Inside Petaluma’s plans to transform its downtown
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 [...]