photo credit: Tina Caputo
Elise Weber (in blue), owner of Petaluma's Della Fattoria, addressing residents at a recent 'Renaissance Petaluma' meeting.

For two years now, controversy has swirled around a plan to build a luxury hotel in downtown Petaluma. 

The proposed six-story property would sit at the corner of Petaluma Boulevard and B Street, in a long-vacant lot that used to be a Chevron gas station. 

Supporters say the Appellation Petaluma hotel will boost the town’s economy and bring in much-needed tax revenue. Opponents fear it will ruin the town’s historic character. 

Recently a newly-formed coalition of local business owners invited Petaluma residents to meet at a downtown café to hash out the details. 

[AMBI OF CROWD SOUNDS]

Downtown Petaluma is normally pretty sleepy on Monday evenings — but not tonight. 

Here at Della Fattoria, the room is packed with hundreds of people. You can barely move through the crowd as neighbors chat with local merchants over glasses of Petaluma wines and snacks brought in from downtown restaurants.

The atmosphere is celebratory, but the reason behind the gathering is serious. 

Renaissance Petaluma is hoping to convince locals to rally around Chef Charlie Palmer’s proposed hotel project. 

Elisa Weber is the owner of Della Fattoria and a founding member of Renaissance Petaluma.

“A lot of people from Petaluma don't shop downtown,” Weber said. “All these little shops, all these artisans that have these beautiful shops… they're barely surviving.”

That would change if the town could bring in more visitors, she says. The kind that won’t just pop in for a few hours and then leave to spend the night in some other town.

“So if we had a nice hotel in town that had 90 people or whatever coming out, hitting the ground, shopping, spending the night here, waking up here, having breakfast, shopping, having some lunch, shopping, it would elevate all of us,” Weber said. 

Some worry that a $500-a-night hotel would elevate Petaluma a little too much. 

After Charlie Palmer opened Hotel Healdsburg and Dry Creek Kitchen in 2001, it sparked a transformational influx of upscale businesses in downtown Healdsburg that alienated some residents.

“I don't want to be Healdsburg, either,” Weber said. “I just want to be Petaluma. I want to be a beautiful Petaluma with cleaner sidewalks and more storefronts that are full of retailers. I hear all the time if ‘that hotel goes in, I'm going to open a surf shop and I'm going to open a coffee shop’ or whatever. There's plenty of pie for everyone, but if it's full of people.

Petaluma resident Joy Robinson says she thinks the hotel could be good for Petaluma. But perhaps with some modifications.

“I'm an urban planner and attorney, and I heard about this development and the height that they were proposing and the changes that they'd have to do to the zoning ordinance and the general plan, and it made me concerned about the downtown,” Robinson said. 

To allow construction of the hotel, Petaluma would have to change its zoning to allow a six-story building in the town’s historic district. 

In February, Petaluma’s city council approved the change. In response, a group called the Petaluma Historic Advocates pushed for a 2026 ballot measure to put the zoning change to a vote.

Robinson says she liked the idea of letting the people decide, so she helped collect signatures for the referendum.

“I heard a lot of comments from people who were trying to decide whether to sign or not, and people didn't so much mind the idea of a hotel, and they liked the idea of Petaluma becoming more vibrant and the businesses becoming more profitable,” Robinson said. “But they didn't like the height and they didn't like the density. A lot of them were concerned about the parking.”

Even so, Robinson said she’s not opposed to the project.

“I'm actually in favor of another hotel, although I'm not sure the existing hotels have really great occupancy rates,” Robinson said. That's to be determined. But I just think it's a matter of being respectful of the adjoining streetscape.”

Charlie Palmer addressed some of those concerns during a Q&A session at the meeting. 

He pointed out that to be financially viable, the hotel needs to have 82 rooms. And to put a large hotel on such a small lot, the only way to build is up. To help with some of the parking issues, Palmer says he plans to include an underground garage.

Though some residents have complained about the hotel’s contemporary design, Palmer says he didn’t want to build a fake historic building. Ultimately, Palmer says, the hotel will be a positive thing for Petaluma.

“It could be something that stimulates more growth,” Palmer said. “It's going to be good for the town. I think this hotel will be incredibly successful, too. I wouldn't be doing it otherwise.”

Petaluma resident Leland Fishman agrees. He says the 10% hotel tax revenue — also known as TOT or Transient Occupancy Tax — would help pay for essential community services like road repairs and fire protection.

“There's no better way than a hotel with TOT tax, sales tax and then 60 employees all spending money in downtown,” Fishman said. “To me, this is a no-brainer.”

We’ll find out next year of city residents agree. Petaluma’s zoning referendum is expected to be on the November 2026 ballot.