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The site plan for Deer Creek Village
By LORI A. CARTER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The Petaluma City Council late Monday night agreed, with some reservations, to move forward with a final environmental impact report on the controversial Lowe’s-anchored Deer Creek Village shopping center.
After more than four hours of public comment and council discussion, the council directed staff to begin working on the final version of the report.
This summer, the council will be asked to decide whether that study adequately details the various impacts of the 344,000-square-foot retail, commercial and office complex on North McDowell Boulevard. The outcome of that vote could determine whether the project moves forward or is halted.
Councilmembers Teresa Barrett, Tiffany Renee and David Glass had concerns about the traffic, greenhouse gases and noise the project may bring to an already congested northeast section of Petaluma.
While other councilmembers had apprehensions about the completeness of certain aspects of the draft environmental report, Barrett expressed the most unease.
“I’m not sure this is an adequate DEIR,” she said. Parts of the report, including a section on plant and animal species that may be displaced by the project, are “almost silly,” she said.
On Monday, the council was set to consider the adequacy of the draft report and either send it back to staff for more work — or possibly to start over and recirculate the document — or have city planners and consultants begin finalizing the report taking into account their concerns.
Glass and Barrett worried that if Lowe’s failed, perhaps Walmart or a Super Target grocery store could move in. City planners said any use other than what was studied in the draft EIR would have to seek separate approval.
Barrett and Renee wanted San Francisco developer Merlone Geier to bring back designs that included more environmentally friendly buildings, landscaping, pedestrian features and sound protection for neighbors across North McDowell.
Glass and Barrett suggested that one of the alternatives identified in the draft EIR would be a more appropriate project for Petaluma. That alternative reduced the retail, restaurant and office space by half, leaving Lowe’s as planned, and would include a 50-bed residential care facility.
Developers say their project, with a gym, restaurants, and possibly an electronics store, will bring about 300 construction and another 500 permanent jobs to Petaluma, along with the city’s only home improvement warehouse.
They say the center would bring in about $1 million annually in sales-tax and property-tax revenue to Petaluma, which is in the midst of making $4 million in cuts in an attempt to balance its $32.5 million general fund budget.
The project would also pay about $5 million in traffic-impact fees toward the Rainier Avenue project and another $4 million in other city fees.
Late in the meeting, Councilman Mike Healy referenced a 29-page letter the city received Friday from lawyers representing the Petaluma Neighborhood Association, who are opponents of the center.
The group, whose two leaders took $150,000 last year from developers to drop its opposition to a Target shopping center, is now challenging the legality of the Deer Creek report.
The letter argues the draft EIR is “wholly inadequate under” state environmental laws, contending it contains insufficient analyses of traffic and air quality, and that the project is inconsistent with the city’s 2008 general plan.
“It must be thoroughly revised to provide analysis of, and mitigation for, all of the project’s impacts,” the letter states. “This revision will necessarily require that the EIR be recirculated for further public review. Until this EIR has been revised and recirculated, the project may not lawfully be approved.”
Merlone Geier spokesman Marko Mlikotin said the city shouldn’t be dissuaded from moving forward.
“There are too many jobs at stake not to take the steps necessary to defend themselves from a frivolous lawsuit,” Mlikotin said.
—–O—–
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story did not fully describe a $150,000 settlement received by the Petaluma Neighborhood Association in exchange for dropping its opposition to the Target-anchored East Washington Place shopping center.
In the settlement, developer Regency Centers agreed to pay PNA leaders $100,000 and provide an additional $50,000 for the group’s legal fees. An additional $32,000 paid the city’s legal costs and $40,000 went toward traffic improvements on East Washington or in the nearby East D Street neighborhood.
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PETALUMA 2ND GENERATION SMALL BUSINESS OWNER and RESIDENT
-Where did you grow up? Did you enjoy the wonderful charm of P-town? There is hardly anything at home depot that i can’t get in Petaluma. For 2x4s got to heritage salvage cheap and recycled! Home depot Wall Mart and Lowes bombard the masses with advertising and brain wash the public into believing that they are the lowest price and highest quality. I’ve got news for ya, They aren’t. What about all the small businesses that go under when a big chain store moves in? Don’t we have enough empty buildings in town? No one talks about the Petaluma-owned mom and pop stores that will go out of business. No one does research on that because they aren’t being paid to. The lobbyists for big business go around telling everyone how great it will be when Lowes comes to town… they will save the day with the tax revenue. Yea! 2 more big box stores and 25 more empty buildings in our newly renovated downtown district-that sounds great! NOT! Or maybe Lowes will hire me for less money when I lose my job because of them. That sounds awesome. NOT! Big box stores pay their workers less money, lowering the standard of living for the workforce. They sell a large number of products that are made in China , so right there a big chunk of money leaves the country–GONE!. The gross profits of the sale go to the big corporations and OOPS! another big chunk of money leaves the state county and the town FOREVER!. Then last and LEAST is the sales tax. I hear all these people making a big deal about the smallest part of the total sale and how great it is that this one big store can generate so much tax revenue for the community when it’s actually the biggest RIP OFF of all time. The amount of money being spent in Petaluma wont go up just because a big box comes in, it will just shift from the smaller stores to the big store. Same deal with the tax revenue. Oh and for the 300 “new” jobs 300 other Petalumans will loose jobs, stores, shops and incomes shortly after. Places like Rex Hardware and numerous others will disappear. Do you remember the public out pouring when Rex Hardware burt down? I stood on the street with the crying family as the flames shot out into the street. In the days following the fire people put cards and pictures and stories on the cyclone fence encouraging the family to rebuild this part of our community. It made me proud to be a Petaluman. This is only one example.
Get real people, these huge corporations don’t care about you or Petaluma one bit. When you buy products and services from a locally owned company not only do we get the tax money, we get the profits from that company being spent again at another Petaluma business and so on and so on. The money stays in the community. We also get to keep the jobs we have, the profits stay in the community, and more of the money stays in Petaluma and California and the USA.
We as Petalumans should unite and buy locally, hire locally and spend locally and give to local charities. This will actually improve our local economy and our quality of life. Petaluma is Petaluma because of its small businesses and the people and families that live, work and play in Petaluma. Go to the Butter and Eggs Day parade, Peggy sue American Graffiti days, Vets parade etc. and look around. We are the proud owners of a wonderful community and we can make it even better by teaching these beliefs to our neighbors and children . If we loose our small town charm then what do we have . Please don’t buy into the lies of big corporations and there minions.
You can blame the Mayor (and Barrett) for delaying another project when;
1. You are paying to have your front end aligned because of a pothole.
2. When you apply for a permit for a fence and get a mound of paperwork.
3. You call the cops and it takes an hour for them to get there.
4. When every sports field you go to with your kids makes Petaluma look bad.
5. You get the cold shoulder when calling city hall for information on how to start a business within the city.
6. The city puts a ’round about’ in your neighborhood against your will to “calm” traffic and facilitate bikes.
7. You drive by the decaying dirt mounds on Fairgrounds and think; ‘Wasn’t a Target going to go in there?”
8. You are spending your $5 a gallon gas to drive to Rohnert Park to buy a 2×4 you cannot get in Petaluma.
9. You are spending your $5 a gallon gas to drive to Target/Costco, etc. in Rohnert Park.
10. You watch a Petaluma City Council meeting and think to yourself, ‘I thought David Keller wasn’t on the City Council anymore’.
Same ‘ol thing, outstanding observations and correctly attributed!
spot on “same ‘ol thing”. glass tried to control the public comment so as to discourage, and belittle anybody that spoke to the DEIR but in a favorable way to the project. yet glass had plenty of opportunity to chastise the repetitive comments made by Francis, Cader Thompson, and Keller. Stegman, much as I disagree with him, at least did not repeat himself and his point ad nauseum like the others. public comment should be public comment-and folks should not be allowed to cede their 3 minutes to a so-called “spokesperson”. that kind of defeats the purpose of hearing from a wide spectrum of the public. perfectly legal, but i wish it were changed—-
Great!
Another cookie-cutter retail development to make Petaluma look even more like Anytown, USA.
Congratulations, City Council and Merlone Geier.
Wow! Whats next, change the name of the town? Perhaps something like Petalumapol.
By contrast this makes the DMV office seem like a well oiled machine.
Why is it that David Keller etal feel they need to run this town? Are Glass and Co. his puppets? The people spoke many, many years ago – they were done with Keller, Cader-Thompson & Maguire.
And why is that Glass was oblivious to his behavior towards any supporters of the project last night? Does he need someone to point out how extremely discourteous he was to anyone who spoke in favor of Lowe’s?
I guess we know how Kearney got himself appointed.