Petaluma to consider annexing 10 acres for subdivision

A pocket of county land with a historic farmhouse and a couple of lonely palm trees could soon be the site of 30 new Petaluma homes despite concerns of traffic and flooding from a nearby creek.

The Petaluma City Council today will revisit the issue of annexing 10 acres for a new subdivision east of Corona Road. The land is outside city limits but within Petaluma’s urban growth boundary.

In January, the council held a three-hour hearing on the matter before postponing a decision. Residents expressed worry that the proposed housing development would add runoff into Corona Creek. City engineers say that a planned nearby water detention basin will alleviate flooding concerns.

Residents of a nearby housing development off Sonoma Mountain Parkway that was built in 1994 worried that new homes would add traffic to their neighborhood. Access to 28 of the homes would be through Monica Way, which is currently a narrow dead-end street.

“I don’t think Monica Way was designed for 28 homes back then,” said Bob Russell, who lives across the street from the entrance to the proposed new development. “If you can have the developer show you something when they developed this property that they intended to put 28 homes on that parcel, I imagine that street would have been a little bigger.”

Hank Flum said the planned detention pond on Riesling Road that would catch and hold Corona Creek water in a flood would not provide enough flood protection and does not address needed creek maintenance.

“What we want is for this creek to be reconstructed,” he said. “We want construction started and completed before any new (housing) construction is started in this area.”

The Planning Commission last year approved annexing the land for the development. Part of the plan calls for the preservation of the 1900-era Victorian farmhouse and the two palm trees. A county commission that regulates land-use issues between jurisdictions would have to approve the annexation.

Much of the council’s discussion centered on annexing Corona Road at the project’s western edge. The road is currently in the county and outside the city’s voter-approved urban growth limit. But three of the proposed development’s houses would have access from Corona Road, and council members wanted clarification on whether the city could annex the road.

Councilman Gabe Kearney echoed some of the residents’ concerns about traffic on the current residential streets that would provide access to most of the new homes in the planned development.

“People speed down those streets constantly,” he said. “The idea of putting ?20-plus more houses with people traveling down that road to get to them doesn’t sit well with me at all. I have serious concerns about the current traffic conditions there, let alone increasing traffic there.”

Adding a detention basin as part of the project would help reduce flooding for existing residents, Councilman Mike Healy said.

“The detention pond, I think, has the potential for being a major benefit for the greater neighborhood there in terms of reducing the impacts of major floods,” he said. “I think that’s a very significant thing.”