May 8, 2024

In Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis, renowned urbanists Charles (Chuck) Marohn and Daniel Herriges introduce a first-of-its-kind discussion of the tension between housing as a financial product and housing as shelter. 

March 13, 2024

Join David Baker Architects' principals - David Baker, Caroline Souza, and Brett Randall Jones, for an unforgettable event! Discover their community-oriented approach to designing affordable and market-rate housing that uplifts people and transforms neighborhoods…

February 28, 2024

To meet Petaluma's ambitious carbon neutrality goals we must shift 70% of automobile trips to other modes of transportation! 

Join Know Before You Grow for a discussion of Human Transit with Dr. Jarett Walker…

January 18, 2024

The Parking Reform Network, whose founder Tony Jordan spoke to KBYG in August, will host an online presentation by author Henry Grabar . 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…

January 10, 2024

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 Petalumans working on making our city a better place for everyone…

November 29, 2023

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?

November 13, 2023

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 for senior housing and residential care facilities in Petaluma and what the project will do to activate the Riverfront Master Plan…

November 8, 2023

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…

October 25, 2023

Among 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…

October 11, 2023

The Petaluma Better Cities Film Festival concluded with a screening of "The Fresno Miracle," a 2012 film about what the people of Fresno have done to preserve the City's agricultural land, revitalize its downtown, and stop the sprawl that was bankrupting their city. Amid Fresno's progress and setbacks, the rudiment of a blueprint for sustainable action has emerged…

August 23, 2023

Why should we reform parking policy?

• Parking spaces are expensive.

• Car parking takes up lots of space! In suburban communities, surface lots prevent walkable design and lead to sprawl.

• Car parking encourages more car ownership and more driving.

• Car parking makes our communities less equitable…

August 9, 2023

Recent California 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…

July 12, 2023

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…

June 14, 2023

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?…

May 24, 2023

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…

May 10, 2023

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

Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) is an automotive technology to restrict travel to posted speed limits.

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…

March 22, 2023

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…

March 8, 2023

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.