UPDATED: Commission Approves Plan to Make it Easier for Homes to Operate B&Bs

This story was updated at 7:20am Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the Planning Commission approved a new plan that would allow some historic homes to be converted into bed and breakfasts, aimed at helping Petaluma attract more tourists and generating new revenue for city coffers from a transient occupancy tax that all hotel guests pay.

For years, city leadership has said that Petaluma is ripe for tourism, with nearby farms, wineries and other attractions. But there are only eight hotels in Petaluma and not a single bed and breakfast, something the new Economic Development Director Ingrid Alverde wanted to change.

“The cost of maintaining large historic homes as single family homes is often prohibitive and the modern family demographic is not always conducive to the continued use of these large homes as single family homes,” Alverde wrote in her report to the commission. “One way to preserve an old home is to turn it into a bed and breakfast.”

Under the new zoning, which still has to be approved by City Council, homes that have up to seven rooms can apply for a permit to operate a bed and breakfast. The zoning change will expand the area where a bed and breakfast can be located, now limited to a narrow strip that runs roughly from Petaluma Boulevard to Howard Street and from East Washington to D Street.

It would also allow tasting rooms in business parks and for ground floor offices to be used for non-retail uses. Non-retail entities like dentists have sometimes expressed a desire in leasing a ground space, but were prevented from doing so because of zoning restrictions, say planning staff.

The changes are part of Petaluma’s economic development plan approved last November that aims to add more flexibility to the city’s zoning code and fill up vacancies, which hovered around 40 percent for offices, 12 percent for industrial and 10 percent for retail, according to Alverde.