How a reunified Old Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa will look different

Does downtown Santa Rosa need more park space or more parking spaces?

The City Council’s direction Tuesday to maximize parking around Old Courthouse Square when it is reunited next year has reignited the long-dormant debate about how to strike a balance between people and cars in the heart of the city.

The council approved a new design that would add two rows of diagonal parking along each of the two side streets - Hinton on the east and Exchange on the west - and include travel lanes on the one-way streets wide enough for passing.

That plan is virtually identical to the concept drawings put forward by a group of downtown business and property owners who have been urging the city to move forward quickly on a simpler, less-expensive and more functional design that adds significantly more parking around the perimeter.

But Mayor John Sawyer, a longtime downtown merchant who said he is generally in favor of additional parking, said replacing park space with so many parking spaces gave him pause and “heartburn.” He said it looked to him like half the existing square was being turned into streets, parking and sidewalks.

Former Mayor Scott Bartley, an architect who was closely involved in the selection of the previous design for the square, had similar concerns that the new council appeared to be bowing to pressure from business groups instead of being guided by good urban design principles. He quoted the mayor of Portland, who once said that city worked so well because it put people first, bicycles second and cars third.

“No great city has ever been known for being great because of their ample parking,” Bartley said.

Architect Don Tomasi, whose TLCD Architecture firm is preparing to move into the Museum on the Square building on the square’s southwest corner, also expressed concern that the council appeared too willing to scrap past plans in favor of a parking-focused redesign.

“Do we want a parking lot or a public square?” Tomasi asked in a letter to the council. “Single rows of parking on Hinton and Exchange streets are adequate and provide the space necessary for a functional square.”

The critique appeared to have little impact on the council, which approved the parking-friendly design guidelines, and said the interior of the square should be “simple, open, flexible and sustainable.”

“I really believe this is a case where simpler is better,” said Gary Wysocky, chairman of the council subcommittee that has been meeting for months to consider revising the design. “We’re getting more open space and less high-speed traffic through our downtown, and those are good things.”

The design decision by the council is significant because things are about to happen very quickly on the project. A design firm to be hired by City Manager Sean McGlynn later this month is expected to take the council’s plan, combine it with input from the public and arrive at a new, less-expensive design by January.

The previous plan, by SWA architects of Sausalito, was estimated to cost $17 million. The council recently set a new cap for the project of $10 million, some of which it may borrow.

The goal, which city officials acknowledge is aggressive, is to begin construction by June 1 and have everything wrapped up in six months, in time for the 2016 holiday shopping season.

Supporters of the latest plan say it will add 47 high- profile parking spaces to the city’s downtown core, spaces that will play a big role in revitalizing nearby businesses and making the public gathering space more attractive and inviting.

Richard Carlile, the retired founder of civil engineering firm Carlile-Macy, has been heavily involved in the group Coalition to Restore Courthouse Square and in drafting a new footprint for the exterior of the reunified square.

The interior upgrades will be decided following the upcoming public outreach process.

“It’s important to get the bones right,” Carlile said.

But the group’s plan calls for shrinking - to a degree most residents probably don’t realize - the existing square to make room for the side streets, parking and sidewalks. Anything within 91 feet of the surrounding building facades would no longer be full-time park space.

Starting at the outer edge of the square and moving toward the interior, the plan calls for a 25-foot-wide sidewalk, then a 16-foot-wide row of diagonal parking. Next, there’s a 22-foot street, which would include enough room to pass and a 5-foot-wide shared bicycle lane down the middle. Then comes another 16-foot-wide row of diagonal parking and finally a 12-foot sidewalk. From there, the interior park space begins.

The result would be that many of the features residents have become familiar with since 1971, when the modern square was dedicated following the 1968 courthouse demolition, will be torn out.

That includes the large, circular Rosenberg Fountain in the northeast corner, the grove of redwood trees on the west side that for years has been lit during the holidays, the pavilion that has hosted innumerable public events and the ivy-covered berm in front of 50 Courthouse Square, the future home of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce.

It may seem like a lot to lose, but Carlile disputes the notion that half the public space will be taken up by the new streets, parking and sidewalks. When the four lanes of Mendocino Avenue and the existing sidewalks are removed, the net reduction in public open space is very little, he said.

In addition, the usefulness and pleasantness of the square will be improved dramatically without cars and trucks traveling through the center, creating a jarring, incessant din of car tires on cobblestones, he said.

And the side streets will be easy to close, so special events like concerts and markets will be able to utilize the entire 1.5 acres, Carlile said.

The city’s downtown merchants and property owners aren’t the only ones who think reinstalling the side streets with ample parking is a good idea. Lois Fisher of Fisher Town Design in Windsor said classic, tried-and-true plaza designs work because they serve both people and the surrounding businesses.

The high vacancy rates around the square prove that removing the side streets years ago was a “failed experiment,” Fisher said. Santa Rosa may technically have enough downtown parking, but it doesn’t feel that way to most drivers looking for a spot, she said.

“Santa Rosa has plenty of actual parking, but it has too little perceived parking,” she said.

The 47 additional spaces around the new square will be far more visible than the garage on Beaver Street or other city parking facilities, and will be especially welcoming to visitors who would be tempted to stop and look around only if parking is extremely convenient, she said.

The current bifurcated plaza can give passing drivers the impression that the two halves of the square are not public spaces, but rather the “front yards” of the Empire Building and other structures around the area, she said.

That vibe will change with a unified square ringed by parked cars, she said.

“It doesn’t really feel public now, but once you circle it and create a detached plaza, it now becomes completely public,” she said. “Designing a plaza in a classic fashion has never failed.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify that the 5-foot-wide bicycle lane would share the 22-foot-wide travel lane, not be in addition to it. This is sometimes referred to as a “sharrow.”