General Plan Background Documents and Reports
Mapping and data visualization
Visit the many maps that have helped inform the General Plan process on our Maps Page!
SEa Level Rise - Flood Maps
Sea Level Rise and Flood Mapping
The City of Petaluma is currently updating its General Plan, a plan that will guide the future development and management of the City for the next 20 years. As part of this work, the City has been taking a hard look at flood risks in the community.
the Housing Element
Forming Future Housing Policy in Petaluma
The Housing Element is Petaluma’s Plan to facilitate the creation of needed housing and increase housing equity over the next 8 years. Since 2020, the City of Petaluma has been engaging the community to develop this policy document required by the State of California and on March 20, 2023 the City Council adopted the 2023-2031 Housing Element. The Housing Element was certified by the State of California in May 2023.
Please visit this page to review Housing Element Documents
Petaluma Housing Feasibility Analyses
Market Rate - Residential Housing Feasibility analysis
Strategic Economics examined barriers to development of market rate higher-density housing development in Petaluma by analyzing the financial feasibility of four housing development “prototypes.” The analysis examined 1) whether these types of development products are currently feasible in Petaluma, 2) the major factors driving costs and revenues for each prototype, and 3) how potential City policies can enhance the feasibility of the prototypes. The City of Petaluma commissioned this study as part of its General Plan update process to inform decisions regarding City policies that impact housing development.
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Affordable Housing Feasibility analysis
Strategic Economics identified barriers and opportunities for development of new affordable housing in Petaluma based on analysis of affordable housing pro forma financial statements, developer interviews, and concurrent housing studies in Petaluma. This analysis considered housing production trends, financial opportunities and barriers for affordable housing projects, and the ways in which Petaluma’s regulatory, permitting, and approval processes impact new housing production. The City of Petaluma commissioned this study as part of its General Plan update process to inform City staff and decision makers’ considerations of policies impacting affordable housing production.
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American Institute of Architects - Petaluma Sustainable Design Assistance Team
August 2022
In August 2022, The City of Petaluma received a group of leading design professionals specializing in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, sustainability, and equity from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Sustainable Design Assistance Team (SDAT). This team of experts shared their vision of Petaluma based on research on existing conditions, tours of our city, discussions with stakeholders, and a community meeting. Their proposals related to how to make the “15 Minute City” a realty in Petaluma provide inspiration and food for thought for the GPAC and other community members to consider.
Take a look at the presentation and watch the recording of the presentation and their discussion.
The Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) is a community design program run by the American Institute of America since 1967. The program is grounded in key tenets that each community represents a unique place that is the product of its own history, tradition, and evolution, that successful community strategies require whole-system, integrated analyses and working together for the common good, and that Community development requires collective public work that encourages civic leadership, empowers resident partnership, and strives to build a platform for cross-sector collaboration.
To this end, the primary goals of the SDAT program include:
Use citizen-driven community involvement in development processes, providing a new way of working together.
Identify the community’s values and vision for the future.
Focus on a particular project, listening to the community’s concerns and ideas.
Develop a strategy and set of actions to realize that vision.
Relate concepts to current practices and priorities of the community.
Render Image of a re-imagined streetscape in Petaluma produced as part of the SDAT. Please note that this is not a proposal of the General Plan Update.
Vision for the General Plan Update
On February 17, 2022, the GPAC voted unanimously to recommend that the City Council accept these Vision materials (Attachment A) as the guidance for the ongoing General Plan Update planning process and the City Council accepted them on March 21, 2022. The Vision Statement, Pillars, Guiding Principles, and Supporting Concepts reflect community engagement input that occurred during the Visioning Phase of the General Plan Update, including Pop-Ups, a Citywide Vision Workshop, Quadrant meetings, Latinx engagement, and a Youth Survey.
The principal outputs of the Visioning Phase of the General Plan Update (GPU) are a Vision Statement, Pillars, and Guiding Principles and Supporting Concepts.
The Vision Statement describes the desired future conditions and characteristics of the city.
The Pillars are the core community values
The Guiding Principles and Supporting Concepts provide the broad direction and pathways to achieve the vision and honor community values, with a focus on the community’s specific challenges and opportunities.
Together, the Vision Statement, Pillars, Guiding Principles, and Supporting Concepts provide the foundation for developing land use alternatives and policy framework during the subsequent stages in the General Plan Update.
Existing Conditions Reports 2021 - (Updated 2022)
The Existing Conditions Reports for Petaluma’s General Plan Update serve as the technical analysis of diverse dimensions of the city’s current state in 2021. They provide a detailed analysis of current conditions in the city to provide a strong, data-based foundation for further policy-making. This work adds additional data points to the community-based visioning efforts to identify key priorities and areas of concern to address in the General Plan. These 19 reports will be available to all members of the community to access and become more informed on key issues.
The extensive feedback received from City Council, committees and commissions, and the general public from October 2021 to January 2022 informed updates and changes to several of the ExistingConditions Reports. Suggestions and proposed actions shared throughout the engagement process did not altern the reports, but it continues to inform the planning process for 2022 and 2023.
Last updated: September 2022
Summary Presentation
Review the following slide deck for highlights from all 19 individual Existing Conditions Reports.
Click to View Individual Reports Accessible for Review:
Public Engagement Reports
The following documents provide an overview of engagement made throughout 2020 - 2022, as well as specific engagement reports completed near the end of 2021 and in 2022.
ULI TAP Report
In September of 2020, Petaluma hosted an Urban Land Institute Technical Advisory Committee (TAP) focused on the future of housing in our city. The report summarizing the TAP's recommendations is complete and available for your review.
The TAP worked to address the following questions:
1. Considering the wide variety of potential housing sites the city has identified, the TAP will focus on the most promising typologies and use those key examples for illustration of its recommendations. Which raw land and redevelopment sites should be considered? Which opportunities for mixed-use development would the panel identify?
2. Based on the findings of Question 1, what financial, zoning, and policy incentives can Petaluma offer to encourage more dense development with affordable housing, especially near transit nodes and particularly as allowed by the Downtown SmartCode, or a similar code that could be adopted near the Corona Road station?
3. What are some ways the city might assure mitigation of negative impacts in the floodplain, particularly in already developed areas? Might some of that mitigation be provided by the design of sustainable structures with positive benefits?
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.