Think design is just for designers?

Think again!

Design impacts the way we feel and function in our homes and communities. Come learn how we can participate in making houses that work for people…

Wonder what freedom has to do with public transit? Join us for a webinar on the updated Human Transit by Dr. Jarrett Walker, followed by Q&A with the author!

Finally, nearly twelve years after the first meeting at the Aqus Café, after about 75 Know Before You Grow forums, after our first Better Cities Film Festival, after building a reputation for insightful comment on local land-use matters, and much more, Petaluma Urban Chat will have its first official annual meeting…

The Parking Reform Network, whose founder Tony Jordan spoke to KBYG in August, will host an online presentation by author Henry Grabar on THURSDAY, January 18. Grabar wrote “Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World”, currently the hottest book on parking and one that comes highly recommended by parking guru Donald Shoup…

Our first forum of 2024 returns to the subject of Tactical Urbanism! This was a hot topic at Petaluma’s 2023 Better Cities Film Festival held last September and continues to percolate in the hearts and minds of Petaluman's working on making our city a better place for everyone…

Zoom link here.

All are invited to attend this meeting to discuss critical aspects of our nonprofit management. Everyone on an Urban Chat, Know Before You Grow, or Film Festival mailing list is invited to attend!

With the increasing activity and vitality of Petaluma Urban Chat, additional structure is becoming appropriate…

How do we value our Historic Downtown? We love the way it looks, the way it makes us feel, the people we meet, and the conversations we have on our excursions through Downtown. But what role does our Downtown play in the economic vitality of Petaluma? And how can our Downtown do even better as the financial driver of Petaluma? What is a Downtown worth?

Note this forum is scheduled for a MONDAY, not our usual Wednesday forum day.

Can’t attend in person? Join us on Zoom!

Join two of the principals of Spirit Living for an introduction to the proposed Spirit Living project. The project has been proposed as a four-story, mixed-use building on Lot 5 of the Riverfront Mixed-use development.

The developers will discuss the need senior housing and residential care facilities in Petaluma and what the Spirit Living project will do to activate the Riverfront Master Plan. The total building of 73,509 square feet includes ground floor mixed-use and restaurant space, and amenities to support the Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE) proposed on the upper floors, back-of-house spaces, and parking. 36 memory care units are proposed on the second floor, and 70 senior apartments are proposed on the third floor and fourth floors with 35 apartments per floor. The senior apartments will be a mix of studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms.

Rovina Lane Apartments is a 32-unit 100% affordable development at the corner of Rovina Lane and Jacquelyn Lane in southwest Petaluma. It is intended to house families earning between 30-60% of Area Median Income.

Join Armony Companies principal, Lauren Alexander, for a walkthrough of the project site plan and renderings for a 3D visual introduction to the completed project.

Can’t attend in person? Join us on Zoom.

Some of the challenges we face with development in Petaluma are how we respect the historic ambiance of our city while still investing in housing that meets climate and mobility goals.

Join us for a discussion with Alli Thurmond Quinlan, a Fayetteville, Arkansas-based architect who specializes in traditional architecture on small lots.  Small lot development and ADU infill can be an essential element in creating fifteen-minute neighborhood cores in Petaluma. 

Join Dan Zack, former Assistant Director of Planning and Development for the City of Fresno, to learn what's happened in the decade since the film "The Fresno Miracle" was first screened. Learn how Fresno was able to sustain the early momentum of its vision to revitalize its Downtown.

Join us for an evening of short documentary films that tell inspiring stories about how people have made their cities, towns, and neighborhoods better.

Join us for an evening of short documentary films that tell inspiring stories about how people have made their cities, towns, and neighborhoods better.

For generations our policies and actions have required or encouraged building massive numbers of parking spaces in the United States alone. Conservatively, for every one of the more than 260 million automobiles registered in the USA there are at least 3 parking spaces. In some communities, Des Moines, IA for example, there are more than 19 parking spaces per household.

Why is this a problem?

Recent state law has opened new pathways for increasing density on single-family residential parcels—the type of parcels that make up the majority of Petaluma’s housing stock. Arguably, these policies collectively represent one of the more successful legislative responses to California’s housing shortage…

Our speaker for June 26 has fallen through, so our planned forum on neighborhood retail in support of 15-minute neighborhoods has been postponed.

However, this hole in our schedule has created an opportunity. Let us explain.

The Building Form Overlay event at the Petaluma Woman's Club on July 12th inspired a wealth of retrospection. A few themes and questions have emerged. We'll explore these themes at our meeting on Wednesday.

Read on for more information…

Know Before You Grow is pleased to present a community-organized forum on the Petaluma Building Form Overlay District being brought forward by Petaluma Planning.

We thank the Petaluma Woman's Club for providing valuable event assistance and for hosting the forum in its hall. We expect this forum to attract many Petalumans. Please arrive early to get a good seat.

The Building Form Overlay would increase the allowable building height, lot coverage, and floor space for fourteen blocks that include our historic downtown. Increased development in downtown has long been anticipated to accommodate community growth while staying within our Urban Growth Boundary.

Learn more here.

What if you could walk to the corner store to buy a carton of eggs or a gallon of milk and skip the drive? What would the simple act of local short trips on foot or by bike do to reduce GHG emissions? What would it be like to meet your neighbors on the way to market and have a quick chat about the latest activities in your neighborhood?

Join the local organizers of the 15-minute neighborhood effort to learn about this unique and necessary vision for our shared future. You'll also learn about the steps toward implementation, starting with the adoption of a General Plan that embraces 15-minute neighborhoods and then continuing with changes to the zoning codes and neighborhood-specific actions to nourish the changes.

Zoom link here.

Join us for a forum on the realities of Office-to-Residential Conversion, which is often touted as a partial solution to our housing shortage. We'll view portions of a SPUR video about a San Francisco conversion project, followed by local architects Ross Jones and Kevin Kelly sharing thoughts from their long careers. We'll conclude with Q&A.

Zoom link here.

What if vehicle speeds could be restricted to the posted speed limit?

Join us for a KBYG forum on Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), an automotive technology to restrict travel to posted speed limits. Portions of an America Walks video on the topic will be shown, combined with local Q&A.

America Walks has set a goal of 50 U.S. communities adopting ISA for their entire fleet. Ventura County has already committed to the change.

We’ll talk about whether we should advocate for Petaluma to join the list!

Zoom link here.

Join us for a video presentation from author Gregg Colburn on his thesis that homelessness is fundamentally a housing supply problem. In his view, individuals may become homeless due to unemployment, addiction, or other personal matters, but regional rates of homelessness are most strongly tied to housing availability. And if we continue to diagnose homelessness as a problem of the individual, we will continue to undermine our efforts to reduce it.

Following the video, Dave Alden will lead a conversation with invited local housing experts and the audience on what the authors' message means to how we view local housing prospects.

Three Petaluma housing experts will explain why affordable housing is a nearly intractable problem in California, one that has challenged the state for decades.

In contrast, Vienna took a different path to affordable housing a century ago, a path that has resulted in a rich tradition of social housing — government-supported, mixed-income, rent-restricted housing — for many of its residents. A recent study trip to Vienna looked at how social housing is financed, built, and maintained.

Join us via Zoom at 7pm on March 8, 2023.

Join Ebbie K. Nakhjavani and Evan Pauletich of EKN Development for an introduction to the proposed Hotel Weaver in downtown Petaluma at the corner of B Street and Petaluma Blvd South.

• Learn about key features of this 93-room hotel including its street-level restaurant and flexible rooftop event space.

• Learn how Hotel Weaver plans to encourage city guests to wander, shop, and eat downtown.

• Understand EKN Development's commitment to Petaluma's 2030 carbon neutrality goal and how the hotel will meet this commitment.

• Preview the development timeline for this project.

Scannell Properties will present their project for the property at 500 Hopper Street. Join us for an opportunity to preview the plan and provide your feedback. The plan will be presented to the Planning Commission on July 26, 2022.

Recording of the event coming soon!

Strong Towns founder, Charles Marohn, comes to Petaluma for an in-person event on June 15th!

Petaluma Urban Chat collaborated with Safe Streets Petaluma, Vision Zero, and the City of Petaluma to identify problematic street hot spots. Chuck will tour the target sites with city and community leaders.

Chuck's visit will culminate in an in-person public forum on the evening of Wednesday, June 15th on the Strong Towns approach to making streets safer, slower, and shared.

Join us for Chuck’s evening presentation with a no-host bar “meet and greet” following Chuck’s presentation.

Download the event flyer to share with your friends and neighbors!

In a 15-minute neighborhood, Petalumans can accomplish the tasks of daily life quickly, without needing a car. These tasks might include buying a missing ingredient for dinner, walking a child to a play date, or catching a bus to a job.

In 2020 Petaluma was one of eight cities nationwide to win a Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) grant from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to help transform our city into 15-minute neighborhoods and living streets.

In early August, the American Institute of Architects will visit Petaluma to help our town formulate a plan for creating 15-minute neighborhoods. Veronica Olsen and others of the local organizing committee will explain how this visit came to be, why it's important to meet our ambitious goal of carbon neutrality by 2030, how it will be conducted, and what the result will be.

SMART General Manager, Eddy Cumins, will join us to discuss the future of SMART, what we can expect of the service in Petaluma, and what we can do to ensure the success of passenger rail in Sonoma and Marin counties.

Tune in to learn:

• What SMART ridership looks like post-COVID

• What changes are being implemented today and what changes are just around the corner to improve the SMART experience for riders

• How SMART is looking to address the first mile and last mile opportunities -- how to get you from the station to your final destination

• Updates on the pathway in Petaluma and the Petaluma North station

• How freight transport fits into SMART service

• How SMART is planning for the future

Join us for a discussion with Bay Area housing experts Jane Lin and Annie Fryman on Missing Middle Housing.

Missing Middle Housing can help in both increasing the number of units built and providing units for a wide variety of price points. This involves allowing a broader diversity of housing types than most ordinances allow today, but that used to be built in many communities historically.

Mike McGinn, America Walks Executive Director, will join us for a discussion of walkability and what we can do to improve our streets and neighborhoods for greater mobility. America Walks is a leading national nonprofit that advances safe, equitable, accessible, and enjoyable places to walk and move by giving people and communities the resources to effectively advocate for change.

Leah Shahum, Founder & Director of the Vision Zero Network, will join us for a discussion of the policies that can be implemented and the actions that can be taken to reduce pedestrian and bicycles deaths to zero and improve road safety for all of us. Come learn what strategies have worked in cities across the country.