Barn5400

By: Janet Fletcher, San Francisco Chronicle “We’re starting to think a lot more creatively about how we can make the town more vibrant,” says Petaluma planning commission board chair Gina Benedetti-Pednic. An urban-growth ordinance approved several years ago “drew a hard line around the town,” prohibiting all development beyond the boundary, she says. “As a result, we’re incentivizing infill projects. We’re filling in the blanks.” One such project just across the Petaluma River from The Block is Brewsters, a beer garden that sprouted 15 months ago on a Petaluma parking lot. Another involves an abandoned lumber yard on the [...]

By: Jeff Quakenbush, North Bay Business Journal After years as a vacant throwback to Petaluma's agri-industrial origins, the former Adobe Lumber yard on the northeastern edge of the city is coming alive with new tenants and a bold plan to create a hub for makers of art, music, food and beverages. The 12.9-acre site at 5400 Old Redwood Highway has been vacant since Clover Sonoma relocated its headquarters to the south end of Petaluma in 2012. Clover bought the property in 2004 and sold it to Petaluma-based Cornerstone Properties in 2014. A year after it spearheaded the opening [...]