photo credit: CA State Parks
A collage of photos shows off the landscape soon to be added into Jack London
State Historic Park boundaries from the former Sonoma Developmental Center grounds.

The new year is starting off with a downsizing at the Sonoma Developmental Center, the nearly 1000-acre former state hospital property in the Sonoma Valley.

The former Sonoma Developmental Center campus, often shortned to SDC, near Glen Ellen is about to lose quite a few acres to California State Parks, said county supervisor Susan Gorin.

"We've been advocating for this for the past decade, that the undeveloped lands around the campus move into park ownership and management," Gorin said.

Close to 750 acres of open space, long part of the SDC campus, is changing hands. It's going under State park Control as an addition to Jack London State Historic Park.

The move was set in motion by legislation at the state level from Bill Dodd, according to Gorin.

Matthew Allen, deputy superintendent for California State Parks Bay Area District, said the acreage, already under state control, but not park jurisdiction, has long been considered for conservation.

"The wildlife corridor, it's extremely important to the movement of the wildlife over the entire region," Allen said. "Not just that one local spot, but it does provide that connectivity from the Marin Coast to the Blue Ridge and then all the way out to even Lake Berryessa. So we're looking at this really large region with very little opportunities of just undeveloped open space."

Gorin said firm boundaries between the open space soon under state park control and the areas of the SDC slated for redevelopment still need to be established.

"It will be increasingly important for any potential development to intersect with those protected areas," Gorin said. "We have to determine where the parking areas are going to be, where the trails are going to be, so that it's not only just the folks fortunate enough to be living on the footprint of that campus, but folks living throughout the valley will have access to the park."

The first transfer of SDC open space to California State Parks includes close to 650 acres; a second transfer of close to 100 acres is still to come.