Conflict pits old vs. new businesses

Petaluma native Charles “Cody” Hildreth, owner of the Block, a popular food park and beer garden in downtown Petaluma, never anticipated becoming a successful entrepreneur. Five years ago, while working as a pediatric ICU technician at Oakland Children’s Hospital, his young son was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, an often-deadly childhood cancer, and landed in the same hospital for treatment.

Thanks to Petaluma’s Carousel Fund, Hildreth was able to quit his job and care for his son full-time during the agonizing months-long treatment program that finally succeeded in ridding his son’s body of the cancer.

It was during this time that Hildreth became enamored with the unique community vibe at a nearby Oakland food truck market. Once his son was on the road to recovery, he was all in to establish a similar enterprise in Petaluma and eventually won city approval for a lot behind the Auto Zone store on East Washington Street. The venue now includes a rotating roster of up to three food trucks, a beer bar, permanent kitchen and pizza oven, covered outdoor seating area and an adjoining 48 stall parking lot.

Following its opening in 2016, the Block quickly became a sensation for foodies and beer lovers alike, with 100 to 125 people stopping by almost every night, and about twice that number on the weekends when live music is featured.

According to Hildreth, “People have really taken to this place. It’s an entirely new experience for Petaluma.”

That’s true, but Hildreth also says there is one enormous problem affecting his new venture: Since its opening, several hundred Block customers have had their cars towed, at $440 a pop, for having inadvertently parked in a dirt lot owned by the adjacent Dairyman’s Feed and Supply Co-operative whose 1938 building, the tallest in town, houses one of Petaluma’s oldest and most enduring agricultural businesses. Block patrons, including families with children, frequently emerge from the establishment to find their vehicles have simply disappeared.

According to Petaluman Dimitri Donnelly, whose family dined and listened to music at the Block one recent Friday evening, upon leaving he discovered his car was missing, along with those belonging to several fellow patrons. Donnelly says that the co-op’s “No Parking” signage to warn people is minimal, and that the business should install a chain to prevent cars from entering the property.

But Arnie Riebli, the co-op’s president who expressed opposition to Hildreth’s project from the onset, told me last week that putting a chain up won’t work.

“People will park on the outside of the chain and that would block trucks from being able to get in and out,” said Riebli, noting that feed trucks are entering and exiting the site every day from 4 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Riebli says he fears that a large truck could hit someone whose car is illegally parked on his property. “I’m not looking to take on that kind of liability,” he said.

Riebli and Hildreth aren’t speaking to one another these days, but both acknowledge they are eager to find a resolution to the problem. Their conflict is an inevitable byproduct of the Petaluma Central Specific Plan which strongly encourages new and more intensive business and housing development in the downtown alongside older industrial properties such as the co-op. Similar conflicts are expected to occur, for example, when construction of the Water Street housing and commercial project gets underway near Brewsters Beer Garden where, even now, customers are often challenged to find convenient parking nearby.

Thankfully, Petaluma has a staff person whose job it is to help mediate such conflicts so that popular new businesses and the jobs they create can thrive alongside older establishments. Economic Development Manager Ingrid Alverde is well-positioned to bring together the affected parties to help work out a solution aimed at reducing the number of cars towed from people just looking to get a delicious and affordable bite to eat downtown.

Beyond that, city officials should also take a good, long look at the bigger picture. With more development slated nearby, a third downtown parking garage is needed. Where should it be located and how will its construction be financed? What can the city do to resolve the severely blighted conditions surrounding the Block where abandoned rail cars sit rusting alongside ramshackle structures, where the roads are little more than potholes and rubble and where it’s nearly impossible to discern where the public right of way begins and private property ends. How can the property owners, Angela and Richard DeCarli, be incentivized to clean up their parcels so they can be better utilized for the public good?

Indeed, much of the area looks like a war zone, offering ample opportunities for enhancement in keeping with the noble goals espoused in city plans that took many years to complete.

(John Burns is former publisher of the Petaluma Argus-Courier. He can be reached at john.burns@arguscourier.com.)