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Introduction to GPAC

The City of petaluma

Petaluma General Plan Update

Resources

Introduction to GPAC

Committee Member Roles

The GPAC is comprised of community representatives who will serve as advisors and project ambassadors throughout the General Plan process. The committee will work collaboratively with the consultant team, led by Raimi + Associates, and City staff to provide input on General Plan issues and offer feedback on draft materials. 

The GPAC will:

• Supplement community input provided at public workshops and provide feedback and guidance throughout the General Plan process.

• Provide feedback and direction to the project consultant and City staff, with the goal of developing policies and objectives of the new General Plan that are responsive to community input, conditions, goals, and vision.

• Help tailor the project to local conditions, including the approach taken for each major step in the process as well as public engagement strategies employed.

• Review plan materials and provide guidance at key project milestones, including crafting a vision, considering alternatives, and selecting preferred policies, to help ensure that they are responsive to community input and conditions.

• Communicate information about the General Plan to Petaluma community members and encourage all interested parties to participate in the process.

Working Groups

It is possible that, over the course of the General Plan development period, the planning team may convene working groups to examine and develop recommendations on particular issues. These working groups could either be informal groups made up of technical experts and members of the GPAC (though not a quorum of the GPAC), or a GPAC subcommittee. If a subcommittee of the GPAC is formed, its work would be specific to particular topics (such as climate change or economic development) or particular areas of Petaluma, and would be ad-hoc and time-limited, disbanding when the work on each topic is complete. GPAC subcommittees would be made up of GPAC members only, and would not include a quorum of members.

GPAC Rules and Responsibilities

Detailed roles and responsibilities for the GPAC are available in this document.

The City of Petaluma

History of Growth Management and Planning in Petaluma

Petaluma was an early leader in the public management of population growth. Infrastructure shortages and sprawling subdivisions that were seen to overtax the environmental and aesthetic quality of the community in the 1960s alerted the City to the problems of rapid growth. In addition to impacting the character of the city, neither the sewer system nor the public school facilities could accommodate the rapid growth. As a result, the City instituted a system of controls to set the pace for new residential construction. Milestones in the City’s growth management history include:

1961 General Plan

The 1961 General Plan recognized the importance of compact development patterns and cost-effective provision of public services and infrastructure. It provided a framework for development within Downtown, expansion of industrial areas, new parks, residential neighborhoods, commercial areas, schools, and the roadway network.

Environmental Design Plan of 1978

This plan reiterated the city’s Urban Growth Boundary (then called Environmental Design Plan boundary) and extended its effective date through 1985. It identified an optimum population of approximately 70,000– 90,000 residents.

Urban Growth Boundary (UGB)

Placed on the ballot by the City Council in 1998, city voters overwhelmingly adopted a fixed urban edge, which for the most part was coterminous with the 1987 ULL. Although the UGB did not affect the growth management numbers, it confined the growth and physical development of the city until 2018. In 2010, the City Council placed a ballot measure before the voters extending the UGB to 2025.

The UGB is nearly identical to the 1987 General Plan Urban Limit Line, although four possible expansion areas were included in the 2010 ballot measure. Voter approval is required to amend the UGB (outside of the included expansion areas) so that rural lands are not prematurely or unnecessarily converted to urban uses. Adoption of the UGB was intended to fulfill the following objectives:

• Encourage efficient growth patterns and protect the quality of life by concentrating future development largely within existing developed areas;

• Promote uses that foster public health and safety and productive investment for farming enterprises on lands outside Petaluma’s UGB;

• Foster and protect Petaluma’s natural setting while encouraging appropriate economic development in accordance with the city’s unique local conditions;

• Concentrate growth within a well-defined UGB in order to limit the extent of required City services and restrain increases in their costs;

• Allow the City to continue to meet the housing needs for all economic segments of the population, especially lower and moderate-income households, by directing the development of housing into areas where services and infrastructure can be provided more cost-effectively; and

• Promote stability in long-term planning for the city by establishing a cornerstone policy within the General Plan designating the geographic limits of long-term urban development and allowing sufficient flexibility within those limits to respond to the city’s changing needs over time.

The Urban Growth Boundary contains a total of 9,900 gross acres (including streets, the Petaluma River, and other rights-of-way). The four possible UGB expansion areas adopted as part of the UGB Measure include approximately 330 acres, which would be available for annexation given findings that infill acreage is limited and infrastructure capacity is sufficient to serve these outlying areas.

The voter-approved UGB will expire in 2025. The General Plan provides direction to evaluate growth boundary expansion issues.

Existing General Plan

The City’s current General Plan was adopted in 2008 with minor updates in 2018. The current General Plan is remarkable and forward-thinking for its time and continues to be a valuable guide on many issues. However, City and community priorities have evolved, and the City was unable to implement portions of the plan due to the impacts of the Great Recession. In light of these factors and based on a community desire to create a new vision for Petaluma, the City has initiated the General Plan Update well in advance of the 2025 time horizon of the 2008 General Plan.

An additional impetus for the General Plan schedule is to develop the General Plan concurrently with the Housing Element of the General Plan. This Element, described in more detail below, will fulfill State of California requirements that the City plan for housing development, particularly affordable housing. The Housing Element is required to be submitted in January, 2023. Rather than producing the Housing Element on its own, the City has elected to take a holistic approach to planning for the future of the city and to update the whole General Plan.

The City has recently developed Community Goals and Priorities, adopted a Climate Emergency Resolution, and created a Climate Action Framework. These strategic documents, along with additional planning documents and exigencies that arose in the City’s Covid-19 response and discussions of citywide equity, laid the groundwork for the General Plan alongside extensive community outreach. This context is summarized below.

City Goals and Priorities (and their relationship to the General Plan)

In April 2019, the City convened a community process to identify focal areas and overarching goals for the City as an organization, as well as immediate priorities and action items. This is the culmination of hundreds of hours of work with input from hundreds of community members, committees and commissions, and City staff. Our 2019-2021 set of Goals and Priorities covers five goal areas and includes objectives and work plan items that address important initiatives to improve the quality of life for Petalumans. The Goals identified are:

The City and community also identified these focal areas: Affordable Housing Crisis; Infill Housing Development; Climate Emergency; Public Health; Equity; Ecological Sustainability; New FEMA Mapping; City Fiscal Sustainability; and Economic Strength. While these goals and focal areas were identified for the 2019-2021 fiscal years, they are indicative of our emerging vision for our community.

The Goals and Priorities document is available at the City’s website here. 

Petaluma General Plan Update

Updating the General Plan

The General Plan effort will include comprehensively updating the City’s existing General Plan and adding new relevant topics to put the Plan at the forefront of best planning practice and comply with legislative mandates.

In mid-2020, following the July 6, 2020 City Council meeting, Petaluma undertook an extensive outreach process that provided a framework for the Request for Proposals sent out to potential consultants for the General Plan Update. This initial outreach effort included staff facilitated discussion with various commissions, committees, City departments, and individual stakeholders to identify topics to be addressed in the General Plan. These discussions involved identifying existing challenges in the City, areas seen as priorities, and discussions on what the City will look like over the next 20 years. Click here to view the staff report that summarizes the outreach efforts that took place between July and October, 2020. You can also find the community survey summary here.

In September 2020, Petaluma hosted an Urban Land Institute Technical Advisory Committee (TAP) focused on the future of housing in our city. The ULI TAP was comprised of leaders in the fields of urban design, architecture, development, and more. The TAP report provides recommendations on development in the Downtown, East Washington, and Corona Road areas of the city, as well as citywide approaches to ensuring housing feasibility and encouraging the best possible projects for Petaluma. The full ULI TAP Report is now complete and available here.

In February 2021, City Council authorized the selection of Raimi + Associates for the General Plan update. By working with community organizations to assemble a baseline set of themes (discussed below), the City was able to develop a scope and schedule for the project.

Raimi + Associates will collaborate with City staff, the General Plan Advisory Committee, City Council, and the community to prepare a comprehensive and updated General Plan. The City intends to update the General Plan using language and graphics that are easily understood by non-technical stakeholders. Most importantly, the Plan will reflect the City’s aspirations for the future and achieve maximum utility with a clear implementation plan.

The initial outreach undertaken is only an early step in this multi-year process. Raimi + Associates will be doing intensive outreach throughout the project schedule, and GPAC members will work with the consultant and City staff as key stakeholders in this outreach as part of their role on the committee. 

Required General Plan Elements

There are seven mandatory topical areas, referred to as elements, that must be included in a General Plan: Land Use, Open Space, Conservation, Housing, Circulation, Noise, and Safety. An Environmental Justice element is also required in many jurisdictions, including Petaluma.

More about these mandatory elements can be read in Chapter 4 of the General Plan Guidelines published by the California Office of Planning and Research. A description of how the Housing element and Environmental Justice element within the context of Petaluma are also useful.

Housing Element

California state law recognizes that local governments play a vital role in developing affordable housing. In 1969, the state mandated that all California cities, towns and counties must plan for the housing needs of our residents—regardless of income.

This state mandate is called the Housing Element and Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA. As part of RHNA, the California Department of Housing and Community Development, or HCD, determines the total number of new homes the Bay Area needs to build—and how affordable those homes need to be—in order to meet the housing needs of people at all income levels.

Our local Council of Governments, the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), working with the Housing Methodology Committee made of low local stakeholders, then distributes a share of the region’s housing need to each city, town and county in the region. Each local government must then update the Housing Element of its general plan to show the locations where housing can be built and the policies and strategies necessary to meet the community’s housing needs.

The Housing Element is required by State regulations to be updated every eight years. This is a different cycle than the rest of the General Plan. The City’s current Housing Element (Chapter 11 of the current General Plan) was adopted in 2015 and guides housing development through 2022.

Like all Bay Area cities, Petaluma must update its 6th Cycle Housing Element by January 2023 and expects to be allocated more than twice the units it saw in the 5th cycle. In 2015, Petaluma’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) was 745 new units, including 302 units for low income. Petaluma housing has grown at a rate of approximately 260 units/year since 2015.

Many of the sites identified in the current (2015) Housing Element have been developed, and there are over 2,000 units that have been proposed, entitled or permitted in the development pipeline.

As of January 2020, Petaluma has a DRAFT local RHNA allocation of 1,910 units, including 499 very low income units, 288 low income units, 313 moderate income units, and 810 above moderate income units. This allocation may change.

The City’s current goal is to support the development of denser infill housing that is:

• Environmentally responsible

• In close proximity to transit

• Includes a range in affordability to meet Petaluma workers’ and residents’ essential housing needs.

In addition, Petaluma has seen significant interest in ADU development.

The City is the recipient of a LEAP grant to support the development of its Housing Element.

Environmental Justice

The State of California’s Office of Planning and Research’s 2017 General Plan Guidelines require that cities with defined at-risk populations prepare an Environmental Justice Element as part of an updated General Plan. A preliminary analysis indicated that Petaluma will be required to prepare this element.

Beyond this requirement, the city is dedicated to furthering environmental justice. Petaluma’s intent will be to enhance community health and environmental quality citywide by improving or maintaining air quality, ensuring neighborhood access to healthy foods, promoting equitable distribution of housing types and household income levels, creating a safe pedestrian/bicycle network, and supporting equal access to public amenities such as parks, transit stops, and libraries.

The General Plan will ensure that no particular group is required to bear a disproportionate burden of impacts from climate change. Air quality and transportation policies must also be included to help reduce air pollutant concentrations in communities located near high-volume roadways or other sources of point and non-point pollution. As part of the General Plan Update the City will also be developing a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) which will be critical in informing the General Plan and aligning with this broader dedication to environmental justice. The CAAP is described in additional detail below.

Equity in Petaluma

Promoting social equity is important to the Petaluma community and the City of Petaluma, as is evidenced in the City’s Goals and Priorities. The City plans to prepare an Environmental Justice Element of its General Plan and notes that there is a significant focus on social equity in the Climate Action Commission’s work.

In response to the social and racial justice protests occurring across the country and particularly spurred by local youth groups in Petaluma, the City’s Public Art Committee sponsored the installation of a Black Lives Matter street mural which was installed on Fairgrounds Drive in front of the Petaluma Regional Library.

During this crucial period in history, systemic issues of injustice are being brought to light and there is a loud, clear call for action from those we serve. We are listening and we welcome the opportunity to do better.

The City recognizes racism exists and understands addressing it involves an ongoing, engaged dialogue that includes diverse viewpoints. Our Police Department is committed to the steps outlined in the Obama Foundation’s My Brother’s Keeper pledge, which include the following:

Review our police use of force policies.

Engage our communities by including a diverse range of input, experiences, and stories in our review.

Report the findings of our review to the community and seek feedback.

Reform our community’s police use of force policies.

After committing to the pledge, we became the first City in Sonoma County to formally review our police use of force policies through a dedicated Town Hall meeting. We have since been focused on soliciting feedback through interviews, a survey, and input from community organizations who convened listening sessions for our BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) communities last summer which resulted in a report distributed to the public in September.

Additional information about the City’s work on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is available here.

Relationship to Other Planning Documents

The General Plan is not a standalone document. As part of Raimi + Associates scope of work, they will also prepare a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) alongside the General Plan and an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that studies the potential environmental impacts of the General Plan. 

Other plans may also be developed simultaneously with the General Plan but managed as separate projects. This is likely to include the Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan. In addition, the policies in the General Plan will acknowledge other existing planning documents in the City. Although the General Plan is an overarching instrument, it can be informed by other recent plans the City has adopted.

Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP)

The CAAP will reflect the strong community interest in the Climate Emergency Resolution and subsequent Framework developed by the City, which includes a goal of carbon neutrality by 2030. This CAAP will serve as both a technical document that is used on a day-to-day basis by City staff and elected and appointed officials to guide decision-making, as well as a visionary document used by the general public to understand the long-term vision and direction of a community.

The framework for the CAAP will be determined as part of a public process in early outreach meetings by the consultant team. The CAAP may include, but is not limited to:

• The vision for climate action.

• Quantitative goals and tracking metrics.

•  Recent accomplishments and implementation actions related to climate and sustainability efforts.

• Resident or businesses to programs and actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase community resiliency.

• Connections from the CAAP to broader City policy goals related to community health, housing, mobility, or parks and open space.

Other Planning Documents

Petaluma currently has a Specific Plan that guides the development of the Downtown area, district-specific design and preservation guidelines, as well as topic-specific plans around climate action, hazard mitigation, the Petaluma River, public art, and bicycle/pedestrian mobility.

Several long-range planning efforts have recently been completed or are currently underway and should be considered alongside the preparation of the General Plan. These planning efforts include:

• Climate Emergency Action Framework (will inform the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan)

• Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan

• Petaluma Fairgrounds visioning

• Local VMT standards

• Objective Design Standards for Multifamily development

• Permit-ready ADU plans

• Water Model Plan and Sewer Modeling

• Groundwater Master Plan

• Urban Water Management Plan

• Flood Plain Model Update and Adoption (HEC-RAS 2D)

• Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority Climate Action 2020

• RCPA Climate Mobilization Strategy

A full list of these plans, along with several maps documentation of Petaluma’s zoning ordinance, can be found on the “Resources” page of the General Plan website.

General Plan Themes

During the initial General Plan outreach that informed the RFP, the City was able to identify several themes of interest to the Petaluma community. These themes will be refined and explored in the General Plan and can serve as a basis for initial GPAC discussions and further outreach over the planning period.

Housing

As with many communities in California, Petaluma is experiencing a housing crisis. Housing priorities identified through the outreach process include the development of affordable housing, increasing the diversity of housing types, including housing affordable to middle-income households, congregate care for the elderly population, and support for the homeless population. Significant challenges facing the development of housing in the City include the difficulty of securing financing by developers, conflicts between ensuring environmental protection and reducing climate change impacts and the need for housing, increased traffic, and identifying suitable community fit.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The General Plan’s approach to the future of the economy becomes even more critical in today’s uncertain era when development funds are limited, and creativity in attracting private investment is essential. Businesses and workers are increasingly sorting themselves in cities with the most substantial quality-of-life assets: high-quality public spaces, access to a diverse range of affordable and attractive housing, and a supportive social and cultural environment. The Plan should seize the opportunity to position Petaluma for enduring investment and sustained economic growth.

The General Plan should recognize the changing nationwide retail environment and develop a strategy to adjust to shifting market adjustments and demands for retail, commercial, hospitably, and industrial spaces.

Petaluma values its small businesses and unique, locally-owned enterprises. While commercial and retail facility vacancies exist in Petaluma, the community and City would like to examine ways to maintain and encourage retail and commercial activity and associated jobs. Many stakeholders cited a desire not to over-build retail space and to rather provide flexibility for property owners to respond to the market with flexible uses and land use permissions. A need to support increased residents working from home was also cited as a priority for the General Plan. The City welcomes innovative approaches to promoting and maintaining a balance of mixed-use development, access to services, and market responsiveness.

SUSTAINABILITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Petaluma has a long-standing and active commitment to sustainability leadership. The City’s 2019 Climate Emergency Resolution states the goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2030 or earlier. The Climate Action Framework, adopted in 2021, guides the City’s ongoing response to and discussion about the climate crisis.

Climate change increases the fragility of local and regional ecologies and introduces challenges, such as increased heat, fire risk, sea-level rise, and decreased water supply, which threaten property and quality of life in Petaluma. A climate change response, including that adopted in the CAAP, should be closely coordinated with proposed land use, housing, and mobility policies. The General Plan must include climate change adaptation and mitigation policy and strategies in compliance with State law and to increase the resiliency of the City and its most vulnerable communities. 

Existing challenges to combating climate change and advancing sustainable practices in the City include existing floodplain-related policies that allow development in the floodplain, limited purview to deny projects based on environmental concerns, and the rapid nature of climate change paired with the need to balance development needs and to decrease our climate impact. Priorities identified in the outreach process include identifying a methodology for projecting sea-level rise, prohibiting development in the floodplain, and incorporating the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan as part of the General Plan. The community and community leaders recommended that the City develop a clear and compelling vision of what a climate-neutral Petaluma might look like to develop a positive view of what might be and not simply focus on necessary changes.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND UTILITIES

The City’s Capital Improvements Program (CIP) Division manages major projects in the city. The results of preliminary community outreach suggest that broadband internet access is considered an unregulated utility that should be addressed in the General Plan.

PUBLIC ART AND MUSIC

Petaluma has a strong dedication to community arts and cultural offerings. Petaluma has a Public Art Ordinance that secures fees from non-residential development projects to fund the creation and maintenance of public art in the city. The community would like to see additional opportunities to create and enjoy public art, particularly art that is responsive to its unique urban environment.

Scope and Schedule

The consultant team led by Raimi + Associates has developed a six-step approach to the General Plan update:

1.     Project Initiation. Launch activities, including the kick-off meeting, work plan development, data and document collection, and the engagement plan.

2.     Issues and Opportunities. This phase includes the development of an existing conditions report along with significant community outreach and engagement to inform the public about the process and seek input on issues and ideas for the future.

3.     Visioning. This critical phase will involve significant community engagement to develop a vision statement, guiding principles, and key themes for the updated General Plan.

4.     Alternatives Development and Selection. After the vision is developed, the team will work with the community to develop and then select a preferred direction for the plan.

5.     Plan Development. In this phase, the team will develop “Policy Frameworks” for each topic (high-level goals, policies, and actions) and review the Policy Frameworks with the community. The team will also draft the General Plan and CAAP and write the EIR. 

6.     Review and Adoption. The General Plan, EIR, and CAAP will be reviewed by the public, GPAC, Boards, and Commissions and then adopted by the City Council.

This process will continue throughout the rest of 2021 and all of 2022, concluding in plan adoption by Council in January 2023. A detailed schedule is also available. Please note that this schedule is a living document, and dates are subject to change.

Resources

Data Overview

Land use

Physical Features

The Petaluma River, Highway 101, SMART tracks, Urban Growth Boundary, and the hills to the south and west of the city are the primary physical features in Petaluma.

Petaluma River

The City of Petaluma has completed the maintenance dredging of the Petaluma Marina and the Turning Basin in the fall of 2020. The Petaluma River has not been fully dredged since 2002 and the Marina since 1998, except for minor dredging performed after the New Year floods emergency in 2006. As a result, the River, especially the Turning Basin and the Marina, has heavily silted up, causing severe restrictions to access by commercial and recreational vessels during most of the daily tide cycle. Significant shoaling has caused the cancellation of the annual “Lighted Boat Parade” and other nautical events hosted by the Petaluma Yacht Club in the Turning Basin. Barges from Lind Marine are reportedly operated at less than half full and only during rising tides to avoid running aground. Downtown businesses have remarked on the reduction of business previously enjoyed by visiting yachters.

In October 2020, local leaders this week celebrated the final days of the Petaluma River dredge project, marking the end of a protracted effort to clear the central waterway of a 17-year silty entombment blamed for declining tourism and river recreation.

The Petaluma community is generally hesitant to develop in its floodplain, which encompasses much of the northwestern and southeastern portions of the City. Any new development fixed-routed should take this resistance into consideration.

Transportation and Access

Highway 101 is the primary access route into the city from the north and south, with CA-116 serving as a secondary access route to the east. However, according to a 2020 County study, 69% of trips originating in Petaluma stay within the city. The current General Plan identifies two significant vehicle transportation projects to create additional cross-town connector opportunities, including the southern crossing at Caulfield and the Rainier crossing. The City’s impact fee structure was developed to fund these and other significant infrastructure projects at build-out. Additionally, the Lynch Creek trail provides crosstown access for bikes and pedestrians.

Transit

Transit access is provided by Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) and bus services through Petaluma Transit, Sonoma County Transit, and Golden Gate Transit.

SMART is planned to run between Cloverdale and Larkspur and is in the process of being developed and expanded. The active track runs from near the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport (north terminus) to Larkspur (south terminus, connecting ferries to San Francisco).

There is a planned infill SMART station at Corona Boulevard and North McDowell Avenue: Petaluma North. Funding for construction was authorized by the SMART Board of Directors in June 2020.

Petaluma Transit provides both fixed route (Petaluma Transit) and ADA complementary paratransit services within the Petaluma Urbanized Area (primarily City Limits). The fiscal Year 2016 fixed route network features a four-bus base network, operating on six different routes, running seven days a week from early morning to late evening. Only one of these routes has 15-minute headways (Route 24 - during rush hour). Petaluma Para-transit operates the same time span as the fixed route, providing ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) “premium” service by providing rides to eligible persons to and from any location in the Petaluma Urbanized Area, regardless of the proximity to active fixed-route bus service.

Sonoma County Transit connects Petaluma to Santa Rosa, while Golden Gate Transit connects the city to San Francisco through Marin County and over the Golden Gate Bridge. Neither Sonoma County Transit nor Golden Gate Transit has headways under one hour.

Airport

The Petaluma Municipal Airport is located at 601 Sky Ranch Drive, on the northeast edge of the city. It is bordered by agricultural and parks/open space land on the north and east and by residential development on the south-west side.

The Airport records about 60,000 take-offs and landings each year, equally split between aircraft based in Petaluma and those based elsewhere.

The airport is a convenient access point for tourist travel into Wine Country and corporate travel to North Bay businesses. It is a hub in FedEx’s freight hauling business and home to Magnon Aircraft’s Petaluma Pilot training center and aircraft maintenance operation.

Infrastructure and Utilities

The City’s Capital Improvements Program (CIP) Division manages major projects in the city. Additional information about current and planned projects is available here.

Broadband internet access is a concern for some areas of the city.

Vacant Land

Petaluma has limited vacant land within its Urban Growth Boundary. What vacant land exists is generally at the outer stretches, on hilly or otherwise difficult-to-develop parcels. The city projects much of its new development will be infill development in proximity to transit.

Demographics

Local Economics

Market Conditions and Trends

The median home value in Petaluma is $735,543. Petaluma home values have gone up 4.4% over the past year, and Zillow predicts they will fall -1.6% within the next year. The median list price per square foot in Petaluma is $428, which is lower than the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward Metro average of $499. The median price of homes currently listed in Petaluma is $695,000, while the median price of homes that sold is $722,800. The median rent price in Petaluma is $2,800, which is lower than the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward Metro median of $3,300.

Mortgage delinquency is the first step in the foreclosure process. This is when a homeowner fails to make a mortgage payment. The percent of delinquent mortgages in Petaluma is 0.4%, which is lower than the national value of 1.1%. With U.S. home values having fallen by more than 20% nationally from their peak in 2007 until their trough in late 2011, many homeowners are now underwater on their mortgages, meaning they owe more than their home is worth. The percent of Petaluma homeowners underwater on their mortgage is 2.1%, which is lower than San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward Metro at 2.7%.

Commercial Development

Petaluma is located in Sonoma County, a legendary winemaking area (wine, breweries, and specialty agriculture represent $2 billion in sales annually for the County) with a growing technology sector. Office lease rates are a fraction of San Francisco or even Marin County averages ($22.68/sf, compared to $76.40 and $42.00, respectively), while industrial space is slightly more competitive ($12.36/ sf, compared to $24.20 in San Francisco and $15.00 in Marin).

The city of Petaluma itself can be considered as being made up of three large areas: Southeast Petaluma, Western Petaluma (Downtown), and Northeast Petaluma.

According to a 2019 real estate forecast, most of the current demand in Petaluma is for industrial, particularly for newly-built class A industrial space. The city’s proximity to Marin and San Francisco makes it well-suited to additional growth in industrial space, particularly if and when labor costs for construction become more moderate.

Government Overview

Sonoma County

Petaluma is located in Sonoma County in Northern California’s bay area.

The Sonoma County General Plan 2020 is a revision of the previous General Plan, which was adopted in 1989. The County Plan establishes a framework for protecting open space and agricultural uses and limiting new development. The County Plan is generally compatible with the plans of its nine cities and with plans or policies established by other governmental agencies. Although the County’s plan does not regulate development within Petaluma, it is applicable to lands within the unincorporated portions of the Planning Referral Area. Consultation with Petaluma, however, is required for lands within its Sphere of Influence. In some instances, the policies of the County Plan establish larger “areas of interest” for cities in order to provide for their review and comment on proposed county actions. Sonoma County Area Plans, such as the West Petaluma Dairy Belt Area Plan, should be consulted for areas within Petaluma’s Urban Growth Boundary, beyond the existing City Limits.

Sonoma County has an equity in a housing program that the City is a part of, which may provide data on and outreach for our Housing Element efforts related to equity.

Local Government

Petaluma is a charter city with a council-manager form of government. The Petaluma City Council consists of six Council Members and the Mayor. The Council Members are elected at large for a four-year term. Three Council Members are elected in November.

General Municipal election is conducted in even-numbered years. This means that at least three Council Members are up for election every two years. The Mayor is directly elected to a four-year term during the General Municipal Election in November. Council and Mayoral elections are non-partisan, and members are elected as at-large representatives.

Current Plans Affecting the City

Please refer to the General Plan Website Explore page for information on and links to existing plans.

Appendix: Map Book