Target center's impact on pool questioned

<p>The city and the developer of a Target-anchored shopping center should take another look at plans to build a road around two recreational facilities next to the site, some City Council members said Monday.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>During a discussion of the draft environmental report for the East Washington Place project, some members of the council and the public said they were concerned about traffic and emissions along a three-lane street planned to wrap around the swim center and skate park.</p><p>The road, Johnson Drive, would direct traffic from the East Washington Street-Ellis Street intersection around the back of the swim center and up to Kenilworth Drive, which fronts the shopping center’s parking area.</p><p>But putting moving cars in close proximity to swimmers and skaters — particularly children — isn’t a good idea, some at the meeting suggested.</p><p>“I find it totally unacceptable how the swimming pool has been treated in every iteration of this project,” Vice Mayor Teresa Barrett said. Placing traffic nearby “is a total danger to people who use the swim center and the skate park.”</p><p>Shortly after developer Regency Centers purchased the former Kenilworth Junior High School site in 2004, the city granted an easement for the future Johnson Drive after carving the right-of-way out of the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds’ lease of the city-owned parking area behind the swim center.</p><p>At one point, Regency proposed buying the swim center and skate park site and paying to rebuild those facilities elsewhere, but the cost proved too high, the company said.</p><p>Under the current plan, the Johnson Drive access would include driveways to two parking areas on the west and south sides of the swim center, along with crosswalks linking pedestrians to additional parking areas closer to the fairgrounds.</p><p>However, that would put pedestrians headed to and from the pool in conflict with drivers trying to reach the shopping center, council members said.</p><p>“If there’s a different place for the road to go, we should explore that,” Councilmember David Glass said.</p><p>Councilmember David Rabbitt agreed that the developer and city “need to work out some kinks” regarding the swim center’s proximity to the road. He suggested that a pedestrian plaza in the center of the proposed project be extended toward the swim center site.</p><p>Mayor Pamela Torliatt offered several ideas for the final EIR to evaluate, including a ban on the inclusion of a garden center at the Target store to limit the project’s water use.</p><p>She also said the city should consider zoning the site for a lumber yard in an effort to attract a Friedman’s Home Improvement store as part of the project, which would prevent the opening of a similar store elsewhere. The city previously used the same type of zoning to specify that a movie theater could only open in the Theatre District.</p><p>Torliatt, Barrett and Councilmember Tiffany Renée also said the city should consider requiring a “demolition bond” or passing a “tear-down ordinance” to ensure that Petaluma would not be left with a “ghost mall” if stores at East Washington Place closed.</p><p>“Times will change and there are many examples of urban decay around the country where buildings have just gone dark,” Torliatt said. “I’m interested in trying to build something here that’s going to continue for a long time and gives us what we thought we were going to get.”</p><p>The council’s review of the draft EIR followed a Planning Commission review in August, during which commissioners said truck traffic at the project should be directed to use Lindberg Lane at the rear of the site, not East Washington Street.</p><p>Commissioners said additional bus stops in the interior of the shopping center, rather than a single stop on East Washington, should be included.</p><p>Comments from city officials and the public will be addressed as part of the final EIR, which will come back to the council for a vote along with a decision on the project itself in several months.</p><p>(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)</p>