PD Editorial: Santa Rosa ready for restoration of the square

There’s no shortage of plans and visions for Old Courthouse Square in downtown Santa Rosa.

To illustrate that point, Richard Carlile, a long-time engineer and city commissioner, covered a conference room wall with photos and schematics and artists’ renderings of a reunified square, some of them dating back two decades.

It’s time for action.

In October, the City Council reaffirmed its support for restoring the square to its historic design - a 1.5-acre public plaza with streets on each side.

But the present reunification plan has a $17 million price tag and lacks any funding to finish the job. It could very well end up another picture on the conference room wall, another missed opportunity to revitalize Santa Rosa’s downtown core.

That’s why a group of business and property owners committed to downtown are asking the city to jump-start the project by splitting it into two phases.

First, close the square off from traffic while retaining familiar features such as the redwoods, the Ruth Asawa fountain and the bunya bunya tree and widening sidewalks to accommodate outdoor dining and pedestrian traffic.

“Keep it flexible and simple,” Carlile said. “That’s what we’re after.”

Then, as events are programmed and people begin using the reunified square, the second phase would revisit features such as pavilions, light arbors and a 25-foot water wall included in the plan that emerged from a design contest sponsored by the City Council.

“If we wait to raise $17 million,” said Jonathan Coe, the president of Santa Rosa’s Chamber of Commerce, “it’s going to be years before anything’ll happen.”

The downtown group is willing to foot the cost for construction plans if the city agrees to tap its reserves to cover the $4 million cost of phase one. They also are asking the City Council to expedite the approval process so that work can be completed in 2016.

Santa Rosa can’t afford to keep waiting.

After years of slowly deteriorating, there are signs of economic renewal downtown.

Crowds already gather for special events such as the Wednesday Evening Market during the summer and the Russian River Brewing Co.’s once-a-year release of its world-renowned Pliny the Younger beer. Popular restaurants have added pedestrian traffic, renewing hopes for a vibrant business and entertainment district that doesn’t go dark when banks and government offices close their doors at the end of the day. The metamorphosis of the behemoth AT&T bunker on Third Street into a shiny office building housing the California Wine Museum will be completed soon.

But there are still too many empty storefronts, including much of the retail, office and restaurant space surrounding Courthouse Square.

Restoring the square will make those spaces more attractive to potential tenants.

And, as residents of Healdsburg and Sonoma know, an active square has ripple effects for the entire downtown. Cotati, Windsor and Sebastopol also make extensive use of public spaces for community events. Santa Rosa can do the same.

Once the square is restored, the property and business owners are confident that investors will get interested in the rest of downtown and, potentially, land near the rail station on the opposite side of Highway 101. “It’s like an octopus,” Carlile said. “You need to have all the feelers coming out of the center to enhance the community.”

Opposing arguments are reflexive and predictable. Restoration means severing the link between Mendocino and Santa Rosa avenues, forcing motorists to navigate around the square or to bypass downtown. Yes, it does. But downtown, the heart of the city, should to be a place to go, not a place to get through.

Restoring Courthouse Square is a step in that direction.