Old Courthouse Square meeting weighs parking vs. park in Santa Rosa

The first of two meetings meant to guide the design of Santa Rosa’s soon-to-be reunified Old Courthouse Square stirred passions Saturday over how the $10 million project might revitalize downtown while striking a balance between park space and parking spaces.

“The design process starts today,” declared Curt Nichols, president of civil engineering firm Carlile-Macy, at the start of the meeting in one of the vacant commercial buildings that ring the square.

Dozens of downtown business and property owners, residents, city staff and consultants took part in the three-hour meeting. It featured a presentation highlighting past iterations of the square, a design discussion about what makes public squares successful and plenty of public feedback.

One dynamic that emerged was the inherent conflict between downtown property owners who want to maximize parking around the square and residents who wanted to save as many trees as possible.

Attorney Pat Grattan, part owner of the Empire Building that has anchored the west side of the square since 1910, said the lack of a street or parking in front of the historic building makes it “landlocked” and virtually impossible to lease.

“That whole west side of the square is blighted, and it’s been blighted for the entire 38 years that I’ve worked downtown,” Grattan said.

He and other downtown landlords argued that even though the city has five parking garages downtown, for the square to thrive there needs to be closer parking.

“We may not like that we’re an automobile-driven society, but it’s a reality,” Grattan said.

A city survey with more than 1,300 responses to date showed that 87 percent of people who come downtown do so by car.

Jeff Roth said he felt that between the 3,000 spaces at the Santa Rosa Plaza mall and the 3,500 spaces in city garages, downtown has enough parking already.

“I feel like adding 47 parking spaces and reducing the square is a giveaway to whomever is asking for that,” Roth said. “I don’t see how that makes the square more interactive.”

A plan drafted by a downtown business group called the Coalition to Restore Courthouse Square envisions 47 net additional spaces if Hinton and Exchange streets are installed with diagonal parking on both sides.

But that means that, compared to a previous plan with more modest side streets, more park space will be lost, including trees. The previous $17 million design, which has been dismissed by the current City Council as too expensive, called for 71 percent of the trees to be removed.

Of the 128 trees in the square, 91 were to be removed, including five heritage redwoods greater than 24 inches in diameter.

Roth’s 7-year-old daughter, Satya, let her views of that idea be known in crayon, holding a colorful picture she drew of two trees and the words “Save the trees.”

Resident Libby Bottrell said she didn’t understand why the city would chop down redwood trees to create more parking spaces when the city garage she just parked in was only one-quarter full.

“We’ve already cut down 90 percent of the redwood trees in Sonoma County,” Bottrell said.

But Nichols stressed that no decision had been made yet about how many trees would be removed. He said he had made note of people’s desire to see as few trees taken out as possible.

Nichols said all efforts will be made to preserve trees, but he acknowledged that the installation of the side streets, including new utilities, will require the removal of several, including some of the large redwood trees people have come to appreciate. Damage to roots of nearby trees might require additional removals, he said.

Park versus parking was far from the only discussion that took place at the meeting.

The issue of how the homeless population would be affected was on the minds of several speakers.

Anita LaFollette said the project seemed like a waste of money, given the need for more homeless services and affordable housing. What the square really needs is public bathrooms, she said.

Shannon Tracey, owner of Crossfit Northgate on Mendocino Avenue, said there needs to be a discussion about how the city will manage the impacts on that population.

“I want to know how this is not going to become a homeless encampment,” she said.

Nichols said he expects to return with proposed designs that take into account various concerns at another meeting on Jan. 9.

Councilman Gary Wysocky said he found the meeting to be well run and the public input constructive. He said he is confident city staff can pull the project together on a tight deadline.

The goal is to get construction underway by June 1 and completed by the beginning of the next holiday shopping season.

In his seven years on the City Council, Wysocky said, he had never seen a project so well coordinated.

“That makes me very hopeful,” he said.

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