One of my favorite things about Sebastopol is its compact downtown and walkability. I simply love popping by the library with my kids on the walk from Ives Park to get ice cream. I love not worrying about getting in the car, finding parking, fighting traffic just to run a simple errand. Moving our city hall, senior center, and library to the O'Reilly building is a step on the wrong direction, that will shift Sebastopol towards a more car-centric, spread out town without a communal core, like so many other towns in America.
Thanks for the great coverage Laura. I think the Commons at O’Reilly is the best fit even though it is so far from downtown. Will the city council meeting be held at O’Reilly? With the vacancy of 3 down town buildings (senior center, library, and city hall), will the city be able to sell those to pay for O’Reilly?
I'm glad there's good parking at the O'Reilly site, because very few people will be able to walk there. It's 1.3 miles, and a 33 minute walk from downtown according to Google maps. This is a serious negative to this site. It's not a "center" in any geographic sense.
I’m very troubled tnat there was no community input and no opportunity for questions or comment. If the people who actually use these buildings are not given an opportunity to participate that would be awful and is the antithesis of the values we purport to uphold. I’d like to know what the committee has planned for involving the citizens. Also, If this proceeds, what is the plan for the current buildings we have now in our downtown? We don’t need more vacant buildings and the problems that accompany that. Also, while I recognize there are challenges faced by the library and senior center, why is the focus on this now when we are facing serious infrastructure issues such as broken roads, wells, and sewage problems ?
People complain about it not being downtown. My unscientific analysis says that Sebastopol is essentially two miles by two miles. That is not far from anywhere. I would rather be able to find parking.
Thank you to the 100+ attendees, and thank you Sebastopol Times for covering this event.
It was difficult to schedule an Open House during the middle of vacations and school starts. Hopefully, it's just the kickoff event of many to come, scheduled at various times so everyone has a chance to attend at least one. We want people to experience and get familiar with this Committee's work, which built on years of efforts by previous committees and organizations. We'll need our community's collective intelligence and support to show up for the City Council's upcoming vote on how to proceed.
It's worth noting a couple of things:
1) This Open House was designed to highlight the array of issues that the City Council will need to consider when they vote on it next month. All the research, analysis, and model making up to this point is simply to answer the Council's question from last year: "If we were to proceed with a Sebastopol Commons, what could it look like, where might it be, and how would it be financed?" If they say yes to something, then Thursday's event was just the beginning of an extended public process.
2) A minor note...we don't currently own the O'Reilly campus, so our ability to be inside it is limited and requires a tremendous amount of coordination with the current owner, city staff, and committee members. We did make a conscious choice to not have a formal one-at-a-time Q&A. Instead we made all of the Committee and involved City Staff available for one-on-one and small group conversations. We wanted to make sure the maximum number of people could get their questions and comments heard without some arbitrary 2 minute limit or similar.
Looking forward to continuing our community discussion. The Committee's monthly meetings are public. We've already submitted multiple public updates to the City Council. Please go to the City's website and take a look at all the data and deliberations. Our committee has a wide variety of member professional and personal experiences. It's likely that whatever questions you are having have been considered over the last 12 months, and there is some kind of data there to help you with your consideration.
Also can someone explain what the problems library is having besides mold ? Is the city hall busting at the seams ? I honestly don’t know why these two buildings need to move. I see the senior center space is too small but that is one building and tnere are so many vacant buildings around town. Maybe someone can explain that to me.
Happy to. At least 12 years ago, the library was identified as too small for its West County service population. They currently have about 10,000 square feet and are asking for 20,000 square feet. Creating a 20,000 square foot facility at its current location has been estimated to cost $32 million if it were done today.
The City Halls has a similar problem - it is too small and it was built at the same time as the Library, which as you know is having some issues.
The idea behind the Commons is to bring as many civic facing (not commercial) entities together in a common space to not only save each of them facility costs but to also foster better working relationships between them so the entire community benefits.
One of my favorite things about Sebastopol is its compact downtown and walkability. I simply love popping by the library with my kids on the walk from Ives Park to get ice cream. I love not worrying about getting in the car, finding parking, fighting traffic just to run a simple errand. Moving our city hall, senior center, and library to the O'Reilly building is a step on the wrong direction, that will shift Sebastopol towards a more car-centric, spread out town without a communal core, like so many other towns in America.
Thanks for the great coverage Laura. I think the Commons at O’Reilly is the best fit even though it is so far from downtown. Will the city council meeting be held at O’Reilly? With the vacancy of 3 down town buildings (senior center, library, and city hall), will the city be able to sell those to pay for O’Reilly?
I'm glad there's good parking at the O'Reilly site, because very few people will be able to walk there. It's 1.3 miles, and a 33 minute walk from downtown according to Google maps. This is a serious negative to this site. It's not a "center" in any geographic sense.
I’m very troubled tnat there was no community input and no opportunity for questions or comment. If the people who actually use these buildings are not given an opportunity to participate that would be awful and is the antithesis of the values we purport to uphold. I’d like to know what the committee has planned for involving the citizens. Also, If this proceeds, what is the plan for the current buildings we have now in our downtown? We don’t need more vacant buildings and the problems that accompany that. Also, while I recognize there are challenges faced by the library and senior center, why is the focus on this now when we are facing serious infrastructure issues such as broken roads, wells, and sewage problems ?
Why, indeed?
People complain about it not being downtown. My unscientific analysis says that Sebastopol is essentially two miles by two miles. That is not far from anywhere. I would rather be able to find parking.
Thank you to the 100+ attendees, and thank you Sebastopol Times for covering this event.
It was difficult to schedule an Open House during the middle of vacations and school starts. Hopefully, it's just the kickoff event of many to come, scheduled at various times so everyone has a chance to attend at least one. We want people to experience and get familiar with this Committee's work, which built on years of efforts by previous committees and organizations. We'll need our community's collective intelligence and support to show up for the City Council's upcoming vote on how to proceed.
It's worth noting a couple of things:
1) This Open House was designed to highlight the array of issues that the City Council will need to consider when they vote on it next month. All the research, analysis, and model making up to this point is simply to answer the Council's question from last year: "If we were to proceed with a Sebastopol Commons, what could it look like, where might it be, and how would it be financed?" If they say yes to something, then Thursday's event was just the beginning of an extended public process.
2) A minor note...we don't currently own the O'Reilly campus, so our ability to be inside it is limited and requires a tremendous amount of coordination with the current owner, city staff, and committee members. We did make a conscious choice to not have a formal one-at-a-time Q&A. Instead we made all of the Committee and involved City Staff available for one-on-one and small group conversations. We wanted to make sure the maximum number of people could get their questions and comments heard without some arbitrary 2 minute limit or similar.
Looking forward to continuing our community discussion. The Committee's monthly meetings are public. We've already submitted multiple public updates to the City Council. Please go to the City's website and take a look at all the data and deliberations. Our committee has a wide variety of member professional and personal experiences. It's likely that whatever questions you are having have been considered over the last 12 months, and there is some kind of data there to help you with your consideration.
Also can someone explain what the problems library is having besides mold ? Is the city hall busting at the seams ? I honestly don’t know why these two buildings need to move. I see the senior center space is too small but that is one building and tnere are so many vacant buildings around town. Maybe someone can explain that to me.
Happy to. At least 12 years ago, the library was identified as too small for its West County service population. They currently have about 10,000 square feet and are asking for 20,000 square feet. Creating a 20,000 square foot facility at its current location has been estimated to cost $32 million if it were done today.
The City Halls has a similar problem - it is too small and it was built at the same time as the Library, which as you know is having some issues.
The idea behind the Commons is to bring as many civic facing (not commercial) entities together in a common space to not only save each of them facility costs but to also foster better working relationships between them so the entire community benefits.