Politics & Government
Nearly 100 Healdsburg residents attend community workshop
City officials are pleased with the turn-out and look forward to the creative input of Healdsburg residents.
Tuesday night's community workshop to create a vision for the 80-acre parcel at the south Healdsburg Avenue entrance garnered nearly 100 attendees.
Known as the Central Healdsburg Avenue Special Study Area, CHASSA, this is one of the largest remaining parcels to be developed in Healdsburg.
Chairman of CHASSA and Healdsburg Mayor Tom Chambers said he was delighted in the turnout.
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"I couldn't be more pleased," said Chambers, as he smiled and gazed at the full house.
A nametag system blended attendees into brainstorming tables of eight. Each table had a trained facilitator.
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to paste "gameboard pieces" to design their ideas on maps of the area.
A cacophony of voices arose as they avidly discussed the pros and cons of each idea suggested.
Consultant Jim Heid announced they were
Participants were asked to create options and to search for tradeoffs as they worked. They were also asked to propose solutions to any problems they might foresee.
Residents turned creative designers worked through the process while considering moving freeway on- and offramps, configuring the problematic 5-way stop and whether or not to add a round-about.
They were reminded by Heid to respect the private ownership of the land.
Heid also asked whether would be considered as part of the overall plan.
Enthusiastic residents ranging in age from 12 to at least 72 worked together to create and name the blended vision of their respective tables.
They were given and hour and a quarter to prepare ideas to present to the crowd.
Both the Healdsburg City Council and the Planning Commission were well represented at the meeting.
"I'm curious to see whether people have the same concepts, said planning commissioner Mark Zimmerman. "I look forward to seeing the outcome of this (workshop)."
No decisions were made at the workshop. Ideas engendered by the workshop will be counted, categorized and blended into concepts that will be presented at the April 5 city council meeting.
