development – Enviro Updates

Cloverdale residents demand full environmental review of proposed mega development Esmeralda

April 9, 2026

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Cloverdale leaders faced intense criticism Wednesday, April 8, as a swarm of public commenters accused the city council of failing to ensure residents and resources are safeguarded from impacts associated with a proposed mega housing and resort development on the south end of town.

More than a dozen residents demanded the council require a new environmental impact report for the proposed Esmeralda project, slated for 266 acres of vacant former industrial land.

The project, one of the largest in northern Sonoma County in decades, has been inching toward formal consideration by the planning commission and city council. But proponents with the San Francisco-based developer, Esmeralda Land Company, have advanced their vision while relying in large part on an environmental report completed 18 years ago for the Alexander Valley Resort, a different, now defunct development on the same land.

Merely amending and adding to that report is not enough, residents told the five-member council in what made for a chorus of concern Wednesday.

Land UseCloverdale, development, Esmeralda

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

Cotati seeks to spur building near SMART train station

January 26, 2026

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Cotati’s Santero Way is a winding, tree-lined road that starts at East Cotati Avenue and dead ends in less than a quarter-mile at a self-storage business.

Other than dozens of townhomes in the middle and a car wash at one end, the main defining feature is the train stop for Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit.

But change for the quiet street is coming as Cotati leaders have tapped Santero Way and the surrounding area for future ambitious development.

The vision — with at least one major project on the drawing board for the area and possibly other smaller ones joining it — could add up to one of Cotati’s most significant pending developments, giving the city of 7,500 people the type of trackside residential and commercial district that much larger North Bay cities have struggled to establish.

“You are leading Sonoma County on this issue,” said Omar Lopez, policy coordinator with Generation Housing, a North Bay housing advocacy nonprofit, adding that the vision was “strongly encouraging” for residents looking for local affordable housing options.

Land Use, Transportationdevelopment, mixed-use development, SMART station, transit oriented development

Trump administration targets Petaluma in latest suit over fossil fuel limits

January 6, 2026

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The Trump administration is suing the city of Petaluma, along with Morgan Hill in the South Bay, asking a U.S. District Court judge to block the cities from enforcing their bans on natural gas infrastructure in new buildings.

The lawsuit puts Petaluma, which adopted an “all-electric ordinance” in May 2021, front and center in the national debate over clean energy — and in the breach of America’s political divide, as evidenced by language in the government’s complaint.

“From the day President Trump took office, his Administration has prioritized cutting energy costs for all Americans, restoring consumer freedom, and unleashing American energy dominance,” the document reads.

“Sadly standing in the way of that progress, many states and localities have enacted ‘energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security,’” it continues, citing one of Trump’s executive orders.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, refers to the city ordinances as “radical measures.”

Petaluma was among a number of California cities and counties that made a push toward all-electric building projects, following the city of Berkeley’s lead in 2019. They included Santa Rosa, Healdsburg and Sonoma County.

Climate Change & Energydevelopment, fossil fuels, housing, natural gas, natural gas ban

Rumors of tech-backed ‘autonomy’ stir backlash to Cloverdale Esmeralda megaproject

November 13, 2025

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Is the Network State — an online movement that uses cryptocurrency to fund self-governing micro-communities — coming to Cloverdale?

That speculation, fueled by a Nov. 12 blog post by the account The Nerd Reich, became a flashpoint Wednesday night during a joint meeting of the Cloverdale City Council and Planning Commission. The groups gathered for a presentation from the Esmeralda Land Co. about its proposal to redevelop the long-stalled Alexander Valley Resort site.

Esmeralda, a Bay Area-based developer founded by Devon Zuegel, wants to transform the 266-acre property on Cloverdale’s south end into a new mixed-use neighborhood with homes, public parkland, restaurants, retail space, multiple hotels, and a conference and event center. Zuegel said the plan scales back what has been approved on the site for the past two decades and adds a public park that would be gifted to the city.

Land UseCloverdale, development, Esmeralda, mixed-use development

New Permit Sonoma director aims to rebuild public trust and speed up county’s development process

November 7, 2025

Emma Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

After leading Sonoma County’s permitting and planning department on an interim basis since late July, Scott Orr has been named its permanent director.

Orr, 40, succeeds former director Tennis Wick who retired that month, citing the job’s demands, including long hours.

The department, known as Permit Sonoma, issues building permits, oversees zoning and code enforcement, and implements land-use policy in the county’s unincorporated areas at the direction of the Board of Supervisors. Those responsibilities often place the department and its director at the center of political fights, lawsuits and public debates.

Land Usedevelopment, General Plan Update, housing, Permit Sonoma

Edge Esmeralda principal shares plan for Cloverdale development

July 29, 2025

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The Santa Rosa residents drove 30 minutes north to Cloverdale Thursday night to attend an open house about a potential new development slated for the southeast part of the city at the old Alexander Valley Resort.

“We want to see what they have to offer,” Mike Roselli said. “We’d love to have a place to retire and have everything in walking distance. Hopefully they can make that happen.”

Dubbed “Esmeralda,” the proposal for the site ― at Asti Road, south of Santana Drive ― includes housing, parkland, restaurants, a flagship hotel and event/conference center, plus retail space within the 266-acre site.

It is conceptualized to be a walkable, bikable community for multiple generations, according to the Esmeralda Land Co. principal, Devon Zuegel.

“We are looking to build a Chautauqua of the West,” Zuegel told open house attendees, referring to the Chautauqua Institution, a 750-acre community on Chautauqua Lake in New York where roughly 7,500 people go every summer for nine weeks.

Land UseCloverdale, development, Esmeralda, housing, tourism, water supply