Tank removal to free up Petaluma land

Petaluma has begun planning a complex multi-year project to reimagine the corporation yard at the city’s decommissioned wastewater treatment plant, a process that could open up one of the last remaining large parcels of undeveloped land within the city limits.

Last month, the city hired Petaluma-based MAD Architecture to begin planning for the future of the Hopper Street facility, which was built as a wastewater treatment plant in 1936. The concrete tanks were abandoned after the city opened the new Ellis Creek wastewater treatment plant near Shollenberger Park in 2009.

Several organizations continue to use the 550 Hopper St. site, including the Petaluma Animal Shelter, Recology and the city’s Public Works and Utilities Department. The Committee on the Shelterless operates the Mary Isaak Center on the compound.

City officials see a redesigned corporation yard as key to unlocking two large undeveloped properties along the Petaluma River. Just to the east, infrastructure continues to take shape for the Riverfront development that will include commercial and office space, a hotel and 273 new housing units.

To the south and west, the site of the former Pomeroy cement plant is primed for development. Developer Scannell Properties in May purchased the vacant 39.2-acre property from Bay West Development for $20.1 million.

Caulfield Lane currently dead-ends at the corporation yard. Officials hope a reworked layout will make way for an extension of the roadway, opening up the two development properties and eventually connecting to a new bridge across the Petaluma River.

“I do regard this as a very important piece of property the city owns,” Councilman Mike Healy said in approving the contract with MAD Architecture. “I think we want to see the Caulfield extension through the site to make the Pomeroy site more usable.”

The $133,000 contract with MAD Architecture includes two phases - a redesign of the work space for public works employees, and a longterm master plan that envisions uses for the property 20 years out. Healy said he would like to see transitional housing for residents who leave the Mary Isaak Center.

Mary Dooley, principal architect at MAD, said the firm was planning on meeting with city staff this week to kick off the project.

“There’s important stakeholders to be heard from,” she said. “We’re going to sit down with them and listen to their needs and interests in the process of master planning.”

In their proposal to the city, the firm said the goal of the master plan is to make the corporation yard more usable.

“Our approach is to find the maximum potential of the site to see what it ideally can become,” the proposal said. “For facilities that handle a mix of human and vehicular traffic, flow is the key to a good master plan. By considering vehicular routes, parking and specific service functions as well as appropriate adjacencies and relationship, we will explore opportunities for improved efficiency and way-finding.”

MAD Architecture has previously worked on Brewsters Beer Garden, the Petaluma Arts Center, the Water Street promenade and Keller Court Commons in Petaluma. Their proposal said phase 1 would take 12 to 14 months and phase 2 would take eight months to develop the master plan.

In the meantime, the city has started the process of demolishing the old wastewater treatment infrastructure that is currently taking up valuable real estate on the site. On Monday, the city council awarded a $683,000 contract to Coastside Construction of Santa Rosa to remove some of the large concrete tanks to make room for parking.

Kent Carothers, the city’s operations manager, said it was the first of four or five phases to clear the site of unused wastewater works, and should be finished within two months.

“We’d like to be able to finish construction before the rainy season,” he said.

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)