Petaluma’s Corona Station project scrapped

A controversial plan to build 110 single-family homes at the Corona Station development has been withdrawn by the landowner, signaling a new chapter in one of the most contentious projects the city has seen in recent years.

The Petaluma City Council voted 6-1 last week to approve a request by Lomas Partners to rescind its entitlements for the residential project. In its place is a new proposed affordable housing project that appears to meet many critics’ demands for higher density on the 6.5-acre plot of land, located along the SMART rail corridor at Corona Road and North McDowell Boulevard.

“Last week we did receive an application from the Danco Group for a 131-unit multifamily project that is 100% affordable and is located on that Corona Station development site owned by Lomas,” said Planning Manager Heather Hines, confirming the new developer.

The Nov. 2 council vote on the eve of Election Day effectively extinguished the single-family housing development that emerged as a leading issue in the City Council race.

The vote cements a sharp turn in the embattled project, which has been met with a lawsuit and torrents of public criticism from a highly-organized group of development and sustainability activists who saw the project as inadequate.

The face of the lawsuit, council candidate Brian Barnacle, has been a leading critic of the development over the past year. Barnacle was the highest vote-getter in the council race, which will likely unseat at least two incumbents that voted to approve the Corona Station project.

In the eyes of many who also opposed the project, the Corona Station housing development became a rallying cry for new leadership on council and the recent U-turn in the project is a direct result of public pressure.

At a public meeting on the original project earlier this year, business owner and part-time developer Jenny Griffo presented a proposal replete with mock-ups in an attempt to convince the council that the Corona Station residential project should be denser and more sustainable. On Monday, Griffo and a half-dozen other residents expressed frustration to the council.

“Nine months ago I stood here and presented essentially the same plan presented to you all, and in response the incumbents who voted for the project as it was presented told us it was the best we were going to get,” Griffo said. “Since then, Brian Barnacle has pushed the developer through a lawsuit for this outcome, with 10 times the affordable housing, a coffee shop, amenities for the community.”

Yet the decision also has a domino effect as developers are enmeshed in a complex array of agreements linking the second SMART station, an affordable housing development and a 400-unit proposed apartment complex downtown.

The parcel’s owner, Lomas Partners, entered into a partnership with SMART years ago that resulted in a land swap. Lomas Partners promised the rail agency a sliver of the Corona Station land to use as parking for the future station. In return, SMART is to sell the expansive parcel behind the downtown station to Lomas Partners for development, giving the rail agency funds for the second station’s construction. Lomas Partners then plans to sell that downtown parcel to Hines Company, which is proposing a large, multi-story 400-unit housing development.

Planning Manager Hines said Monday’s vote does not affect the private agreement between Lomas and SMART nor does it affect the city’s agreement with SMART over the east side train station. The 400-unit Downtown Station, managed by Hines Company (no relation to the Planning Manager), is also largely unaffected.

In total, last week’s decision reverses approvals on the single-family Corona Station residential project, the dedication of a 2.5-acre site for affordable housing and approvals satisfying affordable housing requirements associated with the 400-unit Downtown Station project.

The Danco Group’s proposal to replace the Corona Station single-family development with 131 units of affordable housing in three- and four-story buildings, called Meridian at Corona Station, is in early stages. However, the Danco Group is looking to utilize a recently-enacted law to streamline development, which could exempt it from some review processes.

Council members Mike Healy and Kathy Miller, incumbents in this year’s race who have been largely supportive of the original single-family project and the target of criticism by the project’s vocal detractors, expressed skepticism over the viability of Meridian at Corona Station.

Healy said the new project is not funded, and the rescinding of past approvals also cancels the affordable housing units that were linked to the original single-family project.

“I have to caution that even though a lot of folks think this plan is prettier or better than what we approved before, it’s a stretch to think it’ll ever get built,” Healy said. “We’re giving up 78 (affordable) units we knew we would have gotten for what’s behind door No. 3, and that concerns me a lot.“

Miller cast the lone dissenting vote, and echoed much of the concerns Healy expressed as well.

The Danco Group did not respond to requests for comment.