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
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
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
A project came before the Planning Commission last fall that required a Use Permit and a Variance. The proposed project was for a new carwash facility on a site that already contained a tire shop and and auto repair. So the project is an expansion of an existing auto-oriented use
Much has been written about the housing affordability problem in California, and across the country. I’m going to offer a local perspective of how we continue to fail to address barriers to developing more housing, which is the core of the issue. I live and work as an architect in
I participated in the Sebastopol City Council Housing Subcommittee as a Planning Commission liason last summer. We had a series of meetings discussing how to create more affordable housing in Sebastopol. There are many reasons for the lack of affordable housing in Sebastopol, and many other places in California, but
Just read a great blog post from Mr. Money Mustache. Check it out The Happy City and our $20 Trillion Opportunity. It is a succinct description of the inefficiencies of our current development paradigm in the United States. It relates very directly to work I’ve been doing with Urban Community
I went to a conference recently and participated in a tour and session on ‘Missing Middle Housing.’ Missing Middle housing is a term coined by Dan Parolek of Opticos Design, Inc. Missing Middle refers to housing types between a single-family home and multi-family apartments that are compatible in scale to
I like the way this blog post illustrates what would happen if our traditional downtowns were required to provide parking at today’s zoning code parking ratios. You can understand why we have so much strip commercial development. This is something I struggle with when considering infill development opportunities in Sebastopol.
Today’s post will be an update on the Sebastopol Charter School’s pursuit of a new 20 acre campus located on the periphery of Sebastopol. If you’re interested in reading previous posts on this topic please see the following links; Smart School Siting -1, Smart School Siting – 2 and Smart
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FRITZ ARCHITECTURE-URBANISM
small town urbanism
urban design thoughts through the filter of living in a small town
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