Cloverdale seeks to link downtown to the train station

Cloverdale is considering building a bike and pedestrian path to its rail station in anticipation of eventual commuter train service.

The path is being proposed as a way to link the downtown to the station on the opposite side of the freeway.

The bike/pedestrian path, dubbed the Cloverdale Greenway project, could replace two of the four vehicle lanes on Citrus Fair Drive that run under Highway 101 and connect the west of town to the station on the east.

“There seemed to be strong support for a bike-pedestrian path -- to look at what it would cost and how it would work,” Mayor Joe Palla said following a joint City Council and Planning Commission meeting this week on how to integrate the relatively isolated train station into the community.

Besides the unknown cost, city officials say it is uncertain whether the path should be built with one lane on both sides of the current Citrus Fair Drive, or have the autos entirely on one side, with bikes and pedestrians on the other.

The support for the concept follows three workshops the city has held this year to elicit ideas from the public on how to tie in the downtown corridor to the station, roughly a half mile away.

A draft of the “Station Area” plan is expected to be presented at the City Council's Dec. 9 meeting.

A year ago, Sonoma and Marin voters overwhelming approved a sales tax hike to pay for commuter trains in the North Bay. Train service is expected to begin in 2014 on the 70-mile line from San Rafael to Cloverdale.

“Cloverdale is kind of unique. Besides being a small community, the station is built outside of the town in an area that is undeveloped,” Palla said. “Most stations are centrally located with development around the entire perimeter of the station. That's not the case here.”

Being at the north end of the line, Palla expects Cloverdale will serve train commuters from communities to the north, including Hopland, Ukiah, and Lakeport.

But in Cloverdale itself, city planners also are looking at creating the right mix of commercial uses and housing densities near the downtown to serve a potential train-commuting population.

This week, the City Council and Planning Commission talked about increasing housing densities along Cloverdale Boulevard on 5 acres the city purchased from the struggling Thyme Square developer whose retail and residential project stalled.

The city will be creating a master plan for the site including affordable housing, civic and potential commercial uses, said Cloverdale planner Karen Shimizu.

Cloverdale also has been eyeing the adjacent Citrus Fairgrounds property for redevelopment once the fair finds a new home.

The city wants to avoid potential commercial development on the southern end of town competing with the downtown and the accompanying train commuter-centric vision it is nurturing.

“As long as it's not a competing use to what is traditional downtown business,” the City Council “is trying to say when it comes to economic development and business they would work with anyone who came to the city,” Shimizu said Wednesday.