From the Press Democrat website not Petaluma 360's website, headline states "Developer hurdle loses momentum." Below is a copy of the article:

A divided Petaluma City Council on Monday appeared to be backing away from proposed policy requiring big-box developers to disclose the financial and economic impacts of their projects before they can go forward.

Last month, the council appeared to unanimously support the policy, which would add a layer of regulation for projects over 25,000 square feet.

"I'm appalled at the back-peddaling that has happened among five of you," resident Dave Lipcus said. "It makes me mad."

Community, labor and environmental groups working with the city since January said they felt they reached agreement with the council June 16, when officials agreed to the policy in principle. But plans unraveled Monday due to the reported objections of developers of an East Washington Street shopping center.

Some council members, including David Rabbitt, questioned whether they had actually agreed to the policy up for consideration.

Councilwoman Samantha Freitas said the information called for in the reports was proprietary. Councilman Mike O'Brien said the reports would be too expensive, among other things.

Mayor Pam Torliatt and Councilwoman Teresa Barrett remained strong supporters of the policy.

At press time, it appeared the item would not have enough support for approval.

-- Paul Pay

Unfortunately, the PD put out an article without all the information and has not updated so far. As the article stands, how can the council go from "appeared to unanimously support
the policy" to not and more importantly, why? And do they think no one will notice?

It is disconcerting the stranglehold that the developers have on this town. When our city council are negiotating with the developers, they need to be addressing all the impacts of the project. The developers need to be financially responsible for parks, road improvements, etc. If they are not, then the development should not happen.

The city council behaves as if the developers elected them instead of the people who live in this community.

I see where I missed yesterday's article on petaluma360 and that there is an updated article that posted on the website today.

According to today's article, the discussion is still ongoing which I do not know if that is good or bad. At least the door has not been slammed shut for the time being.

I was at the City Council meeting on Monday and was HORRIFIED by the conduct of the council. David Rabbitt referred to public comments as rhetorical at least 4 times. He also said the public in attendance was manipulative, deceitful, needing to trust, having alternative motives, having a hidden agenda, abusive, having a lack of honesty, and using spin. I'm sure he will deny this but you can watch his comments for yourself on the city website--- it was shocking. I heard someone call him a bully from the crowd and when I looked over to see who said it I couldn't believe it was an elderly woman (not that she didn't have the reason to!)!
I thought he was a democrat & a family man and I know many people who regret voting for him.
I saw a group of people on council that lacked the courage to stand behind their decisions. No one could really state what their problems were specifically with the FEIA and when pressed by Mayor Torliatt they continuously said "land use entitlements" even though Mike Moore repeatedly stated at the beginning of the meeting that the land-use component would be broken out of the FEIA and discussed in a council workshop. When pressed further Rabbitt, Freitas and O'Brien started to just go down a list of every element of the resolution and said they disagreed with it. Councilmembers couldn't even remember what they had said two weeks ago & some denied there ever had been a unanimous decision to move the order forward. I felt so bad for city staff, they did what was asked of them by council and after being praised two weeks ago for a job well done are now left with a cleared slate to be manipulated by the development community.
What happened? Monday night made it clear to me that most of this council is useless. I hope people were watching it at home and will remember this come November. I learned that I need to go to these meetings more often and make sure our council knows they're on notice and the public's watching.
Oh yeah and I'm really disappointed with the Chamber. They sure want our membership dues but are way more interested in the rights of the development community! Shame on you if you are reading this!

Dear Friends and Neighbors,
This past Monday some if not all of you experienced a complete turnabout of five council members. Personally I'm still optimistic about that meeting. With regards to public turn out and the information gained by us, the community, regarding various council members' position when it comes to large retail development in P-town, I'm content.

Five? The devil is in three now.

At this point I urge each and everyone of you on this list, especially people who are not in the habit of posting on a regular basis, to dig a bit deeper into this issue. Find out the facts surrounding Regency's plans and inform your friends and neighbors. This is crucial time for our city please educate yourself and get involved!

Here is a start:
Regency Centers' Bruce Qualls was present at Monday's CC meeting. Again he and Council member Rabbitt have been very consistently framing their case around the notion that Regency Centers has somehow done us a favor in buying the property and allowing us the opportunity of moving our baseball fields to the eastside out by the airport an so on.
I have to congratulate their efforts. They've actually done a very good job framing this to sell to the residents here.

Nevertheless, if we dig just below the surface we can gain a true perspective on the situation. First, Regency Centers is a "acquisitions"
company. Regency has about $100 million every year in its budget for acquisitions. This is their main objective, to buy land. In fact, in 2005 Regency Centers teamed up with Countrywide Trust to acquire $2.74 billion dollars of property (101 retail centers) across the country. The Northern California acquisitions total 775,876 square feet and are part of Regency's larger acquisition of 13 million sq. feet of properties from a joint venture of the California Public Employees' Retirement system and First Washington Realty.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking. So. Big deal. Regency bought up a bunch of land and property, so what?
The question we must ask ourselves is why the spin? why the need to sugar coat their objectives?

What Reps from Regency and people like Mr. Rabbitt are saying is that we should embrace and commend Regency Center's endeavor to capitalize and exploit the prosperity of our community.

It's a formula folks! They repeat it over and over 100 times a day all over the country. We're being duped!

In that, the old Kenilworth site may not even have a Target as a main tenant. Would Regency and Walmart make good bed partners?
Follow the link below to find out more about a small town outside of Cincinnati and their dealings with Regency Centers and Walmart.

For a perspective on this POV please follow this link:
http://citybeat. com/gyrobase/ Content?oid= oid%3A100988

Is Regency getting off cheap here in Petaluma?
A quote from the above linked article:
"Wal-Mart even put a $1 million financial inducement in the form of a new fire engine on the table," Mara says. "But the city of Harrison still said no."
Merely pocket change$$$

Sincerely and respectfully,
Paul Francis
Petaluma Neighborhood Association
www.petalumaneighborhoodassociation .org

Regency's comments at City Council 7/7 (where they said if a FEIA were passed they would have to discontinue their project) were the old-school, time-honored "if you don't let us do what we want, how we want, we'll take our marbles and go home, then you'll be sorry 'cause you won't have our tax dollars to plug your leaky retails". Power play by corporate America aided by THEIR friends in OUR government. The council action from the start has been to water down the CIR/FCIR/FEIA and delay it until it becomes irrelevant and can't stand in the way of the 4 major development projects. There remain the recall petition and the November election. Use them.

Regency is a nightmare of a company. Truly all of the major developers lying in wait to pounce upon our municipality and rape and pillage are all alike though. Disgusting all of them.
Bring on the RECALL!!!! We've got plenty of people here who now regret their previous choices!

This city government needs an enema!

I first saw Petaluma about a year ago, when visiting a client here from SoCal (cough). After spending the day, I was convinced this was the place I wanted to spend the rest of my life... so here I am. What brought me here is what brings others. Petaluma is truly different. Please help keep it that way. - Watch the city council meetings on the public access station and you will easily be able to see who gets it and who does not. - The cameras don't lie and the body language is as clear as a the Petaluma sky.

I don't know much about Petaluma politics, but I do know I'm a BIG FAN of Petaluma Pete !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btsai1ymUXE