Saving Our Petaluma Fairgrounds
SAVING OUR FAIR & FAIRGROUNDS
JOIN US TO SAVE THE FAIR, ENSURE LOCAL CONTROL OF OUR FAIRGROUNDS AND INCREASE ACCOUNTABILITY TO OUR RESIDENTS
The fairgrounds is a 55-acre, City-owned property that has touched the lives of many Petalumans and is located at the heart of our city. City residents pay for the fairground property with their local tax dollars.
For the last 50 years, the state has leased this property from the City for only one dollar each year, while retaining full control of all events that take place there. This year, the 50-year lease will expire, and the City will take back control of the property from the state.
Taking back control of the fairground property will allow the events that Petalumans know and love to continue, while providing the City and local residents the ability to address issues, amenities, and needs that our residents have told us are important, and which are currently unaddressed by the State.
For the past year the City has engaged in an unprecedented, deep level of engagement and received significant feedback from Petaluma residents on the future of the fairground property. This feedback has been incorporated into the current local control plan, and additional opportunities for input will be forthcoming.
Please take a moment to review the work the city has done to date.
THE FAIR IS HERE TO STAY
The fairgrounds has hosted the annual Sonoma-Marin Fair for over 80 years—and that will continue.
During our extensive year-long public engagement process with our community, which also included a deep-dive study of the City’s fairgrounds (over 90+ hours!) by a 36-member Petaluma resident panel that produced three reports, including final recommendations, and three visualizations of their recommendations, we heard:
- Keep the annual fair
- Better property management
- More accessible, affordable community events and uses for the Petaluma community
Additional opportunities for resident input are forthcoming.
The City of Petaluma is committed to providing our residents, who own the fairground property, the annual fair, increased access and more community services, uses, and events onsite, and improved property management to ensure the Petaluma’s community hub reflects the pride our residents have for our beloved fairgrounds property.
On October 24, 2022, following the input from our community, your City Council adopted guiding principles directly from your feedback to ensure our community’s needs and desires for its property are reflected in any activity, improvement, or planning effort that occurs. (Click HERE to view the full meeting.)
The 8 guiding principles that will guide all future efforts on the city-owned property are as follows:
- Acknowledge and build upon community input regarding the fairgrounds property while continuing to engage with the community going forward.
- Create, maintain, and enhance authentic partnerships across stakeholders and community groups with an interest in the fairgrounds property.
- Provide civic and institutional stability during the transition period and beyond so that the fair event and other key uses continue.
- Affirm a renewed, generational commitment of the City to the Petaluma community's agricultural past and present for which the fairgrounds property continues to be a focal point, to the people who have utilized and want to utilize the fairgrounds property, and to the fairgrounds property itself and its unique challenges and potential as an asset for the whole community through near-, medium-, and long-term actions and milestones for the property and related programs.
- Preserve and enhance key elements, resources, and activities at the fairgrounds property that the community is connected to and that make the place unique.
- Honor the legacy of history, place, and community while fostering safety, health, inclusivity, cultural connectedness, accessibility, and useability of the fairgrounds property for the benefit of all.
- Preserve and enhance the capacity of the fairgrounds property to provide critical emergency response resources for Petaluma and the region.
- While preserving the essential and unique feel and presence of the fairgrounds property and its core features, ensure that future fairgrounds property uses, including fair event uses, are maximized to effectively and compatibly accomplish as many of the community's needs and wants for the fairgrounds property as possible.
LOCAL CONTROL FOR LOCAL NEEDS
Petalumans agree that local management and control of Petaluma resident-owned property provides far greater benefits to the community than when under management of a state agency that is unaccountable to City residents.
In November 2020, our community passed Measure U, a locally-controlled revenue that stays in Petaluma and cannot be taken by the state, and ensured that the fairground property was not sold to pay for those services. This 1-cent sales tax HELPED SAVE THE PETALUMA FAIRGROUNDS PROPERTY by providing the City with a local revenue source to reinvest in our infrastructure and provide excellent municipal services, including essential and responsive public safety to our residents.
For the past 50 years, the City of Petaluma has leased the Fairgrounds property to the 4th District Agricultural Association (DAA), a state division of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Their lease of the Fairgrounds property will expire December 31, 2023, at which time the City will assume the management of the property, which returns control back into the hands of the people of Petaluma.
Throughout this transition and beyond, our beloved Petaluma Fair will continue being an essential anchor on the property.
Right now, the top priority for the City is to provide stability for the property’s tenants via new agreements with the City rather than the state, and to ensure that the uses our community expects continue—especially the fair. We want the DAA to have a 3-year contract to continue putting on the annual fair while we work together during this transition, with our community, the fair, and the fairground tenants, to envision what the future looks like for the site in the long-term.
BENEFITS OF LOCAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
- YEAR-ROUND COMMUNITY ACCESS
Currently, public access to the Fairgrounds property is limited to the annual 5-day Fair or paid admission special events determined by the state. The City would like to create a more welcoming, accessible and affordable experience with public access and amenities that will benefit Petalumans year-round.
- A FOREVER HOME FOR THE PETALUMA FAIR
The Petaluma Fair is a cherished tradition that has strengthened agriculture and enriched our community. We are committed to ensuring its place at the heart of our city for generations to come.
- LOCAL CONTROL OF LOCAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE NEEDS
When disaster strikes, the City of Petaluma has been the first to respond and serve our community and our neighbors in their time of need. In the last four years, the City has promptly and comprehensively responded to five declared emergencies, including opening evacuation centers on the fairgrounds property and staffing it with City staff, councilmembers, and volunteers 24/7 to ensure a safe place for our community and our neighbors.
It is essential for our ability to continue this emergency response, to have local control of Petaluma’s centralized community hub at the fairgrounds property to ensure swift, local response and not rely on state-appointed officials, who may live outside our town and who may struggle to balance the state’s interest in our Fairgrounds with Petaluma’s most urgent needs.
- LOCAL DECISION MAKING ABOUT PROPERTY USES AND ACTIVITIES
Petalumans' voices and input provided the foundation for the Council’s Guiding Principles for the Fairgrounds property, and that will continue to be at the heart of any future decision-making for the property.
- REVENUES FROM THE PROPERTY CAN BE USED FOR LOCAL BENEFIT
The residents of Petaluma currently have no say in how the profits from Fair’s year-round activities onsite are invested. With local control returned to the City, any revenues generated on the property will be reinvested to improve the property for our community’s use.
- LOCALLY MANAGED MAINTENANCE
The City of Petaluma is committed to ensuring that the fairgrounds facilities continue to provide safe and reliable spaces to serve various community needs. Recent City-funded building condition studies identified that the fairgrounds site property requires over $12.2 million in immediate repairs and millions more in total repairs and deferred maintenance. With Petaluma’s commitment to environmentally friendly maintenance practices, the community can feel confident that the property will be a welcoming and safe space for Petalumans of all ages to enjoy in the future.
COMMON GROUND
In every setting, we heard similar themes: The community wants to keep our Petaluma Fair. They also want more access to our fairgrounds and hope that the city's property can become a hub for our community to gather, recreate, and connect.
We will continue to work with you, our community, to envision the future of our fairgrounds property, to ensure our Petaluma fairgrounds property is a legacy for future generations to come!
INNOVATIONS IN COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Our community has been involved in planning the future of our Fairgrounds every step of the way.
To help us gather feedback and engage our community, we hired Healthy Democracy, a US-based nonpartisan nonprofit, to conduct a one-of-a-kind experience in democracy – a lottery-selected resident panel. This Fairgrounds Advisory Panel included 36 Petalumans from all different walks of life. They spent over 90 hours learning about the fair, the fairgrounds, and hearing from our community about their needs and desires for the property—and then developed recommendations to the City Council about how the City might plan for the future of this iconic, beloved property.
This new approach, integrated with our established community engagement tools, brought new voices to the table for this important conversation. The Fairgrounds Advisory Panel was chosen to represent a microcosm of the City, and participants were paid for their time to make participation more accessible for historically underrepresented Petalumans.
To learn more about the innovative Fairgrounds Advisory Panel, click HERE.
Additional opportunities for resident engagement will be coming soon! Sign up at the top of the page to stay updated with news and more ways to get involved.
Current Site with Surrounding Uses
NEXT STEPS
NOW - DECEMBER 2023
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JANUARY 2024 - DECEMBER 2027
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Petaluma’s Innovative Fairgrounds Panel
Panelist Testemonials
Digital Storytelling Exhibit
A digital exhibit featuring community drawings, poems, photos, videos, voice notes, and more – sharing stories and other memories that speak to the spirit and legacy of the Fairgrounds. Click here to learn more.