housing – Enviro Updates

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

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

November 20, 2025

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.

Land Usehousing, infill development, multi-family housing, Santa Rosa

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

Public meeting on revised Sonoma Developmental Center plan set for Sept. 25

September 16, 2025

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Local residents have had a number of opportunities over the past three years to weigh in on evolving plans to transform the historic Sonoma Developmental Center property near Glen Ellen with a mix of housing and commercial space.

They’ll have another shot next week as the county embarks on its latest attempt to shore up an environmental study that can pass muster in court, if not with project critics.

On Sept. 25, at Altamira Middle School in Sonoma, the county will host a public scoping meeting with its contracted planning firm, Oakland-based Dyett and Bhatia.

The meeting comes as many residents continue to call on the county for a scaled-down project, following a Sonoma County judge’s harsh rebuke of the original environmental impact report Dyett and Bhatia prepared for the site.

That ruling assessed the most recent plan for the 180-acre core campus, submitted in August 2023 by developer Eldridge Renewal, a partnership between Napa-based builder Keith Rogal and Stockton-based Grupe Company. It calls for 990 residential units in a diverse range of sizes and styles, plus 130,000 square feet of commercial space, a 150-room hotel, a community center, gym, new fire station and about 70 acres of outdoor common area.

Land Use, Wildlifehousing, Sonoma Developmental Center, wildfire evacuation, wildlife corridor

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

Lauded by housing advocates, CEQA reform unlikely to have immediate local impact

July 5, 2025

Emma Murphy & Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The new regulations, which took effect immediately, have raised questions about whether it could pave an easier path for large developments in Sonoma County and Santa Rosa.

The local impact of statewide housing reforms approved Monday, including the historic rollback of parts of California’s landmark environmental law, are still coming into full view in the North Bay, but it’s unlikely to unlock hundreds of new housing units across the region — at least immediately.

The reforms negotiated by Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers as part of the budget bills exempt infill housing and many other residential developments from review under the 55-year-old California Environmental Quality Act. The measures also streamline permitting and freeze the codes that set residential building standards, among other sweeping changes that go beyond housing construction.

The overhaul comes amid a reckoning among the state’s majority party that bureaucratic hurdles have made it increasingly difficult to build enough housing for residents, driving up costs and contributing to rising homelessness.

“There is a feeling of urgency around California’s affordability crisis,” said Assemblymember Chris Rogers, D-Santa Rosa.

The new regulations, which took effect immediately, have raised questions about whether it could pave an easier path for a large development planned on former county land in Santa Rosa as well as another on the state’s former Sonoma Developmental Center campus near Glen Ellen.

Both have faced significant neighborhood opposition.

Land UseCEQA, development, development of open space, housing, infill development

Sonoma County releases draft environmental report for Sonoma Developmental Center

August 10, 2022

Phil Barber, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

A long-anticipated draft report released Wednesday calls for approximately 1,000 housing units — including 283 affordable units — to go along with 940 on-site jobs and a resident population of 2,400 at the site of the historic Sonoma Developmental Center near Glen Ellen.

Those numbers, which are in line with previous proposals, are bound to add fuel to the ongoing debate about how best to use a property that has been called a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by neighbors and officials alike.

“I think 1,000 is too big, and 283 is too small,” said Tracy Salcedo, a longtime Sonoma Valley resident, writer and advocate for the former institution for the developmentally disabled. “And we are stuck in a conundrum where financial feasibility is dictating how we do right thing. The right thing should be to provide more affordable housing, and turn our creative energies toward that rather than inundating the north end of the valley for what’s essentially too few affordable units.”

Sonoma County’s land use planning and development agency released the draft Environmental Impact Report and accompanying Specific Plan on Wednesday.

Totaling more than 800 pages, the two reports constitute the first narrowly drawn proposal for redevelopment of the iconic 945-acre site, which was home to a state-run hospital for the developmentally disabled that was established in 1891 and closed in 2018.

Land Usedevelopment of open space, housing, Sonoma Developmental Center, traffic, wildlife corridor