Land Use – Enviro Updates

Tracks blocked from trail takeover

April 3, 2026

Austin Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A minor legal defeat suffered by the Great Redwood Trail Agency is being hailed as a major cause for celebration among some North Bay railroad enthusiasts.

A February ruling by Surface Transportation Board, an obscure but powerful federal agency tasked with regulating the nation’s freight rail network, has, in an indirect way, breathed new life into train buffs’ hopes for a return, someday, of rail service to communities along the Highway 101 corridor from Cloverdale to Willits.

The ruling is the upshot of a legal move that began two years ago when the public agency spearheading the planning and construction of most of the 320-mile Great Redwood Trail between San Francisco and Humboldt bays filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board. The filing related to a different section of North Coast railroad — the Mendocino Railway line, popularly known as the Skunk Train, which runs 40 miles west to east, from Fort Bragg to Willits.

The petition sought the board’s authorization for what is called a third-party, “adverse” abandonment, part of a formal step that’s been used to convert mothballed segments of the nation’s vast network of commercial rail lines into trails over the past several decades.

Land Use, TransportationGreat Redwood Trail, railroad, Skunk Train, trains

Neighbors voice concerns with planned senior housing development on Highway 12

March 25, 2026

Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The latest proposal for housing on a 69-acre expanse off Highway 12 in eastern Santa Rosa faced close scrutiny and even outright opposition from some neighbors who packed a Monday meeting to get a first look at the project.

For about an hour, the new developers and city staffers were hit with comments from concerned residents who worry adding hundreds of new residents there would worsen congestion on the narrow, two-lane highway, particularly during an emergency.

Critics also raised concerns about the project’s impact on wildlife and water resources.

The discussion held at the Oakmont Village East Recreation Center served as a first public test for affordable housing developer Burbank Housing, which purchased the property three years ago.

Burbank’s proposal calls for 275 apartments and single-family homes in a 55-and-older mixed-income neighborhood.

Land UseBurbank Housing, Elnoka/SESR, Highway 12, Oakmont, traffic, wildfire evacuation, wildlife corridor

Residents to get look at new senior development planned on long-contested Highway 12 site

March 21, 2026

Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Residents will get a first public look at the proposal during a neighborhood meeting Monday, March 23 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Oakmont Village East Recreation Center, 7902 Oakmont Dr.

Revived plans for a long-contested housing proposal on Santa Rosa’s eastern edges are wending their way through the city development pipeline three years after the property changed hands.

The new owners, affordable housing developer Burbank Housing, envision transforming the 69-acre expanse off Highway 12 and Elnoka Lane into an age-restricted, mixed-income neighborhood.

The proposal calls for 275 apartments and single-family homes and about half the property would be preserved as open space.

Burbank officials say the project would add high-quality senior housing in eastern Santa Rosa, including much needed affordable housing, to meet the needs of a growing segment of the population that is increasingly being edged out of the market by rising prices, spokesperson Stefanie Bagala said.

Land Useaffordable housing, Burbank Housing, Elnoka/SESR, Highway 12, Oakmont, senior housing, traffic, wildfire evacuation

California Forever plan for new city of 400,000 divides Solano County

March 21, 2026

Glen Martin, BAY CITY NEWS

The two men stood near a rickety barbed wire fence by state Highway 12 between Suisun City and Rio Vista in Solano County, looking east over a vast tract of gently rolling rangeland.

California Forever is located between Travis Air Force Base and Rio Vista in Solano County — California Forever location.

In the summer, this sprawling property will be sere and brown. But now, freshened by heavy winter rains, it is intensely green. Wetlands dot the landscape, some supporting Canada geese and mallard ducks dabbling in the water. Northern harriers and red-tailed hawks cruise overhead, seeking mice and voles in the grasses and emerging wildflowers below.

Both men admired the view. But Jim DeKloe, a biology professor at Solano Community College, and John Harter, the owner of Waterfront Comics in Suisun City, have different visions for the property.

To DeKloe, the land is fine just as it is: a spectacular open space burgeoning with wildlife and supporting rare ecosystems such as vernal pools and native grasslands. Harter, on the other hand, shares the dream of Flannery Associates, a group of wealthy investors led by Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader. Flannery — and Harter — want to see this 100-square-mile parcel developed. They hope to see a new city rising here, one that will ultimately support 400,000 residents at full build-out.

The project is called California Forever, and for three years it has pitted the residents of Solano County against each other. What started off as an acrimonious flame war between supporters and detractors has now settled into a grinding battle of attrition.

Habitats, Land UseCalifornia Forever, Delta, Solano County

A hunger for answers on California Forever’s environmental impacts

March 4, 2026

Tanvi Dutta Gupta, BAY NATURE

It’s been two and a half years since news emerged of a tech-billionaire-backed idea to put a 400,000-person city in Solano County, and a lot of big questions remain—as indicated by the 616 pages of public comments just on the notice that an environmental impact report was coming.

After California Forever pulled a controversial ballot measure that would have put the development in voters’ hands, the project kept moving forward. Now the project has been reimagined as an expansion of tiny, broke Suisun City, and California Forever has officially begun preparing the environmental impact report people first asked for two years ago. It will be the first comprehensive look at what the massive development could mean for nature in southeastern Solano County.

The public comments, submitted by 38 individuals or groups, offer feedback on the environmental impact report’s notice of preparation, or NOP, a step that lets government agencies and members of the public chime in about what they want to see in the draft report. Project developers must address these comments in the report to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. But such comments rarely attract much public interest: Jim Bermudez, deputy city manager for Suisun City, says in his 25 years of experience in city permitting, he’s “never really been down that road.”

The area for the proposed urban and industrial development is part of the larger Jepson Prairie ecosystem, home to California’s last remaining claypan vernal pools, and one of the few remaining rural corners of the Bay Area in a state where agricultural land is on the decline. California Forever told Bay Nature over email that its development will be “the most sustainable city in the United States.”

Habitats, Land UseCalifornia Forever, Delta, Jepson Prairie ecosystem

Trail plan nearly two years in making provides a glimpse of Trione-Annadel park of the future

February 28, 2026

Austin Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

High up on Bennett Mountain near the southwest corner of Trione-Annadel State Park is an aerie known as Henry’s Knob, whose rounded contours explain its other nickname, The Boob.

With its panoramic views, that 1,525-foot eminence is a coveted destination in the park, though not, technically, a legal one. Henry’s Knob – named for Henry Szostak, a leader of the Oakmont Hikers, rather than Henry Trione, the beloved local philanthropist who spearheaded the creation of this park 55 years ago — is accessible only via unsanctioned “social” trails, which is why Don McCullough has yet to set foot on it.

McCullough, president of Friends of Trione-Annadel, said he stays off those “non-system” trails to better preserve the park’s resources.

But the day is coming when he will stand on Henry’s Knob.

A State Parks team recently completed its “Public Draft” of the long-awaited “Trione-Annadel State Park Road and Trail Management Plan,” or RTMP, whose soporific title belies the excitement — and, in rarer cases, anger — it is kindling among users of this 5,500-acre refuge on a plateau at the eastern edge of Santa Rosa.

Land UseFriends of Trione-Annadel, multi-use trails, Trione-Annadel State Park

High-end Cloverdale housing, resort project Esmeralda sparks debate

February 9, 2026

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sonoma County’s northernmost city is a blue-collar bastion where many people take pride in their roots stretching back generations.

They don’t mind if the community of 9,500 residents, tucked at the top of the famed Alexander Valley grape growing region, tends to be overlooked by the rest of Wine Country.

Long hitched to its logging legacy, with a largely faded citrus crop in its past, the town still holds tight to its farming and industrial roots. Today, many more residents work for the school district, in service and local government jobs, or in construction. Even in a tumultuous time, the grape growing business retains its hold, too, with vineyards that stretch from the city limits to the foot of the Mayacamas Mountains.

One spot on the valley floor at the city’s southern outskirts, however, is commanding an outsize amount of attention these days.

There, on 266 acres once slated for a now-defunct resort project, an out-of-town developer that first came to the county in 2023 as host of an aspirational monthlong retreat and pop-up village, has proposed something that many Cloverdale residents think clashes with the identity and heritage of what one denizen called their “little country town.”

On former industrial land, builders have proposed a sleek, mixed-use community, with more than 600 homes, a resort hotel, two restaurants, office, commercial and light-industrial space, and possibly, its own school.

Land UseCloverdale, development, Esmeralda