Time To Trestle Update – March 2025

Three months have passed since our December meeting with the City of Petaluma Public Works, so we checked in and below is the City’s update on the Historic Trestle Reconstruction project.  The schedule again has slipped.

From the City of Petaluma:

Thank you for reaching out and for your continued support and advocacy for the Historic Trestle project. We appreciate the Petaluma Woman’s Club’s commitment to bringing this vision to life and engaging the community in the process.

City staff are currently working with Foth to finalize materials for a design alternatives presentation to City Council. Our plan is to conduct a Council workshop in May, where we will present design alternatives, discuss environmental permitting constraints, and provide preliminary cost estimates for the structural components. This will allow Council to provide input on their preferred alternative(s) before we proceed with further community outreach and detailed final design.

Foth delivered preliminary concept work at the end of 2024, and additional time was needed to refine design alternatives and update cost estimates. We want to ensure that our cost projections align with the full scope of construction before presenting them publicly. Once finalized, these materials will be shared on the project webpage on the City’s website for community review.

Regarding the grant opportunities suggested last year, after thorough evaluation, staff—along with our consultant team—determined that the RAISE and PROTECT grants were not a strong fit for the Trestle project at this stage. (PWC Note:  the State Coastal Conservancy recommended that the City take a look at these two grants.)  The primary challenges were the early design phase (which limits cost estimate confidence, a key grant requirement) and a misalignment with the grant objectives. However, we are actively exploring alternative funding opportunities that better align with the project’s scope and timeline.

Regarding Measure M Parks funding, these funds are historically limited to around $450K per year for capital projects, and these funds are committed to several high-priority projects for the community including the skatepark, swim center, and playground equipment replacements in the coming fiscal year.

To strengthen future grant applications, we are also developing a comprehensive summary of the project’s socio-economic benefits, based on guidance from our grant consultants who are keeping the pulse on how these projects fare at the federal and state levels.

In parallel, we recognize the importance of finalizing an agreement with SMART to clarify future ownership and maintenance responsibilities. This will be critical for securing funding, and we will continue working toward an agreement following Council’s direction at the upcoming workshop.

We appreciate the Petaluma Woman’s Club’s willingness to host community visioning meetings, and we look forward to engaging with stakeholders as the design process advances. Once the City Council has provided input on the preferred alternative(s), we will coordinate with your team to schedule outreach events that align with project milestones.

Thank you again for your dedication to this project. We understand your eagerness to see progress on this SMART-owned infrastructure and appreciate your recognition that this is a complex effort with multiple regulatory and funding challenges. We remain committed to bringing it to a shovel-ready status so we can work with you, SMART, and our other partners to seek funding for this project.  We will continue to be in touch with further updates as key milestones are reached.