2022 AIA Communities by Design Reimagining Petaluma SDAT - Report - Page 41
Petaluma DAT
Sites Not Studied
One of the most important considerations for making
Petaluma carbon-neutral is reducing the vehicle miles
travelled by both people driving into the City to work who
cannot afford to live in Petaluma, and people driving
out of the City for jobs that are not in Petaluma. This
naturally creates a planning imperative to identify all
feasible possible housing sites as well as many feasible
office and light industrial sites.
May of these sites were identified in the Urban Land
Institute’s Technical Assistance Panel Report dated
September 17-22, 2020. We agree that the many acres
within the city limits currently occupied by shopping
malls – especially along Washington Street – are ideal
housing and commercial development sites. We find
that many of our recommendations are compatible with
those of the 2020 ULI TAP, but the assignment given
to the AIA DAT was quite different from the ULI Tap’s
charge. These mall sites and their vast parking lots –
as well as the Petaluma Fairgrounds itself – are not
where the underserved and car-dependent residents of
Petaluma live; simply stated, they were not relevant to
our work.
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