In Sonoma County, a celebrity chef’s hotel plan sparks a battle for a town’s soul

David Keller, a former Petaluma councilman, is in her camp, calling the hotel “the tail wagging the dog.”

Despite the hundreds of pages of reviews, updates and FAQs related to the hotel and the overlay released by city staff, Keller maintained that “the process has been secret throughout, exclusive, non-engaging with the public — telling the public what it had to happen. .”

The hotel and overlay proposals, he continued, were “hidden behind a wall of secrecy, hidden behind a wall of assumption, hidden behind a wall of ‘We know what’s best.’

Jane Hamilton, another former councillor, spent hundreds of hours on the Central Specific Plan, getting input from property owners. She described the draft Environmental Impact Report as “EIR Lite”, saying it was “transactional rather than values-based”.

Nodding in agreement, her friend Lydia Asselin, a retired architect. Both believed the Oct. 8 decision to approve the EIR was driven more by city staff than by the city council that did the actual voting. Both agreed the board left many questions unanswered.

Petaluma City Planner Andrew Trippell responds to such criticism by reminding that city staff “are very much driven by the legal framework.

“Sometimes it’s difficult for audience members to accept when something doesn’t go their way. That doesn’t mean there’s nefarious activity or that we break the rules differently to accommodate others,” he said.

Protecting “that golden goose”

On a recent walk through the proposed overlap areas, Gaffey of the Phoenix Theatre noted the volume of foot traffic, pushing back against the idea that downtown is economically stagnant.

He’s not a jerk who reflexively opposes change, he said.

While he’s not against the hotel, he takes issue with the idea that it won’t have to conform to existing design standards.

“It seems like it’s just a veiled project to get that hotel in.” He made it clear that he has no “distrust” in the pro-hotel city council members. They simply have “differences of opinion about how it should go”.

“There’s nothing about me — punk and hip hop and skating and ‘art graf’ — that says I want to keep Petaluma completely old school.” That’s not how he runs his business or his life, he said.

“But to honor and understand that we have a historical legacy and that that historical legacy is marketable and makes us money as it is — we have to be very careful not to kill that golden goose.”

Not everyone in downtown Petaluma thinks this is such a bad proposal.

“I feel like we’re cutting our own feet if we don’t take advantage of this opportunity,” said Elisa Webber, co-owner of Della Fattoria Downtown Cafe. “It would be great to have a shiny, full-service hotel that gets people to spend the night and wake up here and spend their money downtown.”

Her husband, David Yunker, agreed that if the city doesn’t move forward with proposals like this, “we’re going to stagnate.”

Palmer’s long game

As an example of how he plans to elevate local purveyors through the project, Palmer mentioned his intention to feature Della Fattoria in Petaluma, “one of the premier bakeries in Northern California,” he said.

Other potential partners are Liberty Duck, Tomales Bay Foods, Cowgirl Creamery, plus “upstarts and people who want to practice their craft and have an outlet for it,” he said.

“Encouraging that and nurturing that is what we want to do.”

To integrate more deeply into their respective communities, Appellation hotels will offer “craft” programs with area creators and artisans. Such sessions will range from wreath-making classes to lessons on how to prepare the duck in several different ways to watercolor classes with a local artist, Hunsberger said.

Both Palmer and Hunsberger are philosophical about the headwinds facing their Petaluma project.

“Doing things like this is not easy,” Hunsberger said, “especially in a town with people who have lived here most or all of their lives.”

It took EKN and Appellation “2 ½ to 3 years,” Hunsberger said, to get all the necessary approvals for their Healdsburg project. They spent four years arguing for permits and rights for the Pacific Grove Appellation, which, because of its proximity to Monterey Bay, involved an appeal to the California Coastal Commission.

They seem reasonably confident that Appellation Petaluma will come to fruition — after many more meetings, compromises and design tweaks.

Yes, Petaluma can be a tough crowd for developers. “And we agree with that,” Hunsberger said. “We know it’s for all the right reasons.

“So we try to be sensitive to the voices in the community.

“We want to make sure we get it right.”

You can reach writer Jennifer Sawhney at 707-521-5346 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @sawhney_media.

You can reach staff writer Austin Murphy at [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @ausmurph88.