Planning commission paves way for new bike biz

The Sonoma City Planning Commission at its meeting on Thursday approved the application for a new bicycle tour and rental business to be located at 1177 Broadway.
With five locations in San Francisco, Blazing Saddles Bike Rentals and Tours has been operating for more than 20 years.
Hours of operation will be 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week.
Blazing Saddles will utilize the existing building “as is” without remodeling – but the glitch to the entire business proposal was the parking.
Based on the size of the building and the nature of its uses, the parking requirement for the Blazing Saddles proposal falls short two parking spaces of the required six.
Planning commissioner Tom Anderson is the property owner and recused himself, but he spoke on behalf of Blazing Saddles.
“I find it quite ironic that an environmentally friendly business wants to come to this town to operate without the use of motor vehicles and the hold-up here is that there is not enough room for motor vehicles,” Anderson said. “Simple CalTrans statistics state that there are no reported accidents with people backing onto Broadway.”
But neighbor Bob Burkhart was concerned about people backing into Broadway and public safety.
“It’s with all due respect to Mr. Anderson, but the statistics may say that there are no accidents – but there will be,” Burkhart said.
With two additional street parking spaces that will be available within the next few months, the commission approved the application – with the condition that if problems arise from the parking situation within a year, then Anderson would have to modify his building to accommodate more parking spaces.