2022 AIA Communities by Design Reimagining Petaluma SDAT - Report - Page 33
Petaluma DAT
Node 2C: Caulfield & Crinella
Node 3C: Casa Grande High School
This was the most challenging area of the city in which
to locate a mixed-use development site. The dense and
consistent residential blocks are quite far from any
health or human service resources and available nonresidential land is rather limited requiring everyone who
lives here to drive to practically everything. The small
parcel we identified would be appropriate for a new
three-story building holding such functions as adult day
care, a community health center, and a ground floor
corner grocery store. The tenants of the existing building
– the Old Adobe Union School District offices – could
remain as a tenant, and the site is also adjacent to an
existing park, an elementary school and children’s day
care center. This adjacency would leverage the potential
for La Tercera Park for becoming part of a more vital
neighborhood center on Crinella Drive.
This proposed development site works on a number
of levels. First, the only significant socioeconomic
disadvantage of this southernmost section of the East
End is its poor access to a grocery store. Second, the
large underutilized (seemingly abandoned) parcel
adjacent to Casa Grande High School is nearly as
big as Leghorn Marketplace, and lastly, Casa Grande
Road itself is a very inhospitable high speed four-lane
thoroughfare. A development on this site would address
all these concerns by locating a small format grocery
store towards the back of the development site flanked
by low-rise restaurant and commercial pad sites with a
two-story commercial building on Casa Grande Road.
This development would be accessed by the much wider
and tree-lined sidewalks that are recommended in this
study. The upper office floors of this development could
also bring health and human service functions to this
neighborhood.
Node 2C: Caulfield & Crinella
Node 3C: Casa Grande High School
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