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Bookmark on Delicious| The impacts of new retail |
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Argus Courier, Thursday, Jul 3, 2008 By TIFFANY RENÉE Editor: On June 16, we experienced democracy in action when our City Council unanimously agreed to publicly weigh the positive and negative impacts of new retail development. Well over 150 people from Petaluma and throughout the county came to give support and witness our council direct Mike Moore, the city’s community development director, in concert with the Petaluma Community Coalition, to write a resolution to define and implement a fiscal and community impact report (FCIR). We hope to see you all on July 7, when our City Council votes on the final resolution implementing this important policy and analysis. We want to thank the Petaluma City Council for this unanimous support for studying commercial projects over 25,000 square feet to determine, among other items, the fiscal impacts on local businesses, economic impacts on job quality and the cost-benefit analysis of public service impacts. Additionally, the ongoing effort of realizing a FCIR could not have come this far without the vocal support of the families and business owners in Petaluma. Nearly two dozen business owners and representatives from local schools were in attendance. We give a hearty “thank you” to all who have taken time out of their busy schedules to attend City Council meetings, make calls, write letters and gather signatures for the petitions and postcards. We also want to acknowledge and thank the various representative organizations that attended the June 16 meeting, including Dennis Rosatti and Bill Kortum of Sonoma County Conservation Action, Jessica Diaz of Accountable Develop-ment Coalition, Ellen Bicheler of Sierra Club: Sonoma Group, Lisa Maldonado of North Bay Labor Council, Rev. Norman Cram of St John’s Episcopal Church, Ben Boyce of Living Wage Coalition and Wayne Morgenthaler of Petaluma Indep-endent Business Alliance. Although we would have liked the FCIR to cover more ground, it is groundbreaking policy for accountable development. Most importantly, the council agreed it applies to projects that meet the threshold in the current pipeline of applications and those applications will go to City Council for final approval. Tiffany Renée, co-founder, Petaluma Community Coalition |