2 posts tagged “petaluma general plan”
To Coin and ancient Lancashire saying:
here's 'trouble at t'mill" as they've been saying in Yorkshire and Lancashire and thereabouts for centuries.
Only this time the troubles are a little closer to home - and centered around Petaluma's former historic silk mill at Lakeville and Jefferson. For owners of the lovely, old Sunset Line and Twine Building are pulling the plug on detailed preservation plans due to seemingly endless delays in the city's general plan.
Sunset Line & Twine's development group which consists largely of local investors had grand plans to transform the derelict brick building into gorgeous condominiums.
Preserving the authenticity, integrity and character of a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places was a priority for the Petaluma Preservation Group, which has been forced to put this significant local project back on the open market.
With all major developments currently on hold in the greater Petaluma area, contractors are ditching large and small-scale plans all over the place. And while this may not be a bad thing in many cases, the halting of a gentrification of the magnitude and importance of the Sunset Line and Twine Building is just a crying shame.
Who will step up to the plate to purchase the building and respective plans for some seven and a half million? No cheap deals on this one, folks. Although it would have made a classy condo development, this is probably not the right time to be putting such pricey new units on the Petaluma market.
More likely, the Sunset Line and Twine will make a great commercial studio project for someone with big pockets. Look how good the Burdell Building has evolved down the street.
And in the meantime, judging by the outstanding success of Petaluma Educational Foundation's September 7th fundraising bash, Sunset Line and Twine rules supreme as party central.Nightclub, anyone? Film studio, perhaps?
Note: Nick Park has announced a new half-hour Wallace and Grommit project called "Trouble At Mill' due to be released in 2008. The Lancashire lad's special will feature Wallace and Grommit in a bakery business murder mystery, involving the conversion of their house into a granary with ovens and robotic kneading armsEven though it seems like it would be a slam dunk deal at the local voting stations next November 2008- putting a halt on city growth may not be as clear cut as it sounds.
Despite the fact that Petaluma City Council is rightly concerned about drinking water inadequacies in the next twenty years, a population expansion may still be a consideration if major developers step up to the plate with $40 million worth of civic project money.
Voters may well be expected to make this decision and grant an exception or not to build an additional 2,100 homes near Lakeville Hwy.
According to reports in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Mayor, Pam Torliatt is sticking to her guns with supporting current growth restrictions and will likely urge citizens not to put up their city's principles for sale.
On the other side of the potential expansion fence, council members must now come to an agreement as to when the environmental studies necessary for this discussion need to take place. Before or after the completion of the general plan at the end of this year...
