By Lucas Shaw,
Staff Writer.
In fall of 2020, extensive plans were made regarding the development of Santa Rosa Downtown, a district in the city referred to as an opportunity area. The City Council, influenced by the California Environmental Quality Act—a 500-page document outlining the statutes and guidelines that government agencies are required to review before jumping into development—ratified the Downtown Station Area Specific Plan (DSASP).
The DSASP addresses land usage, transportation and infrastructure needs, many of which are associated with the augmentation of Santa Rosa Downtown’s density by increasing the current 10-story height limit on buildings, reducing parking and creating vigorous public transit. The city received an $800,000 grant from the Metropolitan Transit Commission for the plans. Recently, the city began organizing several projects which correspond with the DSASP to fulfill the grant.
One of the project groups being streamlined by the city are infill projects. In urban planning, infill refers to the rededication of land to new development. Some of these projects can already be seen in action, such as the many apartment buildings being built, the plans to open a new event center and the re-striping of roads leading into the city center. “They are trying to centralize into a three block area. . . which I think downtown should be a little bigger than that,” said sophomore Ike Tilson Panik.
The centralized downtown district, while it extends all the way to College Avenue, has limited development around the area Panik described. This has to do with the availability of land to buy and then repurpose. Many of the businesses downtown have long-standing owners who have no interest in giving up their buildings, making it difficult to expand development.
The DSASP may take a hit to the city’s parking department, especially because of the focus on the reduction of cars in the area. These changes include the reduction of metered parking spaces to replace with bike lanes and bike locks, as well as selling parking garages to developers.
Despite these changes denting parking revenue, the department could greatly benefit from selling multiple of the downtown garages. Parking garages take up a lot of space—a pressing concern for urban development—and also cost millions of dollars to maintain. This means that selling them would eliminate expenses and supply the department a large sum of money. “That money has to go directly back into new technology, safety and lighting,” said City of Santa Rosa Parking Manager Chad Hedge.
The DSASP is separated into six sections titled “Mob” 1-6, each including many subsections. The six areas of focus are roadway networks, pedestrian and bike paths, strengthened east-to-west connections, transit service, reduced reliance on single occupant vehicles and a balanced supply of parking. All public information can be found on the City of Santa Rosa website, and Planning Commission meetings can be attended by the public at City Hall the second and fourth Thursday of every month.
