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Developer of Cloverdale resort project seeks to assure city, public of adequate water supply

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

One question has been dogging the backers of a proposed housing and resort project vying to transform Cloverdale’s long-stalled Alexander Valley Resort site and remake the look of Sonoma County’s northernmost city.

Will there be enough water?

Representatives for Esmeralda Land Company insist there is, citing reports from a consultant the Bay Area developer hired for their ambitious project, which calls for 605 homes — in a mix of apartments, town homes and single family homes — two hotels and two restaurants on 266 acres off Asti Road.

Devon Zuegel, the principal of Esmeralda will be on hand Wednesday at the Cloverdale City Council meeting to field questions focused on water demands tied to the project, which also includes a racquet club, two indoor pavilions, an outdoor amphitheater, retail space, light industrial facilities, a K-6 private school and a standalone office building.

It would also have more than 1.8 million square feet of landscaped area, including a dog park, community garden and playground. The project is conceptualized to be a walkable, bikeable community for multiple generations, according to Zuegel.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/12/09/esmeraldacloverdalewaterstudy/

 

Land Use, Water, , , ,

Sonoma County BOS passes new cannabis business regulations

Emma Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

In the brisk early hours Tuesday morning, Scott Orr, Sonoma County’s planning and permitting director, posted outside the main administrative building yellow and orange signs showing the distance of proposed setback requirements for commercial cannabis farms.

Land-use policy discussions don’t often include such displays, but the signs were another signal of the sharp debate that was expected to prevail Tuesday as the Board of Supervisors was set to adopt revised and controversial regulations governing the commercial cannabis industry outside city limits.

The ordinance overhaul marks the first significant change to the county’s regulations of commercial cannabis cultivation, sales and distribution since 2018.

The board voted 4 to 1 to adopt the new rules, which will take effect July 1.

The vote capped a fractious and labored process launched by the county in 2021 to amend its rules governing commercial cannabis and settle years of criticism from the local legal industry seeking relief from what they called a burdensome permitting process. Residents, as well, have been outspoken, seeking stronger safeguards against noise, odor and strain on limited water supplies.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/12/09/sonoma-county-board-of-supervisors-passes-new-cannabis-business-regulations/

Agriculture/Food System, Land Use, , , ,

Coho salmon found in Sonoma Coast creek for first time in 60 years

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The excitement started with a flash of silver followed by a hefty dose of disbelief.

A team of conservationists and biologists from The Wildlands Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages the 5,600-acre Jenner Headlands Preserve on the Sonoma Coast, couldn’t believe what they were seeing: the telltale color and shape of juvenile coho salmon, darting back and forth in the clear current of the East Branch Russian Gulch.

It had been decades since the endangered fish had made its way to that arm of the watershed.

And yet there they were, as Ryan Berger, Corby Hines and Luke Farmer of The Wildlands Conservancy looked on.

“I had never heard of coho being in the Russian Gulch in recent memory,” said Hines, a ranger with the group.

Coho salmon once thrived in the coastal watersheds of Sonoma County and the broader North Coast, where winter rain, summer fog and the protective canopy of towering redwood forest sustained young fish and spawning adults over millenia.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/12/08/coho-salmon-found-in-sonoma-coast-creek-for-first-time-in-60-years/

Habitats, Water, Wildlife, , ,

North Bay coordinated transit plan to begin in April

Adrian Rodriguez, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Route 101, which runs between Santa Rosa and downtown San Francisco, will no longer serve Sonoma County. Northbound buses will end in Novato, but with increased service.

North Bay transit agencies have approved a regional plan that provides fewer routes but runs more frequent trains and buses along the Highway 101 corridor.

The Marin-Sonoma Coordinated Transit Service plan aims to restructure transit operations as if managed by a single agency, eliminating redundancies. The plan focuses on where rider demand is highest, which is San Rafael and points south.

Some riders, bus drivers and transit officials worry that the change will leave a gap in service for late-night riders traveling to and from Sonoma County.

“We can’t just leave people stranded,” said Marin County Supervisor Dennis Rodoni, a board member of Golden Gate Transit, the regional bus provider, and Marin Transit, the local fixed-route provider.

Marin Transit approved the plan on Monday. Golden Gate Transit approved plans last month. The service change is expected to occur in April for a two-year pilot period.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/12/04/north-bay-coordinated-transit-plan-to-begin-in-april/

Transportation, , ,

Silent partner in project to transform Sonoma Developmental Center

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

In September 2005, a Stockton-based developer known as the Grupe Company paid nearly $500,000 to Riverbank, a town in Stanislaus County with about 20,000 people at the time. The money would allow the city to update its general plan. One public policy professor said at the time that he’d never heard of a private business funding a general plan, which serves as a blueprint for growth and land use.

The final study proposed three alternatives for Riverbank, all of which carved out specific benefits for the Grupe Company. After an outcry by residents, the Riverbank City Council approved a plan that would slash proposed Grupe development by half. Months later, the developer announced it was no longer interested in paying for the update.

It was a “valuable lesson in developer tactics,” as a Modesto Bee editorial put it at the time, that would seem to have nothing to do with the North Bay.

But the Grupe Company is on the verge of becoming an important player here, too. It makes up half of Eldridge Renewal LLC, the partnership selected by the state to redevelop the historic Sonoma Developmental Center campus at the western edge of Sonoma Valley.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/11/29/sonoma-developmental-center-grupe-company/

Habitats, Land Use, , , , ,

SMART supporters submit petition for tax renewal measure

Adrian Rodriquez, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

North Bay voters could decide within months whether to throw Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit a financial lifeline or let it fail.

The quarter-cent sales tax that collects more than $51 million annually, or about half of the agency’s revenue, is set to expire in 2029. Without an extension, the agency would be forced to cease operations.

On Friday, a coalition of SMART supporters filed an initiative seeking to extend the tax for 30 years. The petition aims to put a measure on the June 2 ballot.

The petition was submitted three months ahead of the deadline. To be successful it needs signatures of at least 10% of registered voters between the two counties, or 48,809. The petitioners submitted 71,851 signatures.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/11/25/smart-supporters-submit-petition-for-tax-renewal-measure/

Transportation, ,

Santa Rosa opens single-family neighborhoods to duplexes, small apartments

Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Santa Rosa will now allow duplexes and small apartment buildings on nearly 2,000 properties zoned for single-family homes — a sweeping zoning change that city officials say will expand housing options but some residents fear could push them out.

Under the changes, duplexes, townhomes and garden-style apartments with up to 20 units would be allowed in areas on the edges of the city center and near some commercial corridors.

Such missing middle housing was common decades ago but has largely given way to larger single-family homes and bigger multifamily projects.

Planning officials and housing advocates say the new small- to-midsize-density housing could help fill a gap in the local market and better serve working-class residents, young families and older adults who want to rent or own in a city that has become increasingly out of reach.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/11/07/sweeping-santa-rosa-zoning-changes-to-spur-multifamily-housing-stir-neighborhood-concerns/

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