Parking Opportunities

It is common to hear how difficult it is to park in downtown Sebastopol. People say they avoid coming downtown because they can never find a place to park. This is not an uncommon statement in any walkable urban context, be it a small town or large city. Sprawl and

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Sebastopol Walk Audit

There are many components of our built world that can support or detract from a place’s walkability. Much of the public realm has been designed with a primary focus on automobile travel with pedestrian needs often secondary or even a complete afterthought. A walk audit is a way to analyze

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Park(ing) Day 2021

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

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Auto-Oriented Uses Downtown

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

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Parking Requirement Impacts on Small Town Urbanism

Sebastopol, like many other small towns, needs to get a handle on its parking requirements. Current zoning code parking requirements is often at odds with good urbanism. Without a mechanism such as a parking assessment district, or simply reducing on-site parking requirements, our attempts at creating good pedestrian-friendly urban environments

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Changing Attitudes About Walking and Biking

I live in a small town. The population is around 7,400. The total area is about 1.8 square miles. There are some hills but it’s generally easy to walk and bike pretty much everywhere in town. Even though we have 2 state highways passing through town and therefore have our

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Building Dense Does Not Have To Be Dense

This is an interesting blog post that discusses good and bad density. Many people, particularly in small towns like where I live, are very resistant when you mention density. But when advocating density in a town like Sebastopol, I’m not talking about skyscrapers or even multi-family type buildings. Single-family neighborhoods

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CVS Agrees to Remove Drive-Through

The proposed CVS/Chase bank project that I have written about before has a new twist. The project is proposed on a prominent intersection at what is essentially the gateway to downtown Sebastopol. The project went through a long drawn out entitlement process that included the Planning Commission denying a use

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FRITZ ARCHITECTURE-URBANISM
small town urbanism

urban design thoughts through the filter of living in a small town

P.O. Box 1074
Sebastopol, CA 95473
707.975.6220
paul@fritzarchitecture.com
Paul Fritz in Sebastopol, CA on Houzz

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