Please support small and mobile businesses in Petaluma!

The Floodway Community Marketplace is a proposed, small, woman-owned business located at 4875 Petaluma Blvd N, the northern gateway to downtown Petaluma. It's an outdoor, 100% mobile venue that will provide a fun, attractive, and highly visible space for other local small businesses to thrive.

The existing zoning laws are “floodway” and “commercial neighborhood (C1)”. Permitted uses allowed in the “floodway” designation include carnivals, circuses, and similar activities, while the C1 zoning designation allows for small store fronts, such as the food trucks and vendor tents we will invite to work on our lot. (See sections B2, B4, C1 at https://petaluma.municipal.codes/ZoningOrds/6.050 and section J at https://petaluma.municipal.codes/ZoningOrds/4.020 )

Because our property is located in the "floodway" and we are 100% mobile, we are committed to vacating the lot before an impending flood, meaning that our small business will have zero impact on the natural flow of flood waters. The city's Floodplain Administrator / Assistant Director of Public Utilities is willing to work with us on this matter, but the city's Planning Department seems to have no interest in helping us or the community.

The city's Planning Department - which is outsourced to the for-profit Metropolitan Planning Group (M-Group) - rejected our use permit application outright without even cashing our check. They only offered to meet with us after they rejected the application, and every conversation with them has consisted of varying excuses for their odd and unprofessional behavior and even threats of retaliation. The more questions we asked, the angrier and more defensive they seemed to become, and we were ultimately told that they will never allow for any business of any kind to ever exist on our lot, not even the circus or carnival that are clearly permitted uses.

There were no city employees involved in the decision to outright reject our application for a use permit. It is the Director of Community Development who ultimately approves or denies a permit, and Heather Hines - an Executive Officer of the for-profit M-Group - was Interim Director of Community Development at the time. Andrew Trippel - Senior Manager of the for-profit M-Group - is the Zoning Administrator who could have easily approved "any other open type of use as determined by the Zoning Administrator (Director of Planning) to be of the same general character as the above permitted uses" as stated in section 6.050 B4 of the zoning code but chose not to. And it was Tiffany Robbe - Senior Manager of the for-profit M-Group, who took it upon herself to outright reject our application without cashing our check and turn this very simple application process into an incredible waste of time and money. Not a single city employee or community member had a say in this wrong decision.

The M-Group and current Director of Community Development, Brian Oh, have never offered a single suggestion or compromise to help us make this project work. The following is a brief recap of our most recent meeting with Brian Oh: Will it help to offer to shut down during certain rainy months of the year? No. Will it help if we adjust our operating hours? No. Are food trucks the problem? No. Can you provide an example of what we can change in our project description to make this work? No. All they will tell us is that they want our application to look different, but they can't or won't say how. It is impossible to move forward if they refuse to identify the actual problem.

The city has allowed for large housing developments to be built in the floodway, but outright rejected our 100% mobile business that would have zero impact on the floodway or the community.  While we cannot compete with the many millions of dollars and teams of lawyers that rich developers have access to, we shouldn't need to when we are proposing a clear permitted use on a lot that sits at the northern gateway to downtown Petaluma and has gone unused and dilapidated for decades.  This project is a win-win for the city! (See https://cityofpetaluma.org/riverbend/, a housing development built in the "floodway" and "R3" zoning districts.)

We are not the first and only small or mobile business to be outright rejected by the M-Group. Their dislike of or lack of support for small local businesses, and especially mobile food vendors, will continue to harm our local economy and the families that live here.

We will have a public hearing in front of the Petaluma Planning Commission on Tuesday, May 23 at 7pm. The hearing will be held at City Hall, 11 English St, Petaluma, CA 94952. While the meeting will be available via zoom, only those who show up in person can make a public comment in support of our project. However, we will take this signed petition with us to the hearing, and proudly include your show of support in our presentation.

Please support local small businesses in Petaluma and sign this petition today to allow for the use a 100% mobile, attractive, job-creating, tax-generating, outdoor community marketplace at the northern gateway to downtown Petaluma! In addition to supporting our small, woman-owned business, you will also be supporting every small business, mobile vendor, and the community that supports them!  Thank you!