Windsor’s train station doesn’t have passenger rail service yet, but it’s already dictating how the town will grow over the next 20 to 25 years. Town planners have come up with a blueprint for development in a half-mile radius around the station, which is considered integral to a transit-oriented future in which people live and work within walking distance of trains and buses.

The contentious debate over the CVS Pharmacy project in Sebastopol is tinged with complaints of bias and free speech violations. Opponents sought to have Sebastopol City Councilwoman Kathleen Shaffer disqualified from the vote, contending that a misdirected email showed that she was biased in favor of the project. And they complained the mayor violated their rights to free speech by barring a slide show.

Dozens of people lined up Monday night to try to sway the Sebastopol City Council on a controversial CVS Pharmacy proposed for one of the city’s most prominent spots. The crowd of about 250 people was about 2-to-1 in favor, based on a show of hands, with supporters calling the project well-designed and a plus for business, and those against wanting something smaller and more fitting Sebastopol’s small-town character. The council will decide the fate of the project next month. What should it do?

Sebastopol loves a good debate, and little is as contentious in this west county city of 7,500 as development. Attention is now turned on the CVS Pharmacy project proposed for one of Sebastopol’s most visible corners.

Windsor’s Town Council on Wednesday unanimously approved Bell Village, one of the biggest developments proposed in Windsor in years. The mixed-use project, just east of the Town Green, includes 387 rental apartments and townhomes and 80,000 square feet of commercial space anchored by Oliver’s Market.

UPDATE 5:45 PM: Lowe’s has dropped out of a Petaluma development that would have given the city its only home improvement warehouse store and perhaps captured millions of dollars in sales tax spent in other cities. “Essentially the clock ran out on a project that could have broken ground in 2010,” said Marko Mlikotin, a spokesman for the project’s developer. But it also reopens the door for a Friedman’s Home Improvement store to return to Petaluma.

Spring Lake Village won approval for a major expansion of its senior community in east Santa Rosa Tuesday. The Santa Rosa City Council voted 6-1 to approve the project and overturn the September denial of the proposal by the Planning Commission.

New developments in Santa Rosa may be required to provide additional parking spaces for bicycles — and showers for bicyclists, too — under new zoning rules to be considered by the City Council on Tuesday night. The changes are intended to make it easier for people to bike to work.

After a decade of failed attempts to build something on the site of the former White House department store downtown, the Santa Rosa City Council is shifting its development strategy for the property. Instead of teaming up with a private developer to construct a tower combining retail, a public parking garage and residential units, the council thinks separating the projects might give each a greater chance of success.

Despite arguments from big-box opponents, the Petaluma City Council voted 4-2 Monday night to approve a developer’s request to resize some of the buildings in the already approved, Target-based East Washington Place shopping center. Opponents argued that Regency Centers’ request to change six mid-size buildings into four larger ones to accommodate potential tenants’ needs showed the project is becoming a big-box development not envisioned when it was approved last year.