City of Rohnert Park

We’re building housing for several reasons. One is that this region, and the state, needs more housing to make it more affordable. Increasing housing is a top priority for the City Council. Additionally, state law requires cities to build housing if we develop public property, and 25% of the units need to be affordable (https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/incomelimits)

Rohnert Park residents have long asked for more non-chain retail and restaurants. Concentrating those non-chain businesses in the downtown area will turn the 30-acre site into a walkable downtown. Park once and spend your next few hours wandering around the square, poking into new shops and restaurants, or simply enjoying your choice of beverage on the square.

During the past year, the City has worked with Urban Design Consultants to determine the optimal places to put housing, retail, and hotel. The Hotel was situated near the SMART station as an easy way for folks getting off the train to travel to the hotel. The Achilles Heel of public transportation has always been the “first and last mile” …meaning people often must drive to public transit, which defeats the purpose of using public transit. By placing the hotel close to the SMART stop, people only need to walk a short distance to the hotel instead of driving or relying on a ride share service.

These designs are conceptual and focused towards showing developers the land uses (where retail, housing, and hotel could go) as well as highlighting how we want the shops and residential units to interact with the street and environment (Form Based Code). The actual design and color of the buildings may well change, as are the amenities (benches, trees, greenery) surrounding the retail and residential are subject to change.. Check out the “Form Based Code” FAQ section to get a glimpse of Form Based Code in action.

Hotels can be an extremely valuable addition to a downtown area. They bring leisure visitors to the heart of a community. They can fill a market need by accommodating visitors to nearby  businesses and institutions such as Sonoma State and the Casino. Hotels can generate sales for nearby retail and service businesses and capture tourism dollars in the community. Hotels also generate significant tax revenues while creating many new jobs. 

Developments like this can easily cost $200 million dollars or more. Neither the City nor developers have that kind of money to instantly pay for the development. Cities rely on developers and investors to shoulder upfront financial risk of paying for a development of this magnitude. The majority of the money to pay for the development comes from the developer and their investors…additional funding comes from federal, state, and local grants and loans, all of which take time to apply for and receive.

On October 24, 2023 we presented the conceptual layout of Downtown Rohnert Park, with 60,000 – 120,000 square feet of new retail, 300-500 housing units, of which 25% will be affordable, a boutique hotel, and central to the entire project, a large community square. 

On November 1, 2023, the City will send a Request for Qualifications to the development community. This signaled that we are prepared to partner with a developer to begin work on Downtown Rohnert Park. On November 30^th, we will host developers at the Downtown Site to answer any questions and allow the development community to see the site for themselves.

• Continue to coordinate the timing of our traffic lights
• Provide safe ways to walk and bicycle to and from downtown
• Provide room for ride-sharing services to operate outside of the flow of traffic
• Promote public transit- starting with the adjacent SMART station
• Designing streets to promote the smooth flow of vehicles
• The pedestrian friendly downtown design will encourage visitors arriving by car to "park once" and then walk to wherever they would like to go.