noise

Sonoma County greenlights $5.1 million for airport projects

Jeff Quackenbush, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

‘When do we plan on embarking on some new community engagement-driven planning process?’

Sonoma County supervisors on Tuesday approved millions of dollars in consulting and pavement work at Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport while calling for broader public discussion about future airport growth, flight operations and the county’s authority over them.

The Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to approve $4.6 million in professional consulting task orders with BKF Engineers, Mead & Hunt Inc. and RS&H California Inc. a range of engineering, planning, design and environmental services at the north Santa Rosa facility in coming years. Supervisor James Gore, whose district includes the airport, abstained.

The largest individual task order is $1.35 million for design of the replacement rescue and firefighting facility. Other work includes a $585,438 terminal area study, $496,231 for engineering on later phases of terminal apron reconstruction and $355,101 to study relocating airport administrative offices. The airport is pursuing a 15-year expansion and modernization program.

Stout said many of the task orders concern airport infrastructure and landside planning rather than aircraft operations.

“These task orders are not related to the flight path or the noise policy issues,” Stout said. Those matters are set to come back to the board as early as Nov. 3.

Complaints have soared into the tens of thousands in the past several months after the FAA changed aircraft routes over West County and the number of flights has grown. That has led to alternative-route proposals in the past few months to the federal regulator from airport officials and a group of rural residents.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/09/15/sonoma-county-airport-construction-noise-growth/

Land Use, Transportation, ,

Sonoma County Supes endorse new cannabis industry regulations

Emma Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sonoma County’s highly anticipated overhaul of its ordinance regulating the cannabis industry arrived this week before the Board of Supervisors, where debate raised and settled for now a thorny question — whether commercial cannabis farming should be governed as agriculture.

On Tuesday, a board majority endorsed that regulatory set up, over opposition from the region’s largest ag trade group, while also deciding on other rules governing commercial cannabis cultivation, sales and distribution outside city limits.

The changes advanced by the board include defining cannabis as a form of controlled agriculture and classifying it as a prime crop making farmers eligible for tax breaks on their enrolled cropland. Going forward, the rules also would include cannabis in the county’s Right to Farm Ordinance, which is intended to protect and promote agriculture by prioritizing it on agriculture-zoned land.

Tuesday’s discussion marked the culmination of the county’s multi-year effort to conduct an environmental review of its embattled cannabis regulations and subsequently revise rules after years of piecemeal tweaks failed to resolve a stalemate between the local industry and residents.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/10/29/sonoma-county-board-of-supervisors-endorses-new-cannabis-industry-regulations/

Agriculture/Food System, , , , ,

Op-Ed: How busy should Sonoma County’s airport be?

John Reid, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Flying out of Santa Rosa is relaxing. I love it too. But it is like a tiger cub. Cute now, and very likely to get out of hand.

I wasn’t aware of how many planes fly in and out of Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County airport until they started flying over my house.

That happened in 2024 when the Federal Aviation Administration opened a new flight path over the western part of the county. From 2019 to 2024, the number of Santa Rosa airport passengers increased 58% to around 772,000 a year. Traffic increased 20% last year alone. On one recent weekday, there were 19 commercial departures and various private jets — including Ventura Air Services’ 4:37 a.m. flight to Cabo, which woke me up.

Airplanes pollute. No way around it. They account for 2.5% of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, and 9% of U.S. transportation emissions, which is our largest category. They emit nitrous oxides and fine particulates. Even gas cars pollute less than planes per passenger. And aircraft dump noise pollution across the landscape. People lose sleep. Bird communication is interrupted. Batteries are too heavy for planes, so the only way to make them “sustainable” is to fly them less.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/opinion/sonoma-county-schulz-airport-climate-emissions/

Land Use, Transportation, , ,

Sonoma County supervisors endorse airport terminal expansion

Guy Kovner, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Given a PowerPoint-aided tour of a proposed $25 million addition to the terminal at the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, county supervisors on Tuesday approved of the project that comes with one large catch: it depends on securing a federal grant.

“It is a great airport to fly in and out of,” Board Chairman David Rabbitt said, noting it is “easy to park” and “people are friendly.”

“What you do there is so important for this county,” Supervisor Susan Gorin told the tour guide, Airport Manager Jon Stout.

Gorin personally values the United Airlines service to Denver started in March, facilitating visits to and from her grandchildren, 18 months and 4 years old.

But the airport, which started commercial service with about 109,000 passengers in 2007, is a bit of a victim of its own success, measured by carrying more than 440,000 passengers last year and nearly 90,000 in the first three months of this year.

The 15,000-square-foot terminal is already congested at peak midday hours, and the crowding will get worse as summer arrives with as many as 17 flights a day, Stout said.

There will be four flights in some two-hour periods, funneling up to 600 people through the terminal that houses airline ticket counters, baggage collection and various kiosks.

The proposed 30,000-square-foot expansion would include a two-lane passenger checkpoint, up to 350 seats, new restrooms, four more ticket counters, a new concession area and a larger “meet-and-greet” area for welcoming incoming passengers, Stout said.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/9547921-181/airport-terminal-expansion-gets-informal

Climate Change & Energy, Land Use, Sustainable Living, , , ,

Santa Rosa asphalt plant wins final round in prolonged court fight

Kevin McCallum, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

A judge this week blocked Santa Rosa officials from requiring an asphalt plant to get a use permit for equipment installed more than a decade ago.

The city has long maintained the BoDean Co. did an array of work at its Maxwell Drive facility between 2005 and 2007 without the proper permits.

BoDean officials have countered that their special status as a facility that predates and is therefore exempt from current residential zoning code meant they either didn’t need any permits for such work, or didn’t need the more in-depth use permits. Such permits require a prolonged process that can involve hearings before the Planning Commission and restrictions on uses of the property.

This week, however, Sonoma County Superior Court Judge René Chouteau, a former city attorney, sided with BoDean, ruling that the asphalt plant, which has been operated continuously since the 1950s, had vested rights that the city needed to respect.

Read more at http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/8526921-181/santa-rosa-asphalt-plant-wins

Air, Land Use, , ,

Sonoma bans some leaf blowers; opponents vow ballot fight 

Derek Moore, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
A divided Sonoma City Council on Monday adopted a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers within city limits, a move that would make the city of 11,000 the first in Sonoma County and one of the few nationwide to enforce such restrictions.
But the council’s action before a packed crowd does not end the city’s years-long debate over the landscaping devices. Opponents vowed to push forward with plans for a citywide referendum to delay and possibly overturn the prohibition.
The ordinance otherwise takes effect July 1. It would ban gas-powered blowers in Sonoma but allow the continued use of electric and battery-powered devices, albeit under more limited hours of operation. Commercial operators, as well as private property owners and tenants, could be subject to fines if they are caught using gas blowers.
Councilman David Cook called the ordinance a good compromise after years of debate.“It’s time we put something on the books in this town,” he said.
Mayor Laurie Gallian and Councilwoman Madolyn Agrimonti joined Cook in supporting the ordinance. Councilwoman Rachel Hundley and Councilman Gary Edwards were opposed.
Read more at: Sonoma bans some leaf blowers; opponents vow ballot fight | The Press Democrat

Air, Sustainable Living, ,

Santa Rosa's BoDean asphalt plant takes steps to reduce noise

Kevin McCallum, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The company that operates an asphalt plant near downtown Santa Rosa has outlined how it intends to comply with city noise rules it currently violates.
Following noise complaints from several neighbors over the summer, the BoDean Co. performed a sound study that confirmed its Maxwell Drive plant exceeds permissible noise levels, especially at night.
The company recently submitted a plan for how it intends over the next six months to reduce the racket created by heavy machinery that heats sand and gravel, mixes it with oily binder and dumps loads of hot, goopy asphalt into awaiting trucks.
“It’s going to be a significant investment,” said Bill Williams, general manager of BoDean. “This equipment is older equipment, so that’s one reason it’s so noisy.
”After a neighborhood group that wants greater restrictions on the plant paid for a sound study, the company conducted its own. That analysis found the plant exceeded the noise limits by up to 7 decibels during the daytime and 13 decibels at night. While the findings didn’t perfectly match neighbors’, the figures were close.
The company proposed a three-phase plan to muffle the noise. The first phase would be to build a noise-dampening wall around a large piece of equipment called a baghouse, which Williams likened to a large vacuum cleaner.
Rear more at: Santa Rosa’s BoDean asphalt plant takes steps to | The Press Democrat

Land Use, Sustainable Living, ,
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