photo credit: Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit
Overview image of the location of the planned
Petaluma North SMART station.

SMART’s board of directors recently approved a trio of funding measures to get work started on the new stop.

SMART's Chief Engineer Bill Gamlen detailed amenities at the soon-to-be Petaluma North station.

"That future parking lot is designed for over a hundred spaces," Gamlen said. "We have the 12 bike parking spaces, 12 bicycle lockers. Initially we will have six electric vehicle charging stations and we've included infrastructure for an additional 18 charging stations."

The Petaluma North Station will be the 13th active station. The transit agency plans to eventually serve 16 stations in total.

Gamlen pointed out the mixed-use bike and pedestrian path included in the project.

"We have the pathway connection that runs right through the station, connects to Corona Road, includes a new traffic signalized crossing across Corona Road," Gamlen said.

SMART’s station development has not been easy. A recent report from Marin County’s civil grand jury concludes the agency as a whole faces insolvency without a new tax measure by decade's end.

Chief Financial Officer Heather McKillop said rising construction costs have created a dollar deficit for the Petaluma North project.

"Overall, we're going to be short about $7.5 million on this project, and that is due to the bids being significantly higher than the estimate in particularly on the pathway segments," McKillop said.

But as McKillop explained, some creative bookkeeping helped to get the Petaluma North plans over the line.

"We have money for the Guerneville to Airport Road project, which is another pathway," McKillop said. "We're recommending that we take the money out of that project and then go forth and find money to back fill that project when it's ready for advertise, in probably 2025 sometime."

Gamlen said the improvements represent a big step forward for SMART's mixed use path, which is planned to run the length of the rail line.

"When this is done, we will have nearly continuous path from Sonoma Mountain Village all the way up to the Guerneville Road station," Gamlen said. "So really chipping away at those gaps."

SMART awarded the 32-million dollar construction bid jointly to Stacy & Witbeck and Ghilotti Brothers.