parks – Enviro Updates

Petaluma landowners staunchly opposed to long-sought park at Lafferty Ranch sue city, extending decades-old saga

February 28, 2025

Austin Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Under an azure sky in the spring of 2024, half a dozen hikers emerged from a grove of oak trees onto a meadow high up on Sonoma Mountain.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” exclaimed Matt Maguire, with a showman’s flair, “I give you the Petaluma Valley!”

To the west was a verdant carpet of ranchlands and rolling hills, a thin marine layer burning off over the Pacific, which lay just out of sight.

Their vantage for that panorama was Lafferty Ranch, a preserve owned by the city of Petaluma since 1959. Rugged, slanted and steep in places, this 270-acre rectangle stamped in a cleft of the mountain contains the headwaters for Adobe Creek, and was purchased by the city as a watershed.

In 1996, Petaluma passed an ordinance declaring that the open space “shall be made available for passive recreational use by the public.”

Easier ordained than done, it turns out.

Twenty-nine years later, Lafferty Ranch is still not close to becoming a park accessible to the general public. A small but litigious group of neighboring landowners has stood in the way, squaring off with the city in a series of rancorous and costly court fights spanning generations of family members and drawing on land records dating back to the 19th century.

Land UseLafferty Ranch, Land Paths, parks, Petaluma, public access, Sonoma Mountain

Southeast Greenway celebration honors decade-plus work to acquire Santa Rosa’s newest park

December 10, 2024

Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

With Santa Rosa’s purchase of the property, supporters shift focus to planning for the city’s newest park.

A late autumn sun warmed a small group of government officials and community members Tuesday afternoon as they set off to cross the length of a 2.2-mile-long, 300-foot-wide expanse in eastern Santa Rosa.

Leading the tour aboard Rosie the Trolley was Thea Hensel, who listed off ideas for what the property, known as the Southeast Greenway, could one day become.

As the group cut through neighborhood streets, up Hoen Avenue and toward Spring Lake Regional Park, Hensel pointed toward the flat lands where play equipment and picnic areas could one day stand.

Maybe the space could host educational programs in partnership with the six nearby schools. There could be room for a community garden, too. “Obviously it’s easy to envision lots of things because there’s nothing here,” she told the group.

For 15 years, Hensel and other residents who live around the greenway spearheaded efforts to preserve as parkland the former state property, once meant for the extension of Highway 12.

Their dedication culminated with Santa Rosa acquiring 49 acres of the former right of way in October.

Now the long-held vision for a future park — a sort of Central Park for Santa Rosa — is closer to becoming reality as the resident coalition, its partners and the city shift their focus to planning.

Land Usebike trails, community gardens, parks, Southeast Greenway

Veteran official selected as new head of Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District

May 4, 2021

Mary Callahan, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Misti Arias, a 25-year veteran of the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, has been selected to lead the tax-funded agency as its fourth-ever general manager.

Arias is expected to be appointed formally May 11 to succeed Bill Keene, who resigned last fall after 11 years as head of the 30-year-old open space district.

“It is an honor to be considered for the position of Ag + Open Space general manager,” Arias said in a news release. “I am inspired to further the community’s vision to protect natural and agricultural lands throughout our county.”

Arias has spent her entire career with the agency, starting in 1995 when she took a job as planning technician after graduating from Sonoma State University with a degree in environmental studies and urban planning.

Land Use, Local Organizationsag land conservation, Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, land conservation, parks

Lower Russian River to get first big regional park near Monte Rio

November 13, 2020

Mary Callahan, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sonoma County has acquired 515 acres of forest on the southern edge of Monte Rio that will be protected and opened to the public as the first major regional park in the lower Russian River area, offering a new outdoor destination for residents and the region’s steady stream of visitors.

The property, long eyed by park planners as a potential gem in the growing collection of preserved open space in west county, contains towering stands of mixed redwood and Douglas fir forest, as well as more than a mile of Dutch Bill Creek, which feeds into the Russian River.

In addition, its location offers options for future links to the Sonoma Coast State Beach and an envisioned 5½-mile “parkway” south through the redwoods between Monte Rio and Occidental.

“There are so many things about this site that are incredible,” said Misti Arias, acquisitions manager for the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, which helped fund the $3.9 million purchase.

Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who championed the deal from its earliest stages, touted the economic benefits of expanded outdoor opportunities, imagining the new park as a recreational hub that spurs and sustains commerce and community in nearby Monte Rio, which struggles with some of the highest unemployment rates countywide.

Land Use, Local Organizationsparks, Russian River, Sonoma County Regional Parks

To love the coast — we had to save it – Sonoma County Local Coastal Plan

February 6, 2020

Richard Retecki and Carol Benfell, SONOMA COUNTY GAZETTE

It’s taken the efforts of hundreds of people, organizations and government agencies, working together for more than sixty years, to preserve our magnificent, dynamic, and unique Sonoma County coast.

Now the Sonoma County Local Coastal Plan, an integral part of that decades-long preservation effort, is being revisited by county officials, and changes will be made. It will be important to be watchful and mindful that we do not lose what so many have fought to save.

Some of our coastal parks date back 90 years, to the very first days of the State Parks system — the 19-mile-long Sonoma Coast State Beach, one of the most visited state parks in California; Fort Ross Historic State Park, Kruse Rhododendron Reserve and Salt Point State Park.

In 1962, Doran Beach in Bodega Bay became the first county park to be created for public use. Gualala Point, Westside Park and Stillwater Cove followed Doran Beach as county coastal parks.

One of the biggest threats to the coast – and county residents — came when Pacific Gas & Electric in 1958 proposed a nuclear power plant at Bodega Head, right on top of the San Andreas Fault. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodega_Bay_Nuclear_Power_Plant

Bodega Bay residents fought back, led by Rose Gaffney and Hazel Mitchell, joined quickly by brothers Karl and Bill Kortum, and forestry student David Pesonen.

Sonoma Coastdevelopment, Local Coastal Plan, parks

Rangers’ suit claims Broadway Under the Stars is ‘inappropriate’ use of Jack London park

September 27, 2019

Mary Callahan, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

An association of active and retired state park rangers has sued over the continued use of Jack London State Historic Park for open-air Broadway-styled musical productions that since 2012 have drawn thousands of enthusiastic patrons to the protected ruins of the late novelist’s old winery on summer nights.

The unprecedented lawsuit by the more than half-century-old California State Park Rangers Association claims the State Parks department improperly approved a five-year extension for the Transcendence Theatre Co., contending its large-scale productions conflict with the park’s general plan and the historic site’s protected status.

“The issue, in its simplest form, is that California State Parks is attempting to legitimize the creation of a large, ongoing, multi-million dollar operation and commercial-style theatrical facility right in the heart of Jack London State Historic Park, a national and state historic landmark, and within the ruins at the Beauty Ranch area of the park,” Mike Lynch, president of the rangers association, CSPRA, said in a written statement.

The lawsuit says State Parks officials should have subjected the operation to more thorough study and public scrutiny under the California Environmental Quality Act, the state’s bedrock land-use law.

Land UseCEQA, parks, tourism, tourism impacts

Op-Ed: Turning a freeway right-of-way to green space

August 17, 2019

Thea Hensel and Tony White, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

For more than 50 years, a two-mile strip of land in southeast Santa Rosa remained vacant and unused. Originally purchased by Caltrans as a right-of-way for Highway 12, the freeway was never built and the land remains neglected. When it was proposed to extend the freeway through Spring Lake Park, community opposition led to abandoning that proposal, and neighbors started thinking of converting this empty land into an asset, an urban greenway.

In 2009, local citizens formed the Santa Rosa Southeast Greenway Campaign, which developed a vision for the land and organized a campaign to plan and promote a greenway. From the start, the project attracted a team of natural leaders with extensive business and government experience. Applying their skills, they recruited a host of volunteers to spread the word and promote the Southeast Greenway.

The campaign forged alliances with local officials and agencies, environmental, educational, running and biking groups and raised funds to engage the community. In 2014, Caltrans decided to rescind the freeway designation and offered to give Santa Rosa the opportunity to purchase the land for a greenway.

Meanwhile, the campaign continued its work, creating a partnership with the Sonoma Land Trust, Sonoma Water, Sonoma County Regional Parks, Land Paths and the city of Santa Rosa. It is a shining example of a public-private partnership in which grassroots activists work for the benefit of the greater community.

Land Use, Local Organizationsdevelopment, parks, trails