The elimination of redevelopment agencies has put in doubt Cotati’s ambitious — and controversial — plan to revive its downtown, even as the city remains on the hook for more than $500,000 for design and planning work on the project. The Old Redwood Highway redesign project was to rely on about $2.5 million in redevelopment funds for much of its costs. Now, the redevelopment agency’s remaining money — about $2 million — will be allocated by a seven-person oversight board to be formed in May.

Another ballot-box battle may be on Cotati’s horizon in the wake of the City Council’s unanimous approval of a $3.5 million plan to narrow the city’s main street and install two traffic roundabouts instead of stoplights. Opponents of the plan had promised, even before the council vote shortly after midnight Wednesday, they would mount a drive for a referendum to bar roundabouts anywhere in the city.

Opponents of a plan to remake Cotati’s downtown into a narrower street that includes roundabouts have told city officials they will pursue a ballot initiative unless they change course. The initiative would bar the city from building roundabouts anywhere within its limits. Its backers want the city to adhere to a concept it previously outlined, a four-lane street controlled by traffic lights.

Is it possible to walk from the fire station in Cotati to City Hall? Judging by the squabble over traffic roundabouts, maybe not …

A controversial $3.5 million plan to narrow Old Redwood Highway to two lanes with two roundabouts is headed to the Cotati City Council. The redesign, approved unanimously by the city’s planning commission, was proposed by city staff as part of a long-sought overhaul of the city’s commercial center. It was opposed by Oliver’s Markets and other downtown merchants who say the plan would hurt their businesses by constricting traffic.

A controversial, $3.5 million plan to narrow Cotati’s main street to two lanes with two roundabouts got a big nudge forward.

Cotati residents packed City Hall on Tuesday to weigh in on proposals to transform the city’s downtown and revitalize its economy. The issue, which had become the latest controversy in a community that has seen its share, produced a three-hour, considered conversation.

One of Cotati’s biggest employers may have inadvertently undercut its objections to a city proposal to install two roundabouts on its main street. Oliver’s Market, which has said it won’t relocate downtown if the traffic plan goes forward and may leave the city, has been showing a video to demonstrate how the roundabout would be an impediment to big trucks. Only one problem: the video does not tell the full story.

Oliver’s Market, one of the biggest companies in Cotati, says it won’t move downtown and may leave the city if officials go ahead with a plan to redesign the main street. The $3.5 million design would would narrow Old Redwood Highway to two lanes downtown and incorporate two roundabouts.

George Barich, Cotati gadfly and the city’s most persistent City Hall critic, is now the city’s most frustrated publisher. Stacks of his new Cotati Independent monthly newspaper have been disappearing from a City Hall table where newspapers and other materials are left for the taking. “It’s very suspicious,” said Barich.