UPDATE: Healdsburg "Streetscape" makeover to start later this year

Ed. note: This story updates a previous version that had an incorrect timeline for the streetscape program.

 Healdsburg city staff unveiled their proposed  Wednesday -- a plan that calls for major makeovers on Center and North streets in downtown Healdsburg.

“I am very excited to see all of this work being done," said Jeff Maul, owner of on Center Street. "This work will extend the feeling of our historic Plaza and draw more visitors around town.”

The project is slated to begin later this year. Based on comments from two public sessions on Wednesday, May 18, alternatives for streetscape will be taken up for discussion in about two weeks by Healdsburg City Council.

Selena Osborn, Healdsburg public works inspector, said the city will make every effort to avoid disrupting business activity in the downtown area.

 "We're going to do all we can to make this project as user friendly to the local merchants and get the job done quickly so as to not interfere with local commerce," she said.

"At some point, merchants will be encouraged to use pop-up tents in the Plaza as secondary store fronts during the peak of the project,”  Osborn said.

The Center Street portion of the project will encompass everything from Plaza Street (in front of ) to North Street (in front of Zin Restaurant).

 "Everything," means that the renovations will be from the face of a building to face of building.

“My biggest concerns are that they will [allow for an] increase in parking [spaces], repair the unsafe sidewalks and get rid of those curbs that are a foot high or more,” said Tim Gordy of

North Street will see the same type of treatment and that scope of work will run from Center Street (in front of Zin restaurant) to Foss Creek. 

According to the city staff, these sections of town have not been totally redone in decades.

 “Any time that we can make improvements of this magnitude to the downtown core, both aesthetically and in our infrastructure, it creates a win - win for our community," said Eric Drew, a local Realtor.

Infrastructure improvements include storm drains and  water lines maintenance and street pavement work -- some of it to remove 100 years of pavement built up in the middle of the street, forming a high "crown."

In addition to the infrastructure improvements, the area will have a whole new look and feel to it -- including the addition of several pocket parks. Pocket parks, with an average size of about 360 square feet, are small areas with benches and chairs.

They will be installed in front of Powell’s Sweet Shoppe and Zin restaurant where  shrub beds are currently planted. There will also be several along North Street. 

Pocket parks are expected to increase street seating capacity and provide buffer areas between business and traffic areas. Landscaping in the parkswill have native grasses.

Some of the storm water in the winter will be diverted away from storm drains and sent into the landscaping in the pocket parks -- to be absorbed by “Mother Nature.” That will ease pressure on storm drains and ultimately Foss Creek, where all the water is headed in the winter.