Top Stories This Week: City Contemplates Dutra Suit, Planning Commission Says 'No' to Deer Creek and Jungle Vibes Closes After 18 Years in Business

Happy Saturday Patch readers. Here’s a quick recap of the top news of the week.

More than 100 people crowded into city hall chambers on Monday night to plead with the council both for and against the city continuing on as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Dutra Group, a San Rafael-based company that wants to build an asphalt plant across the rive from Shollenberger Park.

Opponents of the project plan on taking a judge’s recent decision to throw out their lawsuit to appellate court, but they want the city’s backing. This is not so much to help with the legal bills (the nonprofit plaintiffs have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and have paid the far bigger share of the legal costs), but because appellate courts are much more favorable to cases in which a city is a plaintiff, according to insiders.

Due to the overwhelming amount of testimony (30 people spoke at public comment before the council went into closed session, the city decided to mule it over some more and will announce their decision on Monday, January 23.

A Patch poll (the new and improved), shows that 67 percent of respondents want the city to continue in the legal challenge and 33 oppose it. If you haven’t yet voted, you can do so here.

Also on Monday, the city voted to become the successor agency to the soon-to-be defunct redevelopment agencies, although it’s still not yet certain whether this will include deciding on affordable housing projects (that gets decided Jan. 23). Currently, 20 percent of funds collected from the city’s redevelopment agency go to affordable housing.

Then on Tuesday, the Planning Commission rejected the Final Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Deer Creek Village shopping center on North McDowell and Rainier, saying it did not fully study the impacts on traffic if the Rainier undercrossing (that would provide another cross town connector between McDowell and Petaluma Boulevard North) is not built.

Commissioners said because of the recent elimination of redevelopment agencies, funds to build Rainier were at risk. However, the developer said that traffic impacts without Rainier were studied and would result in a delay of 1 minute and 10 seconds for cars.

The developer is billing the project as community hub for the eastside, complete with an exercise trail, a gym, public art and outdoor eating areas. Opponents say it’s another bigbox store, albeit one with more trees. The city council will be the ones who make the final decision about whether to approve the shopping center.

Also this week, we learned that Jungle Vibes is closing after 18 years in downtown Petaluma. Owners blame weak sales and consumers’ reduced spending power. The toy and gift store put on many wonderful events such as Kids’ Open Mic and Family Day, and will be missed.

And that’s a wrap. Enjoy your weekend everyone and if you’re still looking for something to do, visit our Events Calendar, filled with classes, workshops and special events happening in our community.