photo credit: City of Petaluma
Conceptual rendering of the scaled back EKN Appellation Hotel proposed for downtown Petaluma.

Petaluma has rolled back part a hotly-contested downtown development plan, rather than putting the issue before the city's voters.

At issue is the EKN Appellation Hotel, a luxury development involving celebrity chef Charlie Palmer.

It was originally proposed as a six-story, 93-room hotel on a vacant postage-stamp sized lot at the corners of B Street and Petaluma Boulevard.

It would have been the tallest building in the city's downtown, and Petaluma's city council last year approved a special zoning district to accommodate the height.

But after strong public opposition, and a local referendum specifically challenging the increased floor-area ratio, Petaluma's city council voted to repeal some of the contentious rules.

"The players who invest in being involved are credible people," said Petaluma mayor Kevin McDonnell. "Be they on the council or in the audience, it's all about good people having differing opinions."

McDonnell remarked on the heated emotions the saga ignited before he and the council unanimously repealed the rules.

"Everybody that spoke so much vile online social media stuff and who showed their worst selves on social media, I hope that they're all back in the peace and love camp now," McDonnell joked.

There was criticism of the city's initial plan to increase the floor area ratio, F-A-R. That's a calculation of a buildings' story and lot coverage.

It came from both residents, and city officials, including Petaluma planning commissioner, Darren Racusen.

"The red herring throughout has been the 6.0 F-A-R....and I think for me, there's a planning commission meeting where I'm going through general plan consistency and I point out how a 6.0 F-A-R is totally out of alignment with our General Plan 2025, which is coming to a close," Racusen said.

Petaluma is still working on it's General Plan 2050, a set of documents and guidelines for land use and development in the city through the year 2050.

The highest floor area ratio in the current draft is five, for developments near the city's SMART train stations.

While the initial six story EKN Appellation Hotel proposal has been walked back, and the parts of the special zoning rules have been repealed, a smaller 4 story version of the hotel is moving forward.

The pared back proposal was recently approved by Petaluma's Historic & Cultural Preservation Committee.