Why Keeping Sebastopol Local Matters

Local Businesses Are the Local Economy

Sebastopol’s independent businesses do more than provide goods and services — they create the local economy that keeps this community thriving.

The restaurants, markets, coffee shops, boutiques, farms, makers, and small businesses that line our streets help keep money circulating within Sonoma County instead of sending it out to distant corporate headquarters and shareholders.

That matters.

Because where people spend their money directly impacts the strength, resilience, and future of Sebastopol.

Join Us and Take Action

The Local Business Ecosystem

The Local Multiplier Effect

Studies across the nation consistently show that locally owned businesses return more money back into their communities than national chains.

Local businesses:

• Hire local workers
• Use local accountants, printers, and contractors
• Purchase from local farms and suppliers
• Support school fundraisers and youth sports
• Donate to nonprofits and community events
• Reinvest profits back into the region

This is known as the “local multiplier effect.”

A 2025 Sonoma County economic impact study found that locally rooted grocery businesses generate significantly greater local economic activity than national chains because more dollars continue circulating through the local economy.

View the entire 2025 Eyler Local Economic Impact Study

When local businesses succeed, more businesses around them succeed too.

Sebastopol’s Identity Has Economic Value

Sebastopol’s small-town character is not just cultural — it is economic.

People visit Sebastopol because it feels different from chain-dominated commercial corridors found almost everywhere else.

Visitors are drawn to:

• Independent restaurants
• Local shops
• Farmers markets
• Local agriculture
• Artisan businesses
• Community events like the Apple Blossom Festival and Gravenstein Apple Fair

That local identity supports tourism, jobs, downtown vitality, property values, and long-term economic health.

Sebastopol’s economy depends on remaining distinctly Sebastopol.

What Happens When Communities Lose Their Local Business Base

When national chains enter small markets, they often do not create entirely new economic activity. Instead, they shift spending away from existing locally owned businesses.

Over time, communities can experience:

• Local store closures
• Empty storefronts
• Reduced local reinvestment
• Less economic diversity
• More money leaving the region
• Commercial districts that begin to look like everywhere else

Once independent businesses disappear, they are extremely difficult to replace.

And when enough local businesses are lost, communities lose more than storefronts — they lose the relationships, identity, and economic ecosystem that made the town successful in the first place.

The Decision Facing Sebastopol

This Is Bigger Than One Store

This conversation is about more than a single project.

It is about the long-term future of Sebastopol’s economy and whether the community will continue protecting the locally rooted business environment that residents, visitors, and entrepreneurs value.

Sebastopol’s General Plan was designed to preserve the city’s unique character and support a healthy local business ecosystem.

The decisions made today will shape what kind of town Sebastopol becomes tomorrow.

Keeping Sebastopol local means protecting the businesses, relationships, and economic character that make this community worth living in, visiting, and investing in.

Join Us