Housing project approved near Petaluma Clover facility

More than two dozen homes are set to be built near the Clover Stornetta bottling facility in Petaluma, following about two years of debate, one threatened lawsuit and a rejected appeal.

The City Council on Monday night unanimously approved the final map for the Riverbend development project, which calls for 27 housing units – including four affordable units and eight accessory dwelling units – at the nearly 3.5-acre lot at 529 Madison Street.

The proposal was met with some backlash from local advocates, who cited flooding, land use compatibility with the neighboring dairy company, lack of parking and potential impacts to nearby wildlife habitat.

But the decision comes as the city looks to expand its housing site inventory under new statewide efforts to curb an ongoing housing shortage. And City Council members were under additional pressure to approve the pressure after the developer’s legal team raised the specter of a lawsuit.

“I didn’t like this project when it came around for the first time for various reasons that the community has mentioned, but it does meet all requirements, and so I voted for it,” said council member D’Lynda Fischer.

The project’s tentative plans were approved by the Planning Commission on July 14, 2020, and an appeal was filed two weeks later by four residents. After public testimony and rebuttal, the City Council denied the appeal at a September 2020 meeting, and instead directed the applicant, Steven J. Lafranchi & Associates, to revise the project.

Revisions were reported back to the City Council two months later, and included plans for increased parking, traffic calming methods and a reduction in housing units to 27 from 30 to preserve four of the site’s oak trees.

With the neighborhood located in the city’s floodway, concerned residents argued that the project would prompt millions of dollars of economic suffering in the long-run due to flood damage and rising sea levels.

But according to a staff report, the project’s stormwater would be pumped to the Vallejo Street Pump Station, which is “not directly impacted by the hydraulic grade line of the river,” and would not result in worse flood conditions.

Others worried about ongoing environmental impacts.

“Each time I pass by this property, sometimes in early morning, sometimes during daytime, and sometimes at dusk, my heart breaks,” said former City Council candidate Susan Kirks in a letter to the city, as she called for more substantial review of the project’s environmental impacts in the area.

A week after the City Council committed to preserving from development much of the Lynch Creek area, it appeared that council members were considering leaving a final approval of the project off the table Monday night. But doing so risked violating the Subdivision Map Act and Petaluma Municipal Code that states the City must approve a final map of a project if the developer has “complied with the terms and conditions attached to the tentative map.”

“Please remind the Council that recent emails requesting the Council pull (the project approval) from the consent calendar provide no information that could possibly be considered fraud and that any attempts to do so could subject the City to challenge for failure to approve the Final Map,” said Wendel Rosen, LLP, which represents Riverbend Associates, in a submitted letter to City Attorney Eric Danly prior to the meeting.

With that, the City Council moved on to unanimously approve the project, with the recusal of council member Kevin McDonnell who cited a conflict of interest.

Aside from the housing units, additional features in the project plans include half-street paving along the property’s front portion, a newly-installed pocket park and a 10-foot-wide multi-use pathway improvements for the nearby Lynch Creek Trail, including lighting and way-finding from the property line to Lakeville Street.

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