Healdsburg passes ordinance to extend downtown areas where chain stores are banned
Following the pandemic and with inflation and the rise of online shopping, cities across the Bay Area are watching a lot of their stores and restaurants go out of business.
But in the North Bay, the city of Healdsburg likes its small-town feel and is working to protect it, even if it means keeping some pretty familiar names from coming into town.
On Saturday, the city of Brentwood celebrated the opening of its first Costco, and it felt like the entire town showed up to welcome it.
The giant retailer probably wouldn't get the same reception in Healdsburg. In fact, a lot of people got pretty freaked out last year when Faherty, a small men's clothing store, showed up in the downtown area.
"As far as I know, this is the first time we've ever had a "chain" store, per se, come in. And it scared people," said Healdsburg Mayor Evelyn Mitchell.
So, at the request of residents and merchants, the town began working on an ordinance to ban chain stores and restaurants, known as "formula businesses," from the downtown.
For purposes of the new ordinance, a formula business is any company with ten or more identical locations. The General Plan already prohibited chain businesses in the commercial spaces lining the city's downtown plaza.
"The plaza is where people go, right? It's really unique," Mitchell said. "We call it Healdsburg's living room."
And, by a unanimous vote, the city council last week approved an ordinance to extend the chain store ban to a larger portion of downtown.
They also banned big box stores like Home Depot and Walmart from the town entirely. Those are already available in the town of Windsor, just down the road, so Healdsburg figured it could afford to forgo some sales tax revenue to maintain its identity.
And, on Sunday, with the sidewalks and cafes packed with tourists, it was hard to find anyone who was too upset about it.
"I just think that when you're local, and you have the big guys coming in, it starts changing the feeling of it. It changes the feeling of it," said Carole McIntyre, whose husband owns a custom tile business in town.
"You can go to Paris or any little town in Europe, and you go to a mall and it has exactly the same shops, all over the world," said resident Brad Drexler. "And we don't have that here. We have mostly local shops with different flavors, and people come to Healdsburg and that's what they know they're going to find. And for us, we really like it that way."
Christine Bryant owns "One-O-One," a women's boutique clothing store on the plaza. She makes trips every year to Europe to purchase items not found anywhere else in the Bay Area.
"There's not a store like this anywhere else and that's what brings people to Healdsburg. They're stores that are just unlike anything you see anywhere," said Bryant. "I do not want to lose that. I do not want Sak's. I do not want Banana Republic. I do not want those stores here."
But the mayor said there are practical concerns, as well. Not every business is right on the plaza and she's worried about what could happen to those locations if the economy suddenly takes a dive.
"The concern is that they don't get any foot traffic beyond the plaza," said Mitchell. "What happens if there's an empty storefront and you've got these restrictions, so then it remains empty? So, that's my concern still. That there's going to be some downturn in the economy, downturn in tourism. All of those things could happen to us, and they have."
She voted for the ordinance, with a provision that exceptions could be made if elected officials decide it's in the best interest of the city. And while keeping Healdsburg unique may be a bedrock principle right now, it's not exactly written in stone.
"The good news about an ordinance, I guess, is we can change it," Mitchell said. "If it doesn't work, we could always change the ordinance."