Santa Rosa
How Buildings Can Lead the Way to a Decarbonized Future
A public utilities building in Santa Rosa shows how innovations in architecture and grid management can reduce energy use and prepare buildings for a more sustainable energy future.
Planning for Infill Growth Doesn't Guarantee Development: a Case Study
The city of Santa Rosa has made a concerted effort to plan for new development, but projects have yet to materialize.
Complying With New State Laws on ADUs No Easy Matter
Santa Rosa is struggling to complying with two laws passed last year to encourage construction of inlaw units to increase affordable housing. Council members are concerned that loosened restrictions would degrade neighborhood character.
Wine Country Wildfires Put Spotlight on Transmission Lines
No cause has yet been attributed to California's deadliest wildfires, but the connections to fallen power lines and exploding transformers, maintained by PG&E, have been exposed in a series of reports by the Bay Area News Group.
Wildfire Destroys Santa Rosa Neighborhood Outside of Fire Hazard Zone
The Wine Country wildfires destroyed Coffey Park, a subdivision within the urban boundaries of the Bay Area's fifth largest city, and outside of the state's severe fire hazard zones. But the cause wasn't a mystery to wildland fire scientists.
New Commuter Train Comes Through for Fire-Ravaged Santa Rosa
Sonoma-Marin Rail Transit (SMART) has been operating almost continuously at full schedule, collecting no fares since the epic wildfires began in Sonoma County on Oct. 8. Two stations in the fire-zone are shut down due to lack of access.
Wine Country Wildfires Put Focus on Wildland-Urban Interface
The fires in Northern California have caused at least 21 deaths, with over 500 people missing in Sonoma County. Wired science editor, Adam Rogers, looks at the problems posed when urban development encroaches wildlands.
Opponents of Rent Control Claim Victory in Special Election in Bay Area
Voters in Santa Rosa, California rejected a measure that would have retained the rent and eviction control ordinance that the city council had approved lasted August. The referendum was placed on the ballot by the California Apartment Association.
Northern California City Protests Closure Of Popular Rail Crossing
State rail officials decided that the risk posed by Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit trains is too grave to allow an existing grade crossing to remain open, forcing pedestrians and a cyclists out of their way to cross the tracks.
Bay Area's Newest Commuter Rail Service on Display
The Northwestern Pacific RR served Marin and Sonoma counties and the North Coast in the 1890s. The route of the new SMART train, while not as long, will run in the same right-of-way, starting next year. One new train was on display in San Rafael.
County Fairgrounds Provide Overnight Parking for Homeless
The city of Santa Rosa, California, has “cut against the trend” by implementing a safe parking program at the county fairgrounds lot. What has your surface parking lot done for you lately?
Tea Party Activists Disrupt Planning Meeting
A police sergeant displayed his mediation skills at a regional planning meeting by temporarily replacing the facilitator after 20 tea party activists disrupted the meeting.
Losing Business Because of Pay Parking? Charge More!
Parking guru Don Shoup was invited to speak in Santa Rosa as an expert on parking policies. Though the city is the only one in Sonoma County to charge for parking (to the chagrin of downtown merchants), it is considering building a 545-space garage.
Liveblog from the MICD Santa Rosa Technical Assistance Team Session
In early 2008, the Mayors' Institute on City Design received a generous gift from the Edward W. Rose III Family Fund, directed through the National Endowment for the Arts, to support technical assistance teams going into the communities of alumni mayors who have already attended one of our traditional Mayors' Institute sessions. The four cities that we selected for the pilot phase of this work were Santa Rosa, CA, Lincoln, NE, Cincinnati, OH, and Tulsa, OK.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
