Petaluma Is Rewriting Its Zoning Code. We Need Clearer Rules, Fewer Discretionary Permits, and a Better Path for Bringing Vacant Properties Back to Life.

September 28, 2026

Petaluma is overhauling its zoning ordinance. The Planning Commission considered Phase I updates to the Implementing Zoning Ordinance (IZO), and those changes will go to the City Council on October 5, 2026. The Phase I amendments are mainly technical – designed to bring the IZO into compliance with the General Plan Update, the Blueprint for Climate Action, and State law. But Phases II and III of the updates – scheduled for 2027 and 2028 – promise substantive reforms and modernization, including streamlining approvals and making the code more useable.

We now have an important opportunity—not merely to reorganize the City’s zoning districts or comply with changes in State law, but to ask more basis questions:

What types of businesses and activities should the City allow by right?

When is discretionary permission from the City really needed to open a business?

What is the fastest, easiest way to get zoning and building approvals done?

Use Clear Objective Standards to Allow Routine Business Activity, and Streamline the Process When a CUP Is Still Required

Petaluma is making some important reforms by filling in gaps in its previous regulatory system that made it unclear whether certain uses – like tasting rooms or maker spaces – were allowed.

Meanwhile, the City has identified dozens of instances in its current code where Conditional Use Permits (CUPs) are still mandated – requiring businesses to get approval from the Planning Commission following a public hearing before they can open their doors. In the eight zones studied, the City found CUPs required 53% of the time for recreation, education, or public assembly uses in non-residential areas, and 44% of the time for retail uses. At the City’s August 2026 business roundtable, local brokers reported that prospective tenants often walk away when a CUP is required, even when they can financially bear the cost of the process, because the uncertainty and delay is a deal breaker. One person estimated this happened with her clients 75% of the time.

Conditional Use Permits serve their purpose; they provide a case-by-case review when a project involves unusual noise, traffic, late-night activity, large crowds, or other impacts that cannot be dealt with as a one-size-fits-all solution. But Petaluma’s zoning reforms must eliminate the need for unnecessary CUPs that stifle economic development. Many ordinary activities can be regulated with clear and objective standards, and enforcement against those who fail to comply – no complicated application or public hearing necessary.

Oakland’s Broadway Valdez District

In 2025, Oakland amended the zoning rules for its Broadway Valdez commercial district after property owners and brokers reported difficulty leasing vacant storefronts. The City found that businesses such as fitness centers, salons, and pet services were struggling to fit within the existing rules.

Rather than simply telling businesses to go through the existing Conditional Use Permit process, Oakland changed the list of uses that could operate in the district. It made several activities—including consumer services, artisan production, group assembly, animal care, and mechanical and electronic games—permitted uses in the Broadway Valdez area. It also made a broader range of medical, professional, personal service, repair and other commercial activities easier to establish. Oakland retained discretionary review for certain higher-impact uses and sensitive ground-floor locations, so the changes did not eliminate zoning protections; they made the approval process more proportional to the potential impact of the use.

Petaluma should take a similar approach: identify the types of businesses being kept out of otherwise suitable spaces, make lower-impact uses permitted by right, and reserve discretionary review for uses that actually create significant site-specific impacts. Using a downtown storefront to run an art class or hold a community meeting should not be subject to the same scrutiny as development of a large entertainment venue. The goal isn’t to eliminate regulation; it is to stop using a costly, uncertain discretionary process when clear, objective standards can accomplish the same thing.

San Francisco’s Priority Processing Program

But what about when we need to use a CUP because the business does have unusual impacts on the neighborhood that need to be evaluated? Those are opportunities for us to streamline and simplify the process, especially for smaller businesses.

San Francisco shows what a city can do to eliminate cost and uncertainty when a use still justifies a Conditional Use Permit review, but the project is relatively small and straightforward. Under San Francisco’s Community Business Priority Processing Program,such projects receive priority processing and a Planning Commission hearing within 90 days after the application is deemed complete, with the project placed on the Commission’s consent calendar. Plus, there is a financial incentive for meeting that deadline: the CUP application fee is refunded if the Planning Commission does not hold the hearing within 90 days.

This kind of expedited processing system with teeth could eliminate a huge barrier for businesses seeking to move into Petaluma. Business brokers reported that delay and uncertainty is as much a barrier to development as cost, and this guaranteed timeline for seeking a CUP addresses that concern. Perhaps the expedited CUP process could be piloted for our long-term vacant parcels in the downtown core?

Allow Temporary Uses to Catalyze Development

Another way our zoning ordinance can get out of the way of vacancy revitalization is to make it easy to open pop-ups, kiosks, temporary art installations, performing arts spaces, classroom spaces, seasonal shops, or incubator spaces. These types of low-cost, low-risk projects allow new entrepreneurs to get their footing, refine their business plans, and develop a following, while they also spur foot traffic, energy, and investment in otherwise vacant properties.

San Francisco recently made temporary activation of vacant sites a lot easier. Before its 2025 reform, the City had 19 different temporary-use categories. Its 2025 legislation consolidated and clarified its temporary use rules and expanded the definition of pop-up retail to include retail, entertainment, and arts activities. Such temporary uses can now occur in vacant or occupied commercial spaces for up to 36 months, with planning department approval (and health and safety permits). The reform also allows interim activities on development sites for 36 months, with a possible 12-month extension. The San Francisco Small Business Commission endorsed the reform, recognizing that pop-ups can activate commercial vacancies and corridors.

Petaluma does not have any temporary activation use process. It allows for short-term events, like carnivals, flea markets, or seasonal markets, for 60 days. Longer temporary uses must go through the regular approval process as any other business would.

And Petaluma’s current land use system is a confusing morass which would certainly discourage any applicant seeking temporary approval. A business must now wade through several layers to determine whether their proposed use is allowed and what approval it needs. Their answer may be found in a combination of:

the implementing zoning ordinance, which spans 28 chapters;
the accompanying zoning map;
one of the City’s land-use tables;
a footnote to the table;
a definition in the zoning glossary;
a specific-use regulation;
an official written interpretation of the zoning ordinance; or
in a specific area plan or overlay.

Petaluma’s zoning ordinance rewrite will comprehensively update the code, but it will still include 32 zones, various overlays, and a separate SmartCode regulatory document to govern properties within the Central Petaluma Specific Plan area. To activate vacant or underutilized commercial properties, the City could establish a single Temporary Activation Permit that cuts across all commercial, industrial, and mixed-use zones. The application could ask:

What is the use?
How long will it operate?
What is the maximum occupancy?
What are the operating hours?
Will food or alcohol be served?
Will amplified sound be used?
Will temporary structures be installed?
Are fire and accessibility requirements satisfied?

If the proposed activity falls within established thresholds, administrative approval should be granted. That is simpler and more proportionate than forcing every temporary activity into an overly-complex regulatory system designed for permanent land uses.

Streamline, Streamline, Streamline

San Francisco offers another idea about how to make the City’s approval process easier and cheaper.

San Francisco is not exactly known for its business-friendly regulatory system. But San Francisco is actually leading the way with some of its recent reforms. Its Permit SF program takes the whole regulatory system a step back and asks – Should a permit be required for this activity in the first place?

In 2025, San Francisco eliminated the permit requirements for sidewalk tables and chairs and sidewalk merchandise display. Previously, businesses needed to submit applications with plans, insurance documentation, and fees, and renew their requests annually. Under the reform, qualifying businesses who wish to set up sidewalk dining or retail now submit a simple registration form (without a fee) and attest that they understand the City’s guidelines for using the sidewalks – covering such topics as pedestrian clearance, accessibility, safety, and maintenance – and they are good to go. No planning permit required!

This not only makes businesses easier to operate, it also frees up city staff time that would otherwise be spent on processing these routine requests. This is a significant innovation that could apply to any number of permits that Petaluma now processes, like replacement of fences or installation of rollup doors for industrial businesses. What else could this process apply to?

Final Thoughts

As Petaluma rewrites its zoning rules, simplicity and speed should be overarching goals. A clear, transparent, easy-to-access explanation of what is required for each area, consolidated in one location, would itself be a big leap forward. Petaluma must also prioritize clear and objective standards permitting routine or noncontroversial uses as of right, with discretionary CUP review used only to address the actual impacts caused by the proposed business activity. The CUP review should be fast, limited, and subject to real deadlines. These reforms could make the zoning overhaul worth all the effort.

The Vacancy Project, an initiative of Petaluma Urban Chat

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