Downtown Santa Rosa
A vibrant downtown is crucial in recruiting a high-quality workforce and for existing and new business development, providing recreation and retail opportunities for residents, and providing attractions for tourism.
Investment downtown represents an opportunity to generate lasting benefits including thriving employers and access to good jobs, environmentally sustainable development, and increased tax revenue. Economic studies conducted by the City of Santa Rosa demonstrate the highest tax return and property value are in the city’s downtown areas, providing the highest economic return on investment.
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.
Downtown Development
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.
Placemaking is a critical driver of economic development, as it attracts and retains new businesses, boosts tourism, and fosters a sense of pride and engagement among local residents. By creating vibrant, welcoming spaces, we can enhance the downtown experience, leading to long-term benefits for the community. Key initiatives that contribute to placemaking include:
- Expansion of housing opportunities downtown
- Incentives for employment opportunities downtown
- Support for events and cultural opportunities
- Beautification, lighting, and wayfinding improvements
- Addressing public safety issues
- Addition of essential services, such as grocery stores, performing arts venues, and meeting/event spaces
- Utilization of government land for housing and redevelopment opportunities
Together, these placemaking efforts yield a strong return on investment by enhancing the downtown’s appeal, safety, and accessibility—making it a destination for residents, businesses, and visitors alike. They increase property values, expand the residential tax base, attract new employers and jobs, and reduce commuting, all of which stimulate local spending and support small businesses. By driving tourism, foot traffic, and cultural engagement, and by transforming underused spaces into vibrant hubs of activity, these initiatives generate sustained economic growth through increased sales and property tax revenues—ensuring a dynamic, resilient future for our community.
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.
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.