The temporary parklet permits issued by Caltrans during the early months of the pandemic have expired. Because of this, two of the three parklets in Sebastopol have been dismantled. The city council decided that the third parklet should be allowed to convert from a temporary parklet to a permanent one.
I’m going a bit beyond the smalltownurbanism.com typical focus on small towns with this post and travelling south to San Diego. My daughter is a senior at UC San Diego. She’s had a great experience, even during the pandemic, and I’m happy for her education. The campus is in La
Sebastopol has been fortunate to have had 3 parklets installed during the pandemic to help support downtown businesses and social distancing. Parklets have been discussed around town for probably about 10 years in one form or another. The Core Project participated in several park(ing) days. The Core Project did a
If you haven’t heard the name before, beg buttons are the push-buttons you have to activate in order to get a walk signal allowing a pedestrian to cross the street. There has been much written about them and how they really are one more instance of our circulation systems prioritizing
We have a couple of commercial buildings that are currently for sale on Main Street in Sebastopol. 110-112 North Main Street is a single-story commercial building with two tenants. Portico is an Italian restaurant and Sagestown is a gem shop. The building is about 4,000 sf, and so is the
Since November of 2020 Sebastopol has had 3 parklets installed as a response to the pandemic to allow for more outdoor options for the public to congregate downtown. Because all 3 parklets are located on Caltrans right-of-way, an encroachment permit was required from Caltrans. And in order to expedite the
Today is Park(ing) Day! Started in San Francisco in 2005, Park(ing) Day has turned into a global phenomenon to highlight the need for more people space in our communities by repurposing a parking space and turning it into a parklet for the day. These have become very popular during Covid
There is a bank in downtown Sebastopol that, given the architecture, was probably built in the 1960s. The bank is on the corner of the main intersection downtown, and is a really horrible downtown building. But that might be a topic for another post. The bank has a parking lot
One of the biggest complaints about urban areas is the lack of parking. This happens even in small towns like Sebastopol. People can get really worked up and possessive about parking. I lived in San Francisco at one time. I get it. Parking can be hard to come by in
Here is another example of affordable housing in Sebastopol that would not be able to be built today because of our current zoning code. Every city has these buildings. Most were built before there was such a thing as a zoning code and are now considered ‘legal non-conforming properties.’ And
 |
FRITZ ARCHITECTURE-URBANISM
small town urbanism
urban design thoughts through the filter of living in a small town
|
