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Novato Healthy Food Coalition |
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Promoting healthy choices close to home |
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Whole Foods—Old Pini Mill Project |
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The Whole Foods project will: · Bring Novato families more healthy food options · Decrease freeway traffic, fuel consumption, and pollution · Help revitalize downtown, and · Keep more sales tax dollars local |
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Due in large part to the strategic letter writing campaign by NHFC members and the community at large, Whole Foods has committed to opening a new store in downtown Novato! This mixed-use project is a huge win for our community. |
Whole Foods to Open New Store in Novato—View the Design! |
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In brief |
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There are so many reasons this project is good for Novato that we put together a Top 50 document to summarize why we are so thrilled to support it! |
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Top 50 reasons we support the Whole Foods Mixed use project |
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The project’s developer is the Lalanne Group, headed by Bob Lalanne, and Signature Properties (www.sigprop.com). The Lalanne Group is experienced in mixed-use projects in San Francisco and the Bay Area (including The Lofts at Albert Park in San Rafael.) Signature Properties is a homebuilder and general contractor and has built single– and multi-family home projects throughout the Bay Area over the past 30 years. |
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Who is developing the Whole foods project? |
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According to the “Smart Infill” guide for the Bay Area published by the Greenbelt Alliance (http://www.greenbelt.org/resources/reports), infill development can help save open space, improve housing options and affordability, reduce traffic congestion, make more efficient use of existing infrastructure, and create more livable communities. This type of development will be critical to meeting the growth challenges in the Bay Area. Smart infill development enlivens downtown areas; people walk more, and put more money into the local economy—one of the reasons this type of development was specifically called for in Novato’s Downtown Specific Plan for this location. This project will also get cars off the freeways—consuming less energy and lowering pollution (not to mention the time we can spend doing things that are much healthier physically and mentally than sitting on the freeway!) A revitalized downtown will generate more tax revenue for the city of Novato—and help preserve key services that may otherwise be in imminent danger. One good example directly related to healthy living is the Novato Visions recreation guide that we all receive from the city 3 times per year. All those classes and activities for kids and adults (sports, dancing, yoga, music; you name it) are subsidized by the City. Funding is key to continuing to offer these services. And last, but not least, we will have a great source to feed our families a wide variety of healthy food (whether we are cooking it ourselves or lowering our general stress level by picking up some great prepared meals!) and added incentive for other local grocers to increase the quality of their products. |
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How does the NHfc feel “smart infill” (mixed use) relates to a healthy lifestyle? |
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On Tuesday, March 27, the City Council unanimously denied the appeal filed on the latest Design Review decision on design details (The base elements of location, size, and retail/residential mix were finalized over a year ago, in December 2005 after a lengthy review process and public commentary.) Thanks to all who wrote emails to the council or came to the meeting! There are more design decisions to finalize (colors, final material choices, landscaping, etc.) so stay tuned. If you are on our email list, we will be sure to notify you of any upcoming meetings. |
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Current status |
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The project is a mixed-use development. “Mixed use” is defined in Novato’s Downtown Specific Plan as projects with a mixture of commercial and residential use-a newfangled term for what is actually an old-fashioned approach to development, especially in downtown areas. The project includes a 38,000+ square foot (plus mezzanine) Whole Foods Market and 125 (1 and 2 bedroom) residential units, located on the site of the Old Pini Mill at DeLong and Reichert. Whole Foods is the only commercial tenant planned in this building. This project meets Novato guidelines for the number of affordable units, and even better, includes those units in the project rather than just paying “in lieu” fees. The project also provides 30% more parking spaces than required by the city. In addition, Lalanne and Signature Properties have secured an exclusive agreement with the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) board to restore and develop the old train depot buildings and site, next door. We were impressed with the Lalanne Group’s efforts in meeting extensively with and taking input from residential and commercial neighbors, the downtown business community, the Novato Historic Guild (who has endorsed the project), and other local groups in preparation for submitting a completed design to the city. One of the aspects we are most excited about concerning this location for Whole Foods is the downtown site. Some of the advantages include: · The development is within 1/2 mile of 3 bus stops · Residents have easy walking access to services · Provides needed apartment/condo housing for empty nesters and young professionals · Increases pedestrian and other customer traffic to enliven our existing downtown businesses, as well as helping attract other highly desirable retail to Novato. |
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What is the nature of the project? |
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Download a free version of Adobe Reader, if you don’t already have it, to open our downloadable documents. |
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To contact us: |
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Click the images above to see larger, detailed versions of the design! |
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45 ft. |
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45 ft. |
