Petaluma City Council approves controversial ‘tubs on stilts’ art project

City leaders agreed to allow the divisive Water Street art project to move forward, and also decided to revisit the piece in 10 years.|

A divided Petaluma City Council voted Monday to move forward with San Francisco artist Brian Goggin’s controversial “A Fine Balance” bathtub sculpture – but only as a temporary installation that will be subject to a public review after 10 years

After more than 40 people spoke at an appeal hearing at City Hall, it was the city council that ultimately had to find a compromise for the contentious public art installation for Water Street. Like the division within the community, a true consensus was hard to come by for Petaluma’s elected leaders.

After 10 years, the minimum timeline designated in the city’s public art master plan, the so-called bathtubs on stilts will have their lasting fate determined, giving city officials the authority to either relocate the piece, let it remain or abolish it altogether.

City staff recommended to deny the three appeals against the project and not renew Goggin’s contract, which expired Aug. 7.

Instead, the council agreed to reject the appeals, but in an informal, 4-3 straw vote, they decided to draw up a new contract, one that would establish a lifecycle but still gives the artist a chance to realize the project.

“This art really was designed for this space,” said Councilwoman D’Lynda Fischer. “Water Street is such an important public space. We wanted to activate it, and it’s an ideal site for our first public art project.”

In the minority were council members Gabe Kearney, Kathy Miller and Mike Healy, who cast the lone dissenting vote in a 6-1 motion that denied the appeals. The trio said they would rather see the piece at another location.

City staffers will now have to write a resolution for the council to officially adopt at a later date that includes the mechanisms for a 10-year review, and provides Goggin with various protections if the piece does, in fact, get moved.

To safeguard from potential litigation, officials will also have to do a further examination of the California Environmental Quality Act concerns that were raised by opposition group Save Water Street, one of the three appellants that petitioned the Petaluma Public Art Committee’s approval of Goggin’s final design in February.

Petaluma residents Michael Shockro and his wife, Deborah Tavis Shockro, filed a joint appeal, and the third was by Patty Paula, who was unable to attend Monday’s meeting due to a family engagement.

Save Water Street has been the most prominent opponent against the project. The group retained Santa Rosa attorney Leslie Perry and collected over $8,000 for legal fees through a crowdfunding campaign.

In an Aug. 12 letter, Perry called for a full environmental impact report to adequately address aesthetic concerns, and said the city would be exposing itself to litigation if the project moves forward without a proper CEQA review.

Save Water Street spokesperson Roger Robles alluded to the possibility of litigation if the council decided to proceed with the art piece at the original site.

“We will continue the process through whatever avenues we have available,” he said in a statement.

Goggin’s proposal features five replicas of Victorian claw foot bathtubs walking the promenade on angled, iron stilts. According to the designs, they would be spread throughout the pedestrian end of Water Street by the Balshaw Bridge, and some of the tubs would be visible from Petaluma Boulevard.

Dozens of residents commented at the hearing Monday night, and the split between supporters and opponents was roughly equal. The robust discussion featured artists, public officials, historians, business owners and a diverse collection of residents both new and old.

The critiques covered a myriad of perspectives, the most common being the lack of connection to the site, conflicts with the city’s master plans for the area and the belief that the city has wrongfully exempted the project from historical review.

Officials disagreed, claiming the site is outside the downtown historic district that was adopted in 1999.

Many have maintained that the tubs will be a dangerous liability and attractive to miscreants. Goggin, though, has met with top officials from Petaluma’s public safety and planning departments to craft a design they believe addresses every structural or safety concern.

Project proponents said controversial art can be a good thing and defended the process. Many expressed faith in Goggin and his abilities, and warned that canceling the contract would set a precedent that could scare off talented artists on future installations.

His proposal has elicited strong emotions throughout the Petaluma community, spurring one of the most significant responses to a municipal undertaking in recent memory.

Scores of residents shared their opinions on social media, and more than 2,500 signatures were collected in a petition against the installation.

The council commended the audience at Monday’s meeting, expressing appreciation for an opposition movement that has sometimes been vitriolic and malicious in its disdain for the project, and the officials that have allowed it to proceed.

Kearney said the general distaste for national politics and the type of belligerent discourse that’s become the norm for federal officials trickled down to the local scene in Petaluma.

Miller echoed Kearney’s critique, and said the council and art committee members have been targeted with “nasty emails” and a flood of combative comments on social media.

“It distresses me because I feels like it’s sort of indicative of what’s going on in the national level and it’s coming down into our town, and I don’t like that at all,” Miller said. “As we go forward, I’d like to think we can disagree without being disagreeable.”

So far, Goggin has received roughly $20,000 of his $150,000 commission, officials said. His project is funded through Petaluma’s public art program, which requires commercial developments to either install a piece of art or contribute 1% of the cost to the city’s art fund.

“A Fine Balance” is the culmination of a process that first began in 2013 and restarted three years later after the initial search for proposals came up short. The selection panel changed course in the second pursuit, and instead looked for artists rather than concepts, eventually choosing Goggin.

With the council’s verbal agreement to continue, Goggin is optimistic he can turn public sentiment once the piece is installed. He pointed to the Eiffel Tower and Bay Lights installation on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge that were temporary projects but eventually won over their communities and became permanent fixtures.

“My hope is it is embraced that way,” Goggin said. “But if the intention is to only have it up for 10 years, I’m flexible and I’ll create something that can be long-lasting but also come down in 10 years.”

(Contact News Editor Yousef Baig at yousef.baig@arguscourier.com or 776-8461, and on Twitter @YousefBaig.)

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