Downtown Santa Rosa

Creating a destination for residents and visitors alike in the downtown core can boost economic activity and vibrancy. This includes expanded public art, enhanced pedestrian level lighting, walkable spaces including temporarily closing streets for pedestrian access and expanded commerce, downtown safety, and incentives for businesses providing services and activities in the downtown core that enhance downtown vitality.

To capture the return on investment to develop Courthouse Square, we support using city resources in the form of land and/or incentives to encourage critical housing and commercial developments downtown. Enhanced Infrastructure Financing Districts (EIFDs) provide the ability of property tax increment financing of critical infrastructure costs in defined areas. EIFDs provide a dual benefit of revenue for these improvements along with cost avoidance for housing and commercial projects, which in combination provide significant incentives for needed development imagined by the Downtown Specific Plan, and other planned development areas in the city. The Chamber supports this approach for downtown as well as Roseland and other potential areas in Sonoma County.

We support initiatives to expand housing and the employment base downtown and efforts to retain city/county employment downtown. This includes support of events and cultural opportunities; beautification, lighting and wayfinding; addressing public safety issues, and the addition of missing components such as grocery options, performing arts, and meeting and event space; and the use of government land for housing and other redevelopment opportunities.

Santa Rosa and Sonoma County lose significant convention business to other areas of California and the country due to a lack of adequate convention space. Downtown Santa Rosa is an ideal location for the development of a convention center based on the proximity of parking, commercial, arts, restaurant, and retail opportunities. The development of a convention center would have a profound positive impact on the vitality of downtown Santa Rosa as well as the regional economy.

Support of our small downtown businesses is key to economic growth and vibrancy. Further, available commercial space in the downtown core should be leveraged to attract new business to Sonoma County with changing workforce and transportation patterns post-pandemic having broadened the options for a company’s base of operations and making Sonoma County an increasingly attractive and financially sensible option. We encourage timely direction of park development fees from downtown projects to art, parks and recreation facilities within the downtown core.