East Washington Place, one of about 30 projects put on hold while the City Council deliberated over a new General Plan and water policy, will likely need a revised environmental report before approval is considered for the shopping center.
For nearly four years, the 40-acre former home of Kenilworth Junior High, between Highway 101 and the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds, has been talked about as a site for a shopping center anchored by Target.
Developer Regency Centers says that?s still the plan, and is pursuing a revised project that increases the amount of retail space while dropping its proposal for townhomes and other residences on the southern portion of the site.
Instead, the Petaluma School District bus yard at the southern tip of the project site will remain, and stand-alone building pads along the East Washington Street frontage will now include office spaces above first-floor retail, the developer said.
A draft environmental impact report on the project issued last year questioned the placement of homes along the freeway, where poor air quality and noise could create problems for residents.
The report suggested an all-retail alternative could avoid those impacts and reduce the project?s expected water use, ?but that didn?t quite fit the mixed-use desire,? said Bruce Qualls, Regency vice president.
So the project was redesigned to include second-floor office spaces along East Washington that Qualls said will enhance the center?s visual qualities in a gateway location.
A revised application was submitted in December and city planners have been reviewing it since that time, waiting for the adoption of the General Plan ? which goes into effect next week ? for further environmental review to begin.
The proposal calls for 377,951 square feet of building area, with 96 percent retail and 4 percent office space, city planner Betsi Lewitter said. The city doesn?t require a specific ratio of different uses for a project to be deemed ?mixed use,? she said.
The 138,851-square-foot Target store would be built in the northeast corner of the site, near the southbound 101 onramp, with two smaller retail spaces attached to the building?s southern side.
A plaza would be laid out where the existing pedestrian overcrossing enters the project site, with six more retail spaces of varying size built south of that plaza. Two of those are slated for Cost Plus and Circuit City.
A stand-alone retail building of 42,000 square feet, the second-largest after Target, would anchor the southern portion of the site. Four smaller buildings would be built on an island separating two large parking areas.
At the front of the project, another four small stand-alone buildings are grouped together, with office space above the two closest to East Washington Street.
Qualls said the new plan makes better use of the existing overcrossing, allowing more pedestrians and bicyclists to reach the site from the east side.
?We?ve really accentuated that in our revised project,? he said. ?We think that will be a great connection for pedestrians and bikes.?
The project would be one of the largest in Petaluma?s history and has drawn criticism from some residents and community groups for its size and reliance on ?big box? retailers as tenants.
The Petaluma Neighbor-hood Association has circulated petitions and collected 1,700 signatures asking that the city require ?community impact reports? for such developments.
Otherwise, Petaluma won?t know what it?s getting into if the project is approved, said co-founder Melissa Abercrombie.
?We need to know what the true implications are,? Abercrombie said. ?Right now, it doesn?t look like a project that?s going to be special to Petaluma. It could be, if we as a community have the right vision.?
Both Qualls and Lewitter said there is no firm date for the release of a revised environmental report.
But Qualls said the company, which purchased the rights to the former junior high in 2004, remains committed to the project.
?We?re invested in it,? he said.
(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)
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