Land Use – Enviro Updates

SuzanneJune 1, 2025Land Use, Transportationair pollution, airport, airport expansion, noise

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.

SuzanneApril 14, 2025April 18, 2025Climate Change & Energy, Land Use, Transportationbicycle safety, fossil fuel infrastructure, gas station ban

Planning Commission denies gas station proposal in southwest Santa Rosa, the last such project citywide

Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Plans for what would’ve been the last gas station ever built in Santa Rosa — and potentially countywide — were tossed by city planning officials who argued it would pose a health and safety hazard to the surrounding community.

After a three-hour hearing, the Santa Rosa Planning Commission voted 6-0 Thursday to deny a conditional use permit for the project on a vacant lot south of Highway 12 on North Wright Road.

Commissioners said the project was inconsistent with city land-use policies and climate action goals that call for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

The project had been in the works for nearly two decades and included six gas pumps and four electric charging stations.

The latest iteration was submitted to the city in late 2021 and was exempt from the city’s ban on new gas stations, which took effect a year later.

Commissioners said that while the exemption allowed them to consider the project, it didn’t require them to approve it.

SuzanneApril 12, 2025April 14, 2025Agriculture/Food System, Habitats, Land Use, Wildlifedairies, National Park Service, Point Reyes National Seashore, ranching, tule elk, water pollution

Rep. Jared Huffman says House investigation of Point Reyes ranching deal driven by ‘partisan opportunists’

John Beck, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Jared Huffman weighs in on the House committee investigation launched by Republicans and the clouded future of the settlement to end most seashore ranching.

When Rep. Jared Huffman was named the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources in December, he summoned a sports analogy to describe how he might face challenges down the road. “I believe we are better prepared than ever to tackle what lies ahead next Congress,” he said. “This is a team sport, and I am excited and ready to lead this team.”

But this past week, he learned that in committee politics, like in sports, there are trick plays you never see coming. Not long after waking up Thursday morning, Huffman, D-San Rafael, said he was blindsided by the announcement of a sweeping investigation into the controversial deal to end most ranching in Point Reyes.

Launched by committee chairman Bruce Westerman, a Republican former football player from Arkansas, it was a partisan shot fired directly into Huffman’s own backyard. An attempt to wrestle control of the 71,000-acre park that has been the focus of intense debate, it will likely prolong a battle many thought had finally been resolved — love it or hate it — after The Nature Conservancy brokered a deal to pay ranchers on 12 out of 14 Point Reyes farms around $30 million to leave the leased land their families had been farming long before the peninsula became a national park in 1963. The agreement, announced Jan. 8, in the final weeks of the Biden administration, was embraced by all parties involved in several years of closed-door mediation, including the three environmental groups that had sued the park in 2022, alleging environmental violations by the ranches.

SuzanneApril 11, 2025April 12, 2025Climate Change & Energy, Land Use, Transportationbicycle paths, CONGAS, fossil fuel infrastructure, gas station ban

Has the last gas station in Sonoma County already been built?

Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations (CONGAS)

Santa Rosa Planning Commission votes down what could be the last proposal for a new gas station in Sonoma County – ever

Santa Rosa – On Thursday, April 10, the Santa Rosa Planning Commission voted 6-0 with one Commissioner recused, to deny a Conditional Use Permit for a gas station that would have been built at 874 North Wright Road, at the western edge of Santa Rosa where highway 12 and Fulton/Wright roads intersect.

(874 North Wright Road, November 2024. Photo credit: Woody Hastings)

A strong showing of over 20 concerned neighbors, healthcare professionals, bicycling enthusiasts, members of the Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations (CONGAS) and others attended and spoke to share concerns including the fact that the site is a seasonal wetland (see photo), is adjacent to the Joe Rodota Trail, and is at an address where more than ten gas stations already operate within a five-mile radius. Several speakers also pointed to the fact that Santa Rosa adopted a climate emergency resolution in 2020 and imposed a permanent ban on new gas stations in 2022 and that we Santa Rosa should not be permitting new gas stations in 2025.

This proposal at 874 N. Wright Rd. was exempted from the ban on new gas stations and was still under consideration by permitting authorities because it was already “in the pipeline” with a complete permit application already filed when the ban was imposed.

The reason this may be the very last proposal for a new gas station in Sonoma County is that between 2021 and 2023 Sonoma County and six cities in the county adopted ordinances permanently prohibiting new gas stations. Only three cities have not taken the action: Cloverdale, Healdsburg, and the City of Sonoma. Each of them have stated that there is little to no chance that a new gas station will be proposed within their boundaries. So, with no other live proposals for a new gas station in Sonoma County, the last gas station to be built in the County has likely already been built.

Continue reading “Has the last gas station in Sonoma County already been built?”

SuzanneMarch 25, 2025May 24, 2025Land Useair pollution, asphalt plant, Canyon Rick Quarry, Forestville, traffic

Local legacy vs. big business in quarry quarrel

Martyn Lees, NORTH BAY BOHEMIAN

Pointing at the houses dotted around an aerial photograph of his property, Jonathan Trappe, a Forestville quarry owner and operator, indicated how close his family’s homes are to the asphalt plant he hopes to build on the quarry site.

“My father lives there, my brother lives there, I live here and our kids swim in that pond,” he said. All are within about a half square mile. He was speaking in reference to the community pushback the plan had elicited that cited environmental and fire risk concerns.

The point was clear, but Trappe added it anyway: “Who has more incentive to make sure this plant is safe?”

Tucked into the sweeping bends of Pocket Canyon Highway just outside of Forestville reside two stone quarries that serve western Sonoma County’s construction industries, most crucially the road repair sector. The quarries sit on either side of that stretch of scenic Highway 116, and both are surrounded by protected waterways and wildlife.

SuzanneMarch 6, 2025March 13, 2025Land Use, Transportationsprawl development, urban infrastructure, wildfire evacuation

Hanna Center abandons large housing, hotel project next to its Sonoma Valley campus

Daniel Johnson, SONOMA INDEX-TRIBUNE

• Hanna Center has canceled its 60-acre development plan to focus on strengthening mental health and community programs.

• New initiatives include a community mental health center and expanded residential services for youth.

• Hanna Center aims to enhance collaboration and sustainability while serving Sonoma Valley effectively.

Hanna Center officials have confirmed they are dropping ambitious housing and commercial development plans on a 60-acre property next to their sprawling campus in Sonoma Valley, where neighbors’ concerns about the project’s scale and issues such as wildfire evacuation clouded its future.

It was one of the largest proposed developments in Sonoma Valley, calling for more than 600 homes in various types of housing as well as a hotel, retail and office development and open space off Agua Caliente Road next to the 76-year-old center, a residential campus for at-risk youth that also provides some services for adults.

Concerned neighbors said it would overtax water and sewage systems and worsen traffic congestion, which could be particularly problematic in the event of a wildfire.

SuzanneFebruary 28, 2025March 3, 2025Land UseLafferty Ranch, Land Paths, parks, Petaluma, public access, Sonoma Mountain

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.

SuzanneFebruary 11, 2025February 17, 2025Forests, Land UseDouglas fir, protected lands, redwoods, Save the Redwoods

Save the Redwoods League signs $24 million deal to purchase Monte Rio redwood forest and expand county park

Martin Espinoza, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The $24 million acquisition by Save the Redwoods solidifies a 22,000-acre block of protected land stretching from Monte Rio to the Sonoma Coast.

A San Francisco-based conservation group has agreed to purchase 1,517 acres of redwood and Douglas fir forest near Monte Rio for $24 million, with the goal of transferring the property to Sonoma County Regional Parks for public use.

The deal — between Save the Redwoods League and Mendocino Redwood Company, which owns the property — is aimed to dramatically expand Monte Rio Redwoods Regional Park and Open Space Preserve, from its current 515 acres to more than 2,000 acres.

It also would create a contiguous swath of more than 22,000 acres of protected land, from the Bohemian Highway to the Sonoma Coast and north to the Jenner Headlands.

SuzanneJanuary 19, 2025January 22, 2025Climate Change & Energy, Forests, Land Usefire resilience, house hardening, rebuilding after fire, wildfire, wildfire hazard

Why are lone homes left standing after the Los Angeles fires? It’s not entirely luck

Ed Davey & Ingrid Lobet, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Emails and videos of burned buildings in Los Angeles next to those left standing have been flying back and forth among architects, builders and fire safety specialists around the world.

For many homeowners, like Enrique Balcazar, the sometimes scattershot nature of the carnage can seem like random chance. Balcazar, a real estate agent, posted video that showed little more than chimneys remaining of most homes on his block after fire leapt through his Altadena neighborhood. Balcazar stood on his neighbor’s destroyed classic Mustang to douse his smoldering roof, but his home was otherwise fine.

“It’s an older house and it still has the old wood sidings,” Balcazar said. “To me there’s nothing explainable in logical or scientific reason of why my house would not have burned.”

Many experts say luck does play a part. After all, wind can shift 180 degrees in a split second, pushing fire away from your house and towards a neighbor’s. But they also say there are many ways that homes can be made less vulnerable to fire.

SuzanneJanuary 17, 2025January 22, 2025Climate Change & Energy, Forests, Land UseBoard of Forestry, defensible space, fire resilience, house hardening, rebuilding after fire

California is years behind in implementing a law to make homes more fire resistant

Tran Nguyen, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Reeling from destructive wildfires, including the deadliest in California history, state lawmakers in 2020 passed new requirements for clearing combustible materials like dead plants and wooden furniture within 5 feet (1.5 meters) of homes in risky areas.

The rules were set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2023. But as Los Angeles grapples with blazes that have destroyed thousands of homes in what could be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, the regulations still haven’t been written. The state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has no firm timeline for completing them.

“It’s frustrating at every level of government,” said Democratic state Sen. Henry Stern, who was part of a group of lawmakers who authored the legislation. “I feel like a failure on it, being quite frank.”

Most of the neighborhoods ravaged by the Palisades Fire are in areas that must follow state requirements to keep the immediate surroundings of their homes free of combustible materials and would be subject to the new rules because they are deemed at highest fire risk by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The fire, driven by hurricane-force winds that spread embers by air, destroyed at least 5,000 structures across areas including Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Topanga Canyon.

Environmental Center of Sonoma County

Category: Land Use