Petaluma

Judge tosses lawsuit against Petaluma in a victory for Lafferty Ranch park

Austin Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Getting sued in December 2024 took some of the luster off the holidays for Matt Maguire and Larry Modell.

Upon being subpoenaed, recalled Modell, “I had to tell my wife that our home and retirement savings were at risk, which was not a lot of fun.”

Maguire and Modell are longtime advocates for public access to Lafferty Ranch Open Space, a rugged, 270-acre preserve high up on Sonoma Mountain, several miles east of Petaluma, which has owned the park since 1959 and declared in a 1996 ordinance that it “shall be made available for passive use by the public.”

Efforts to make that happen, however, have been strenuously contested by a group of neighboring landowners on Sonoma Mountain Road. On Dec. 23, 2024, six of those landowners sued the city of Petaluma — and Maguire and Modell — alleging, among other causes of action, “public nuisance,” “private nuisance,” “trespass” and “infliction of emotional distress.”

Days after the suit was filed, Petaluma indemnified Modell and Maguire. “They brought us under their excellent legal representation,” said Modell, “so much of the worry went away at that point.”

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/07/11/judge-tosses-sonoma-mountain-landowners-lawsuit-against-petaluma-in-a-victory-for-lafferty-ranch-park/

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

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.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/petaluma-lafferty-ranch-lawsuit-park/

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Land swap

Will Carruthers, THE BOHEMIAN

Petaluma approves complex land deal despite widespread opposition

Late on the night of Monday, Feb. 24, the Petaluma City Council narrowly approved a controversial, multi-part land deal in order to fund a second train station for the city.

Critics of the deal between Petaluma and Lomas Partners, LLC—a Southern California company businessman Todd Kurtin owns—say none of the parties involved have been responsive to criticism of the proposed designs, the process of approving the project and costs to the city.

Ultimately, the deal, which in part requires the city to contribute $2 million to cover some of the costs of the new train station, could leave the city with little leverage over the design of a downtown housing development and a related off-site affordable housing component, critics say.

After hours of discussion and public comment, almost unanimously against the current project proposal, the City Council voted 4 to 3 to support a development agreement with Lomas Partners and several related documents to greenlight Lomas’ interlocked housing development proposals.

There is at least one more significant hurdle for the project. The agreements approved by the City Council will be void if the city cannot secure a formal commitment from SMART to construct the Corona Road Station, which, if completed, will be the city’s second train station.

To that end, the Council directed staff to set up a meeting with SMART to reach an agreement.

Here are some of the details of the deal:

In August 2017, Lomas Partners, LLC, signed a deal with SMART to purchase 315 D St., a 4.48-acre piece of land next to Petaluma’s downtown station, for $5 million. In exchange, Lomas would donate 1.27 acres of land at 890 McDowell Blvd. and build a 150-space parking garage on it. Under plans filed with the city, Lomas would construct 110 homes on the remainder of the 890 McDowell Blvd. parcel.

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New evidence in fight for public access to Lafferty Ranch

Paul Payne, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Lafferty Ranch advocates say an easement over 905 square feet of private land standing between the public and the proposed nature preserve near Petaluma could finally be secured by newly discovered property records dating back to the Civil War era.

A surveyor’s map cited in 1866 Sonoma County Board of Supervisors meetings as well as an 1869 deed from an adjacent property owner both create a bridge to the landlocked 270-acre preserve, said Petaluma City Councilman Mike Healy, a lawyer who is providing free legal work for the cause.

via New evidence in fight for public access to Lafferty Ranch | Watch Sonoma County.

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