Penngrove’s lucky to have Helen Putnam
Luckily, Penngrove is full of friends. We congregate at Penngrove Market, the new Penngrove Hub & Thrift Shop, JavAmore Café and the post office. At least, we do when COVID allows! It’s been N95 masking at press time, and some businesses have had to make temporary adjustments in hours when employees quarantine. We support Penngrove Social Firemen (PSF) in upkeep of the park and clubhouse.
Feb. 5 - Crab Feed Drive-Through To-Go
This famous feed benefits projects of Penngrove Social Firemen. $65. 4:30 – 7:00 p.m. at the Penngrove Community Clubhouse. Advance ticket purchase ends Feb. 1 at JavAmore Café or online at https://crabfeedpenngrove.eventbrite.com . 707-794-1516.
The 1984 Penngrove Specific Plan
In the fall of 1970 development interests leaving Marin County came to Petaluma seeking less restrictive growth opportunities to continue building large scale tract housing. The Mayor of Petaluma, Helen Putnam and the City Council members adopted a controversial growth plan surrounding Petaluma with a green belt and limiting the amount of growth to 500 homes a year. The city was sued by the Construction Industry Association of Sonoma County. In a landmark action in 1976, the California Supreme Court declined to review an appellate court ruling that upheld the city's right to control growth.
During the 1970s Penngrove had many homes near the downtown area experiencing septic system failures. The homes were built on very small parcels without enough land for leech field expansion, so the State Dept. of Health was condemning the homes as uninhabitable. The City of Petaluma, in conjunction with the County, agreed to supply the downtown area of Penngrove with sewer service. However, Penngrove only had general land use and zoning requirements and restrictions. After the Petaluma lawsuit was settled the developers turned their sights on the recently sewered, and relatively unregulated, County area of Penngrove for more growth opportunities.
In 1978 Helen Putnam was elected as 2nd district county supervisor. Helen recognized Penngrove as a historic community that was relatively unprotected and vulnerable. She quickly moved to create a Specific Plan and, working with the community for over one year, a plan to regulate and administer the future land use, growth policies, and sewer services in Penngrove was created. In 1984 the Penngrove Specific Plan was adopted by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors.
One of the biggest challenges facing Penngrove during the Specific Plan process was a controversial proposal in southern Rohnert Park for the 1982 Hewlett Packard Master Plan. The Master Plan E.I.R. identified traffic impacts and alternative routes to establish a traffic circulation commute service for 6,000 employees at the site. The widening of East and West Railroad Avenue to Hwy.101 was considered a feasible mitigation for the site. That route would relieve congestion in Penngrove and was the preferred mitigation in the E.I.R. 38 years ago in the 1984 Penngrove Specific Plan. (Fortunately, Hewlett Packard never grew to more than 1,000 employees so the roadway was never improved)
Sonoma County owes a great deal to Helen Putnam for her foresight, persistence and courage taking on the development interests in the 1970s. The Construction Industry Association of Sonoma County vs. City of Petaluma decision is historic and its legacy is still in effect allowing municipalities to control growth. Without that decision Petaluma and the Penngrove area would resemble the tract home urban sprawl in Daly City.
