built to the Lagunitas brewery and enable the company to ship directly by rail and take dozens of beer trucks off the road, SMART officials say. The station could also be linked by a bike path to the Santa Rosa Junior College campus.

Some Petaluma leaders are set on Corona Road for the east side station. But that land, while not cheap, has the additional problem of potential soil contamination, making any station development at the site years away. We encourage city leaders to embrace the Old Redwood Highway location as it offers the best chance for SMART to build a station reasonably soon after train service begins.

Cornerstone Properties, the Petaluma-based commercial real estate developer that owns the Adobe Lumber site, also owns several office buildings in the Redwood Business Park. SMART owns the rail maintenance yard between the Lakeville Street station and the Petaluma River. As an added bonus, SMART could get the station built at Old Redwood for nearly no cost and the city could improve a blighted piece of downtown property, depending on the deal Mansourian is able to negotiate.

In the best case scenario, Cornerstone would develop the Adobe Lumber site and build a SMART station, providing a public transit option for the thousands of workers in the business park and increasing the value of its properties.

In exchange, Cornerstone would get the rights to develop SMART’s rail yard, transforming the piles of dirt and old rail ties into a nice mixed-use development to revitalize the riverfront and fulfill the city’s goal of adding transit-oriented housing downtown.

It’s still too early to tell what sort of deal SMART is able to broker, but we think this public-private partnership could be the key to getting a second Petaluma station and making sure east side residents don’t miss the train.