Of the 1,500 responses, 28 percent listed the speedway as the most important use of the fairgrounds outside of the actual five-day county fair. Only the use of event space by nonprofits and the fairgrounds use in emergencies, such as a staging area for fire crews or as a rescue center for evacuees of wildfires, ranked higher.
Public comments in the survey also noted an appetite for more events at the speedway, such as BMX racing, tractor pulls, monster truck events or concerts.
At the September meeting, Sonoma County Supervisor David Babbit, a former Petaluma city councilman, expressed an appreciation for the speedway.
“I like summer nights when you can keep your windows open and hear cars on the race track. It makes you remember where you’re living. It’s a city, not an urbanized suburb,” he said to thunderous applause.
Despite the advocacy for preserving Petaluma’s agricultural heritage, the fairgrounds and the speedway have long been vulnerable to development pressure because of its location on one of the city’s main streets and adjacent to Highway 101, the third-busiest freeway in California that links Sonoma County commuters with San Francisco.
Petaluma Speedway may be one of the only race tracks in the country with a Target store across the street in full view of the pit area.
That location has fueled rumors of the city’s intent to build houses or a retail development on a prime location where real estate commands some of the nation’s highest prices. Meanwhile, despite a promise of transparency, a city-designed process for determining the fairgrounds’ future is more than a year behind schedule and the lack of communication from city hall has left people wondering if it has a plan. Documents on the city’s website are three to five years out of date with a disclaimer that “the studies and assessments are out of date and do not represent current thinking.”
“The city promised a robust public communication on this issue two years ago, and so far, there’s not been one meeting,” said Ryan Giovando of Save The Fairgrounds, a nonprofit advocacy group.
Mike Healy, a Petaluma city councilman appointed to a committee to work on the issue, told SPEED SPORT that a recent sales tax increase has strengthened the city’s finances since the assessments on the website were made, taking away the incentive to approve development strictly for financial gain.
But the city has requested a mountain of financial data and other details as it studies whether the fair could take up less room on the 60-acre property, effectively opening acreage to new uses and squeezing out Petaluma Speedway.
COVID restrictions and the press of other time-sensitive issues related to policing and homelessness prevented the city from focusing on the fairgrounds, Healy explained. The request for detailed data is simply due diligence, he contended.
“The fact is that the fairgrounds has not lived up to its potential as a park for everyone in the community,” said Healy. “Everyone is supportive of the fair and we need to have a real neighborhood public conversation about it, so we know what makes sense and are the best uses for the community.”
“I personally don’t want to see housing on the fairgrounds,” he added, despite a state-imposed quota for the construction of affordable housing and the insistence of city voters to not expand Petaluma’s boundaries to make room for more subdivisions. “I believe that any development that’s not related to the property’s purpose as a park should be approved by voters in the city.”
The race track is not the only business in limbo. There are nine other businesses on the property, including an airport park-and-ride, paintball park, a charter school and a drive-through coffee shop.
“I’m inclined to consider all of them legacy operators,” Healy said.
But he made an exception for the race track, even though it has operated longer than the other businesses on the property. “If you were siting a new race track today, you wouldn’t put it in the middle of a city,” he said to justify his approach.
Even so, there are environmental studies yet to be done to determine how much soil clean-up might be required to redevelop the race track site and there is a city council election a year before the fairgrounds’ lease expires, either of which could determine whether Petaluma Speedway gets the black flag.
In the meantime, Faeth is determined to outrace city hall, not knowing if he gets the white flag at the end of next season.
“I’m going to do my best to stick it out here and do my best to keep this facility open,” he said. “I’d love to stay here another 10 years.”