Mackenzie on Rohnert Park's Shopping Plazas

Vice Mayor Jake Mackenzie released this YouTube video Saturday after the city council on March 22 OK'd a North Bay Centre remodel without a rainwater recycling system.

"This was shot on [March] 24 after a council meeting where I unsuccessfully tried to persuade the council to raise the bar for rehab standards in old shopping centers. The campaign begins here with an example of what can be done from Corte Madera's Town Center," Mackenzie wrote on his Facebook page.

The council on Nov. 23 said they wanted the developer who's fixing up the shopping center to consider adding native trees to the largely vacant lot and to look at incorporating a rainwater catchment system from the roof of Baskin Robbins. 

Councilmember Joe Callinan asked why the council was requiring the Corte Madera-based developer, Argonaut Investors, to incorporate expensive renovations when the city hadn't required it of past projects.

Planners for the project said they had no problem planting native trees, but digging up the sidewalk to put a water tank underground to collect rainwater was expensive, and the would have limited results. The water saved wouldn't be enough to water the vegetation on site, they said.

The rest of the council said the requirements were not thought out and were unfair.

"Not knowing how many gallons of water it's going to capture and how it’s going to recharge [groundwater], I really when look back at it…I feel it was a consideration not a mandate," Mayor Gina Belforte said. 

"The only problem I have with the water retention is that we have no specifications for it," councilmember Pam Stafford said. "It's just money being spent with no guarantee of anything. Otherwise I agree we should do something like that."

But Mackenzie said insisted the council require the firm to include the environmental safety provisions. The rainwater, when mixed with toxins and oils from the parking lot and area structures, would pollute the Laguna de Santa Rosa, he said.

"A lot of runoff and pollutants come from the first few rains," said Amy Bolten, a spokesperson for the Sonoma County Water Agency. "Built up chemicals, oils, grease — we call it the first flush, and all that pollutant ends up in the waterways. It's not good for the Laguna."

Bolten said cities are not mandated to recycle rainwater or filter urban runoff.

Argonaut Investors is building a new 24-Hour Fitness on site, and have agreed to rehabilitate the exterior of the entire center as well — something the city needs to attract new businesses to the dilapidated center and spur interest in Rohnert Park, the council has said.

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