ULI SF is proud to announce the completion of the Petaluma Housing Opportunities TAP for the City of Petaluma. ULI’s  Technical Assistance Panels (TAPs) provide strategic advice on complex land use and real estate development issues for local clients, such as municipalities, public agencies, and non-profit developers.

In 2020, the City of Petaluma engaged ULI SF’s TAP program to provide insight on how the city will be able to meet its expected Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) housing requirements in a constrained environment. The city sought recommendations on how to encourage denser housing development, where to develop infill housing, especially near transit, and how to provide more affordable housing units. The TAP panel looked at typologies that hold promise for the city to meet its housing goals while reducing risk from flooding and maximizing transit-oriented development. TAP panelists included planners and developers from the public and private sectors who shares their perspectives on meeting the challenges of growth while addressing constraints.

The Technical Assistance Panel focused on the following questions provided by the City:

1. In highlighting sites where the TAP might consider feasibility of denser housing construction, the city seeks to encourage innovative thinking in areas such as ownership, capacity, funding sources, entitlement expectations, or other TAP criteria to realize the benefits of density. Considering the wide variety of potential housing sites the City has identified, TAP will likely focus in on the most promising typologies and use those key examples for illustration of its recommendations. Both raw land and redevelopment sites should be considered, and opportunities for mixed use identified. The City can then apply those typologies in their further planning to the best and most feasible locations, encouraging both for-rent and for-sale housing development. The panel may also assume that the City will be considering distributed models such as ADUs and small multifamily infill to fulfill some part of its housing goals.
2. Based on the findings of Question 1, what financial, zoning and policy incentives can Petaluma offer to encourage more dense development, including 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 design of sustainable structures with positive benefits?

Drawing from our seasoned professional membership base, ULI SF composed a panel of experts from a wide variety of disciplines reflecting diverse perspectives, including investment and finance, landscape architecture, architecture, market rate and affordable housing development, transit oriented development, and urban planning. TAP Panelists included:

• Karen Alschuler, Principal, Perkins&Will (Panel Chair)
• Daniel Adams, VP Mixed Income and Affordable Housing, Sares Regis Group of Northern California
• William Duncanson, Principal, BAR Architects
• Nicole Franklin, Principal Property Development Officer, Bay Area Rapid Transit District
• Tom Leader, Principal and Founder, TLS Landscape Architecture
• Meg Spriggs, Managing Director, Multifamily Investments Group, Shorenstein
• Randy Tsuda, President & CEO, Alta Housing

In September 2020, the TAP panel convened for a four day virtual workshop consisting of tours, stakeholder interviews, and panel deliberations. The TAP panelists identified the following three areas of focus that demonstrate the most potential for the type of development Petaluma seeks:

DOWNTOWN: Great Address on the River
The opportunity for Downtown now is to develop more housing that can benefit from a revival of the river as a key urban open space that connects people to nature and to each other.

EAST WASHINGTON: Mixed Use District
The panel saw tremendous potential in the East Washington district. Through planning, zoning, excellent design, and innovative financing, the city could enable the East Washington district to transition from a low-density car-oriented suburban area into a denser, walkable, and housing and amenity-rich district.

CORONA: SMART Station Area
The proposed Corona SMART station area is a prime site for dense, compact, and walkable TOD. The City should plan for scale and development density that supports transit ridership, focus on development that includes a mix of complementary uses to encourage activity during non-peak travel times, and offer services and amenities to area residents and commuters.

Read the full Petaluma TAP report to learn more about City of Petaluma, the TAP methodology, and final recommendations.