There comes a point in every North Bay commuter’s life when they’re stuck on Hwy 101 in the dreaded “Narrows” between Petaluma and Novato and begin wondering whether these two towns are, spiritually speaking, already the same city.
Which raises the obvious question: Wait, why aren’t they the same city?
We’ve seen this before when two seemingly disparate notions combine to catalyze something greater than the sum of their parts. Let’s call it the Reese’s Effect—and like peanut butter and chocolate, the southernmost city of Sonoma County and the northernmost city of Marin County could result in a bold, new municipal experiment called Novaluma.
Imagine—Population: roughly 113,000. Size: about 42 square miles. Vibe: “farm-to-table city-state.” And frankly, the timing makes sense.
Petaluma and Novato already function like two halves of the same North Bay corridor organism. Both sit astride Hwy 101. Both are linked by SMART train service. Both are under pressure to build housing whether they want to or not. Together, the two cities are on the hook for roughly 4,000 new housing units during the current state planning cycle, which is the sort of bureaucratic destiny that causes neighboring towns to either collaborate or start drinking before noon.
Meanwhile, Novato has spent years lamenting that it receives only seven cents of every local property tax dollar back to the city—a statistic so bleak it sounds like a failed GoFundMe campaign. Petaluma, by contrast, operates a much larger municipal apparatus, including its own water and wastewater systems, giving it the energy of the older sibling who owns the pickup truck and gets asked to help everybody move.
So, naturally, the answer is a merger.
Under the Novaluma plan, Petaluma offers civic infrastructure, riverfront charm, the gateway to Wine Country and artisanal gravitas. Novato offers tracts of pristine, rural land; a quaint downtown corridor; a cheese factory; and Marin School of the Arts with its lauded public high school arts program, among other cultural bona fides.
Novaluma would not merely be a city. It would become its own county as well, severing itself from both Sonoma and Marin in a dramatic act of civic self-care.
Why continue paying emotional rent to county governments that barely understand your identity? Sonoma thinks Petaluma is Marin-curious. Marin’s opinion of Novato is evident in the coded coinage “Southern Marin,” to describe everything in Marin that isn’t Novato.
A new Novaluma County would streamline regional planning while finally giving the area its own political voice. One sheriff. One planning department. One glorious bureaucracy capable of issuing permits. But of course, California law makes this absurdly difficult.
Creating a new county requires petitions, elections and a governor-appointed review commission tasked with dividing debt, redrawing districts and figuring out where the county seat goes. Pro tip: Olompali is the natural answer, having been the locus of civic activity dating back to 6000 B.C.E.
Honestly, haven’t we reached the stage of late regionalism where this starts to feel inevitable? The Bay Area already functions like a giant interconnected metroplex pretending to be separate towns. People live in Petaluma, work in San Rafael, shop in Santa Rosa and emotionally identify with San Francisco. County lines increasingly feel like ghost borders maintained primarily for tax reasons and passive-aggressive Nextdoor arguments.
Novaluma merely acknowledges reality.
The branding alone would be worth it. In Latin, Nova + Luma = “New Light.” Our local flag would feature a freshly born star, hovering above our conjoined wetlands, beaming brightly over our craft beer collaborations and our annual Novaluma Secession Festival. Together we shine! Long live Novaluma!
I’m in!
It will take 25-year from when this was published, but let’s give it a go!