A project 13 years in the making took another step forward Monday night, as the Healdsburg City Council approved a conceptual design for a new parking and event space on North Street.
The project, commonly known as the “Cerri site,” is so named because it was developed as a produce distributioin warehouse in the 1920s by the Cerri family.
Used in subsequent years by Del Monte (fruit and nut packing and distribution) and later by Purity Products (agricultural products), the city purchased the land next to Foss Creek in 2004 for a parking lot.
It has been a dirt parking lot for more than 10 years and is used once a week by the Healdsburg Farmers’ Market for its midweek market.
The new design will showcase the market, with an “outdoor room” roofed in metal trusses salvaged from the existing building and covered in vines, with a raised, covered space that can be rented out by the city for events.
The project will also add 55 parking spaces.
The city council set aside $1.5 million for the project two years ago and about 10 percent of that has been spent so far on environmental studies and design.
However, the project approved Monday night is estimated to cost in excess of $5 million. The council asked City Manager David Mickaelian to come back in June with ideas for how to pay for the work and more details on whether to break the project into phases.
“$5 million is a lot of money but we have to find it, one way or another,” said Healdsburg Mayor Shaun McCaffery.
The other councilmembers agreed that the project will provide a worthy addition to downtown and support the farmers’ market.
The council was dismayed to hear that more environmental studies and planning would mean that the project may not be complete until 2019.
