City of Sebastopol
Appeal Response
July 15, 2022
The Barlow has been hosting free public events since its opening in 2012. These events have been focused on gathering our local community and supporting local entrepreneurs and craftspeople. Head West has been an integral part of the Sebastopol community since it expanded into The Barlow in October 2019.
Since 2012, the various events that have been hosted at The Barlow have required modifications to various parking areas within the campus and closures of the private portion of McKinley Street that The Barlow developed, maintains and owns (from 6790 McKinley/Depot to the Morris Street intersection). These closures have allowed us to safely permit foot traffic throughout events, while also allowing vehicular traffic to have a place to safely turnaround; a safety requirement of the City of Sebastopol. Since our first ever campus events, McKinley has been closed at 6790 McKinley/Depot and vehicles driving down McKinley from Downtown have been detoured to Laguna Park Way and Brown Street. We are unaware of any reported dangerous outcomes by this detour in the last decade. Regardless however, we are happy to be good neighbors and place signage in McKinley Street to detour traffic down Brown Street solely if deemed more appropriate (see Exhibit A).
McKinley Street is a privately owned street that supports motorists and vehicular circulation for the City. However, prior to The Barlow opening in 2012, there was no street and Rialto customers accessed the theater from Laguna Park Way, Brown Street and/or Hwy 116. We believe there remain ample access points to the theater, especially considering that the McKinley entrance is still open to all east bound traffic. Based on our research, driving to the Rialto Cinema from Santa Rosa and Petaluma, Google directions automatically routes traffic down Laguna Park Way, not McKinley Street (see Exhibit B).
The pandemic and Covid closures have impacted not only the Rialto, but businesses across the nation. Head West Marketplace draws thousands of customers coming and going throughout the event time of 11am-5pm. The draw helps to generate more customers for Sebastopol, which is critical during this pandemic recovery period. We disagree that the closure of McKinley Street is responsible for negatively impacting the Rialto and instead believe it’s an opportunity for the Rialto to gain new customers.
Live music during Head West is proposed only on the stage at McKinley and Pink Lady Court (see Exhibit C). This is several hundred feet away from the Rialto Cinema and would not cause a disturbance of any kind to Rialto customers. While music helps to elevate the customer experience at Head West, it is not the focus of the marketplace and traditionally, groups of musicians range from 1-3 performers at any given time.
Being an LLC does not indicate being a big “for-profit commercial venture” as Rialto has indicated. Head West employs local individuals who work tirelessly along with The Barlow staff to create affordable and accessible space for local makers, crafters, designers, artists and even neighboring merchants to interact in real-life through meaningful, personable and genuine engagement with its community in efforts to sustain their small businesses. Head West is a single member owner LLC, small business, with zero corporate or capital venture backed efforts who was based in the Bay Area for over 15 years and only recently relocated due to the rising cost of living in Northern California. Head West is a traveling destination that supports over 2500 local entrepreneurs each year. It is disappointing that the Rialto would make such claims about a small business, without having done any due diligence.
Furthermore, Head West has garnered great support and recognition since moving to Sebastopol and has been awarded as the winner of Best Marketplace in Sonoma County by readers of the Bohemian.
May 2022: http://www.sonomastatestar.com/artsandentertainment/2022/5/10/head-west-for-thesummer-at-the-barlow July 2020: https://bohemian.com/head-west-marketplace-supports-purveyors-in-pandemic-1/ August 2020: https://ci.sebastopol.ca.us/getattachment/Meeting-Event/PlanningCommission/2020/Planning-Commission-Meeting-of-August-25,-2020/HEAD-WEST_Public-CommentReceived_08-25-20.pdf.aspx We respectfully disagree with the claims Rialto has made and ask that the City Council approve the application for the expansion Head West for an additional approximate 100 feet on McKinley Street.
Regards,
Yolanda Mathew
The Barlow Operations Director
&
Jimmy Brower
Head West Founder
The red line indicates where The Barlow is wiling to install reasonable signage to notify vehicular traffic of the road closure ahead, with an arrow directing them to detour on Brown Street, if required by the City.
Exhibit A
Detour on Brown Street
Exhibit B
Google Maps Directions
The blue route above indicates the travel path via Google Maps from Petaluma to Rialto Cinema which routes traffic down Laguna Park Way, not McKinley Street.
The gray route above indicates the travel path via Google Maps from Santa Rosa to Rialto Cinema which routes traffic down Laguna Park Way, not McKinley Street.
Exhibit C
Stage & Market Footprint
The red line above indicates the currently approved Head West market footprint The green dashed line above indicates the proposed Head West market footprint The red star above indicates the only live stage currently used and currently proposed at Head West
Rialto
Cinema