HEALDSBURG, CA — After more than a year of public meetings, traffic studies, and one memorably tense City Council session in which a resident asked officials directly what they thought they were doing, the city has settled on a solution to the ongoing dispute over where to put the new SMART train platform.
It will not stay anywhere.
Under a plan city officials are calling the Pop-Up Platform Pilot Program, the platform — a temporary, wheeled structure city engineers say was “always somewhat modular” — will relocate to a different block of downtown Healdsburg every seven days, tracked in real time by a companion app still in development.
“We heard the community loud and clear,” said City Transit Liaison Warren Pruitt. “Some residents wanted it on Vine Street. Some wanted it kept at the historic depot site. A few people wanted it nowhere near downtown at all. We looked at all of that feedback and asked ourselves: what if it was everyone’s turn?”
Pruitt described the rotation schedule as “still being finalized” but confirmed it would prioritize “fairness across zip codes” over “riders knowing where the train is.”
A Rotation Nobody Asked For
The SMART board approved the pilot program on a 4–1 vote, with the dissenting member reportedly asking twice whether this was a joke before being assured it was not.
Local reaction has been mixed, tending toward confused.
“I’ve lived three blocks from the old depot site my whole life,” said longtime resident Diane Kessler. “Now I have to check an app to find out if the train station is currently near my house, near the Plaza, or apparently, according to a flyer I saw, ‘somewhere on Grant Street, we’ll confirm by Thursday.’”
Others have embraced the unpredictability. A group calling itself Healdsburg Platform Watch has begun tracking the structure’s movements independently, publishing weekly maps that as of press time do not match the city’s own.
The App
The companion app, tentatively named RideTracker HDG, is being developed in-house and is not expected to launch before the pilot program’s third rotation.
In the meantime, the city has posted the platform’s current location on a laminated sign at the old depot site, which several visitors this week mistook for the platform itself.
One tourist, waiting patiently beside the sign with a rolling suitcase, said she had been standing there for twenty-five minutes before a passing resident gently explained that the actual platform was currently two blocks away, behind the hardware store, and would likely remain there until Sunday.
“That’s so charming,” she said. “Very small-town.”
Harvest Traffic Complicates Things Further
City officials acknowledged that the weekly relocation schedule may become more difficult to maintain during harvest season, when downtown traffic patterns shift to accommodate truck routes between Dry Creek Valley and the crush pads north of town.
“We may need to adjust the rotation during harvest,” Pruitt said. “Possibly to twice a week. We’re still modeling it.”
Asked whether a fixed location might simply be easier, Pruitt paused for a long moment before saying the city remained “fully committed to flexibility as a civic value.”
A Neighborhood Wants More Weeks
Not everyone is satisfied with the current allocation. Residents of the North Fitch neighborhood have formed an informal committee requesting additional rotation weeks, arguing their block was “clearly undercounted” in the scheduling formula.
“We did the math,” said committee member Todd Ruiz, gesturing to a printed spreadsheet. “Grant Street is getting nine weeks a year. We’re getting four. Nobody has explained the discrepancy.”
The city has not yet responded to the North Fitch proposal, though Pruitt noted that “all feedback is being logged for consideration in Phase Two.”
There is not yet a Phase Two.
What Happens in December
The SMART board is still scheduled to make a final decision on a permanent platform location in December, following the current public comment period, which closes November 30.
Asked whether the Pop-Up Platform Pilot Program might simply continue indefinitely if December’s vote fails to produce consensus, Pruitt smiled and said the city was “not currently planning for that outcome.”
He then confirmed the platform would relocate again this coming Monday, location to be announced.
