Page 31 - Healdsburg, CA Citywide Design Guidelines

Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit

(SMART)
In the 21 century, regional trends continue to influence
st
development in Healdsburg. The renaissance of passenger rail
travel to the area is one of those forces. The Sonoma-Marin Area
Rail Transit (SMART), a new transportation system in Marin and
Sonoma Counties, will connect Healdsburg residents to other
cities and will bring more tourists to Healdsburg. This will allow
people to travel from San Francisco to Healdsburg by transit,
instead of being dependent on cars or buses. When completed,
SMART will serve a 70-mile corridor from Larkspur to Cloverdale,
providing an alternate mode of transportation for Healdsburg
residents to access jobs throughout the region, and for residents
and tourists in the region to take advantage of recreation and
leisure opportunities in Healdsburg and destinations along the
way.

The SMART station in Healdsburg is a driving force behind the
Central Healdsburg Avenue Plan, which seeks to bring new
development and investment to the Plan Area. The SMART station
will utilize existing areas of railroad tracks south of Healdsburg’s
downtown, while providing space for new development that
capitalizes on the multi-modal transit station and brings new
growth to Healdsburg. Ultimately, the SMART station will impact
the function and form of the City moving forward, as it will
become a key asset to Healdsburg and to the region.

Healdsburg Architecture Today
Today, Healdsburg exhibits a variety of neighborhoods with
distinctly different street patterns and building types. The
earliest neighborhoods still have gridded streets with many older
traditional buildings. Other neighborhoods have curvilinear
layouts, reflecting late twentieth century development fashions
and sometimes in response to hilly topography. In these areas,
building from the late Twentieth Century are typical. Arterial
streets, with various mixes of commercial, industrial and
residential building types, lead from the outskirts of the city to the
downtown.

The Plaza remains the iconic heart of the community and the focus
of downtown. Streets framing it are laid out in a grid pattern with
storefronts built close to the sidewalk edge. Many of these are in
historic styles, but more recent buildings are more contemporary
interpretations of traditional commercial buildings. Most continue
to reflect the basic form, orientation and street level character that
commercial buildings have had for decades.

Healdsburg’s History and Design Character Chapter 2 23