Downtown Forestville is about to get a real make-over when the Crinella Project gets built. With Orin Theissen as the builder, you can bet he's going to continue his well-known theme of “Victorian” architecture so prevalant in Graton and especially Windsor.

And with the other developers buying up what's available downtown (Orin also bought the lot next to Chuck's Barber Shop - and more will come available with time), we need to consider having some design guidelines.

Our town is definitely diverse in it's architecture, but if new people come in with the usual modern attempts at modeling after the past - the GENERAL past - not Forestville's, we'll look like any other downtown and not distinctly Forestville.

Both the Forestville Chamber of Commerce and the Forestville Planning Association are talking about how to create guidelines that our town can grow with comfortably into the future.

For one thing, the county says we can have three story structures. Now you KNOW how horrible that would be in such a small town. What if we say TWO stories only. Philadelphia set the limit at the height of the Ben Franklin statue on the top of Town Hall. We can set a limit as well.

And what about architectural style. If we had guidelines, we wouldn't be living with Mediterranean pillars right now. Forestville, historically, is false front and adobe. Khysie (Quiksilver Mine Co. gallery) did a great job of taking that false front style and modernizing it without messing with our native style.

It's time to take control of our future.

Come to a Forestville Chamber of Commerce meetings (first Wednesday every month at 5:30 at the Food for Thought building on Railroad Avenue) and join in the discussion about what we can do.

Go to the Fprestville Planning Association website at www.foretvillefpa.org and contact David Carpenter, the Downtown Planning Committee chair about working out guidlines we can establish.

Working with either or both of these local organizations could make the difference between losing our downtown to developers or keeping it feeling like home.