Appellation Petaluma Hotel
Revised Design Overview
The Appellation Hotel project has advanced with a revised proposal for a four-story, 56-room boutique hotel at 2 Petaluma Boulevard South, retaining the hotel’s core program, brand identity, and operational commitments while reflecting a reduction in overall scale. This reduction was not undertaken lightly. It represents a compromise between the developer and the City of Petaluma in response to sustained opposition from a small but highly organized group, the Petaluma Historic Advocates (PHA).
While the revised project is smaller than the original proposal described on this website, it continues to deliver the defining elements of the Appellation Hotel concept: a high-quality boutique hotel, destination dining, professional valet operations, and a fully activated downtown site. However, the reduced size necessarily means fewer hotel rooms, less economic activity, and a measurable long-term reduction in annual tax revenue including Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), sales tax, and related economic multipliers over the coming decades. This is a significant loss to the citizens of Petaluma.
The revised hotel will include 56 guest rooms across four floors above a partial subterranean basement. The project will feature two full-service restaurants, one on the ground floor and one on the rooftop level, together offering more than 200 seats across interior and exterior dining areas. A concealed 1920s-style speakeasy will operate beneath the ground-floor restaurant, reinforcing the hotel’s hospitality and culinary identity. Both restaurants will operate seven days a week with full bar service, consistent with the hotel’s original vision. The perceived height from street level in the revised design remains at 45 feet, the exact same perceived height as the original proposal.
Parking will remain valet-only, with a limited number of on-site stalls supplemented by off-site parking facilities. A detailed 24/7 valet operations plan governs staffing levels, vehicle circulation, peak-hour management, and off-site routing to minimize curbside congestion and traffic impacts. Deliveries will occur via a rear loading berth accessed from B Street and scheduled during non-peak hours.
Operationally, the hotel will employ approximately 80 workers per day once stabilized across hotel, restaurant, and valet operations. Mechanical systems, odor mitigation, and noise controls are designed to meet or exceed applicable city standards.
While PHA has publicly approved the new proposal, it is important to note that the project’s downsizing should not be interpreted as a directive from Petaluma’s electorate. While PHA successfully gathered enough signatures of registered voters to qualify a ballot initiative (6,936), those signatures represent only a small fraction of the approximate 57,265 Petaluma registered voters (≈12.1%) and do not constitute a citywide vote or a mandate regarding either the original or revised Appellation Petaluma Hotel or the Zoning Overlay that would have enabled it. The revised proposal reflects a pragmatic decision to move forward under constrained political conditions, not a repudiation of the original project’s merits or value to the Petaluma community.
This smaller Appellation Petaluma Hotel will still activate a long-vacant and underutilized site, create jobs, and contribute to downtown vitality. At the same time, the community should clearly understand the tradeoff: a permanent reduction in economic benefits to the people of Petaluma compared to what was likely to come from the original, larger hotel.
