Michael Regan 2018 City Council Candidate

We sent a questionnaire to each of the 2018 mayoral and city council candidates. The questionnaire was very specific about the Scott Ranch/Davidon proposal and the future of the land at Windsor and D Street.

Petaluma City Council Candidate

Michael Regan

Response

Question:

What role does a city council member have in protecting community character and addressing issues such as traffic circulation?

The city council plays a role along with the planning commission to ensure developments fit into the existing neighborhood and within the general plan guidelines which include traffic impacts.

Too often Petaluma’s traffic problems are concentrated into Rainier as a solution.

Question:

What steps would you take to solve traffic congestion on Windsor, D Street, and adjoining streets now that commuters are using these streets to avoid 101 traffic?

The first step is to vote no on Prop 6; which would provide the funding for 101 to be widened to 3 lanes through Petaluma. This would help reduce the bottleneck on 101 so that commuters would no longer need to take D street thus reducing the traffic. We also need to work with SMART to build our east side train station that will be located near housing and businesses; taking cars off the road and making it easier and more accessible for commuters to use the train and reducing traffic on 101.

Question:

What is the number of homes (if any) that you think should be built on this property?

The Kelly Creek Protection Project has negotiated a plan for 28 homes and the protection of 44 acres with the option to purchase the entire project. I support this collaborative compromise.

Question:

Since 44 acres of the 58 acres will become part of Putnam Park, where on the remaining 14 acres should the 28 homes be located?

At this time it’s too early to answer. That will be a discussion once the final terms are negotiated and completed.

Question:

Given that Petaluma is already critically short of police, fire, and first responders, would the Davidon development help solve this problem? How would you solve this problem?

A 28 mid-level home development would not solve the problem. The first step is to prioritize public safety in the budgeting process. The police and fire departments have separate solutions. We need to creatively work with the Police department to development ways to recruit new candidates without lowering our standards. We have positions open and budgeted but remain unfilled with only 1 candidate in training; while Rohnert Park has 12 recruits in process. We need to work to build our pipeline. As for the Fire Department we need to collectively work on solutions including purchasing new ambulances that are an income positive revenue stream for the city and our current fleet is old and has a high tendency to break down. Part of prioritizing public safety will include hiring additional fire fighters.

Question:

Are there net fiscal benefits to the proposed Davidon project? What are the potential costs to the city?

The net fiscal benefits are development impact fees, addition of property taxes, and an increase in sales tax revenue from the new residents, along with increased consumer spending. Potential costs with a 28 home project would include increased street maintenance and possible park maintenance. This could potentially be reduced if the new homes HOA covered street and park maintenance as part of its responsibilities.

Preliminary project plans show that four homes will be located within the red-legged frog habitat.

Question: Should the Council permit Davidon to build on the portion of the land that is habitat for the threatened red-legged frog, which would mean its death or removal or could these houses be relocated to avoid this significant impact?

I would be in favor of working to move these homes to lessen the impact.

Please contact Michael Regan with any questions about these statements:

michael@reganforpetaluma.com