photo credit: Marc Albert/KRCB
One of the dozens of abandoned buildings at SDC.

Following significant public outreach, scores of scoping session and public hearings, there's been little recent talk of the Sonoma Developmental Center, or SDC. It's perhaps the largest and likely most contentious re-use plan in Sonoma County in a generation. 

While major California building projects rarely move smoothly, until fairly recently, redevelopment plans for the SDC were proceeding apace.

Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin represents the district encompassing the 945-acre former state-run school campus in Eldridge.

"We thought we were feeling good about developing and approving the specific plan, along with the [environmental impact report] EIR," Gorin said. "That EIR is being challenged in court, and at the very last minute, the developers submitted a project with quite a few more units than was specified."

The developers, tentatively selected by the county, are Napa-based Rogal and Partners and Stockton's The Grupe Company.

That other submittal taps a recent state law referred to as the 'builder's remedy.' Essentially, if a jurisdiction let's its housing element lapse, as the county briefly did, a developer may file plans ignoring local zoning and planning codes.

In a lot of ways, this is a story about numbers, and most of them are fluid. The squirrely numbers are due to changes in state development codes, which can substantially increase the number of homes over and above what was approved.

The county specific plan calls for 620 residential units. But, that could swell to well over 700.

The developer's plan is considerably higher, and much closer to a figure mentioned a year ago---1,000. Many neighbors are seeking no more than 400.

Tennis Wick is Sonoma County's planning director.

"We received an application for a builder's remedy application, for 930 units at the site. That application, if it were successful, would have allowed them to be exempt from the general plan, the specific plan, land use designations and the zoning ordinance," Wick said.

However, Wick added, the builder's remedy proposal fails to include the correct number of affordable units....and so is dead on arrival.

"We reviewed their application, and found that it didn't meet the requirements of state law, primarily because they based the affordable housing requirement on the base density approved in the plan at 620 units," Wick said.

KRCB News has reached out to both Rogal and The Grupe Company via phone and email to ask if they concur, or might seek legal redress. Neither has responded.

According to Wick, the window for using the builder's remedy has closed.

"The application didn't work and furthermore since we now have a certified housing element, builder's remedies that weren't perfected can no longer be processed," Wick said.

According to Gorin, residents of neighboring communities continue watching closely.

"From the community members that I've heard from they're very concerned about a scale of development that is not appropriate for Sonoma Valley, they would like to see the number of units dropped down, and they are very concerned about any traffic impact, but especially during fire evacuation," Gorin said.

As to whether a compromise can be found, she said it's possible, but not looking likely.

"I think its going to be challenging to make everyone happy, just as the specific plan did not make everyone happy," Gorin said.

As far as what may be included in the next proposal, and what the unit count will be once all bonuses and incentives are factored in, Wick said he can't speculate.

"There's so many different permutations, that you have to know what the person's proposing first, before you know what standards apply," Wick said.

For now, there's little to do but wait---for the next plan or another lawsuit to drop.