Fifteen-minute neighborhoods can improve the quality of our lives by providing easy access to fresh food, goods and services, and places to gather...all within a short 15-minute walk or bike ride! And they are an essential component of Petaluma's future. Without 15-minute neighborhoods, we can't reach the climate, livability, and financial resilience goals that we've set for ourselves.
 
Petaluma was one of a handful of cities to win a grant from the American Institute of Architects Sustainable Design Assessment Team (AIA SDAT) to develop a vision of what a 15-minute neighborhood future would look like in Petaluma.

Join the local organizers of the 15-minute neighborhood effort to learn about this unique and necessary vision for our shared future. You'll also learn about the steps toward implementation, starting with the adoption of a General Plan that embraces 15-minute neighborhoods and then continuing with changes to the zoning codes and neighborhood-specific actions to nourish the changes.

Veronica Olsen will present the findings of the AIA SDAT report and kick off our discussion. She leads the AIA Petaluma SDAT (American Institute of Architects, Sustainable Design Assessment Team) local organizing committee and is a member of Climate Action Petaluma.

As a creative director and product designer, she is led by whole-systems thinking and advocates for community-led design to create more balanced connections between business, culture, community, and nature.

Mary Dooley, AIA is a Principal of MAD architecture based in Petaluma. Over the decades, she has been on various Petaluma City Council-appointed committees including the Station Area Master Plan, the Central Specific Plan, the Public Art Committee and currently, the General Plan Advisory Committee. Mary served as President of the American Institute of Architects chapter in 2005 and in 2020.

She joined the SDAT Steering Committee in 2020. Some of MAD’s better-known projects in Petaluma include: Brewsters Beer Garden, Sienna Antiques facade restoration, Petaluma Library Addition, Petaluma Arts Center, Fairgrounds Gate Remodel, Keller Court Commons, Water Street Renewal between Washington and Western.

Our moderator for the evening, Dave Alden, has served as the de facto executive director of Petaluma Urban Chat since its founding, spearheading several Urban Chat initiatives while also working to bring in enough other people that Urban Chat will live on when he steps away into an urban retirement of downtown living, sidewalk dining, walking, and transit.

After 35 years as an engineering consultant, Dave consults as an Entitlement Coordinator for the occasional development project coming to town.