Ground broken for Hwy. 12 project

The contracts are signed, ground has been broken, the only thing left is a starting date for the long-awaited Highway 12 project in the Springs.

Last Friday afternoon, a ceremonial groundbreaking was held with county and Caltrans officials at a vacant lot near the north end of the $5.23 million project which will bring sidewalks, streetlights, curbs and gutters and a left-hand turn lane to the portion of Highway 12 between Boyes Boulevard and Agua Caliente Road.

First District Supervisor Susan Gorin invited former supervisors Valerie Brown and Mike Cale to the event. Cale, who was traveling and couldn’t attend, got the ball rolling back in the early 1990s, while Brown fought for the project after she was appointed in 2002. Phase I of the project was completed in 2010. When Brown retired in 2012, Gorin took up the cause and convinced the board of supervisors to pony up the money from funds that used to go to the redevelopment agency.

“Today marks an incredible achievement for the community, past and present supervisors, Sonoma County Transportation and Public Works staff and leadership, and our state partners at Caltrans,” Gorin told the two dozen or so people at the groundbreaking. “Over the span of nearly two decades, the Highway 12 project has been nurtured, cajoled and pushed into being. Through great odds and with great determination, we have all made this dream a reality.”

Gorin said the project will bring an important aspect to the Springs – safety.

“Soon, school children will walk to school on sidewalks as opposed to dirt; instead of navigating around puddles and potholes, mothers push their babies in strollers safely; instead of bikes dodging cars emerging from everywhere, cyclists will enjoy bike lanes,” she added.

But Gorin said even when the highway project is complete, it won’t be the end of the dream for the Springs. She talked of parklets, a plaza and possibly a local museum.

“To be clear, we are not ?looking to recreate downtown Sonoma in the Springs. Rather, we want to invest in the Springs as its own unique community,” she said. “We want to support art, culture, food, family and economic vitality.”

Brown, county Public Works Director Susan Classen, Public Works Deputy Director Tom O’Kane, Caltrans representative Eric Schen and Springs Community Alliance chair Rich Lee also said a few words before the ceremony.

Phase I of the Highway 12 project from Encinas Lane to Boyes Boulevard, which was funded through the Springs Redevelopment Agency, was completed in 2010. Phase II, from Boyes to Agua Caliente, was just months away from going out to bid in late 2011 or early 2012 when the project hit a speed bump. In December 2011, the state Supreme Court dissolved all of the state’s 400-plus redevelopment agencies – including Sonoma County’s – which effectively stopped any projects in the pipeline.

At that point, everything stalled, and it wasn’t until late 2012 when the county’s board of supervisors allocated $450,000 to complete design work that the project started up again.

In May 2013, the supervisors approved a measure to transfer an estimated $24.5 million between then and the 2016-17 fiscal year to finish projects that were left up in the air when the county’s redevelopment agency was dissolved in February 2012.

The night before the ground breaking, about 100 Springs residents attended a Town Hall meeting and got updates on the Highway 12 project; the Sonoma Springs affordable housing project; and the plaza concept.

‘To be clear, we are not ?looking to recreate downtown Sonoma in the Springs.’

- Susan Gorin