Sonoma’s Gateway project on Broadway stalled by flood plain

The long-awaited reveal of the Gateway project at Broadway and MacArthur didn’t quite take place at last Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting, as a local architect’s observation to Planning Commissioner David Goodison brought up a stumbling block: one of the 20 townhomes in the site plan, from Vesta Pacific Development, extends into a 100-year flood plain, which under FEMA regulations would prevent its construction.

The project would build 35 units on the 1.86-acre site, along with a 4,100-square-foot commercial space, on the lot now occupied by three older buildings belonging to Sonoma Truck and Auto. Several other proposals have been made for the property since it closed in 2011, but were all withdrawn at some point in the application process. But while the current proposal has so far gained the support of city staff, the flood plain issue clearly presented a problem.

“I’m embarrassed to tell you this, but a good citizen of Sonoma wrote a letter three or four days ago, and that’s when we knew,” said developer Barry McComic. “It’s not (Goodison’s) fault that this issue of FEMA came up at the last minute, it’s our fault. We simply missed it. It’s about five or six feet into the line, and we simply did not recognize that that was the case.”

McComic said he didn’t want to make a presentation at the March 29 meeting, knowing the application would be continued, “to save my ammunition.”

Nonetheless the meeting lasted over two hours – Goodison didn’t announce his decision to “continue” the hearing until over half an hour into it – leading one commissioner, Carol Janson, to ask, “Then why are we here?”

“We’re just trying to strike a balance between solving problems expeditiously, and dumping problems on the Planning Commission at the last minute,” said Goodison. He said he decided to hold the meeting so that if other objections to the project were raised by commissioners or the public, the applicant would have adequate time to make adjustments.

Goodison identified the “good citizen” as architect Victor Conforti, who submitted a late comment on March 27 – two days before the meeting – outlining a number of objections to the project. But the flood-plain issue was not among them, apparently delivered in person to Goodison on Tuesday, March 27.

As it turned out, there were a number of issues that came up at the meeting, from parking to architectural choices to the city’s design guidelines, setbacks in the historic zone, scale and massing, and that ever-elusive Sonoma character. “Though something desperately needs to be built on this site, let’s not be so desperate that we accept something that is so unlike anything in Sonoma,” said neighbor Carol Marcus.

Other public comments were largely negative, and the commissioners’ comments were mixed. But Goodison ticked off a number of reasons why he would recommend the Planning Commission accept the project, and concluded:

“We feel the applicant has made a good proposal, especially in response to the direction the commission gave in the previous study session. We plan on returning to the Planning Commission in May with a refined proposal that addresses this floodway issue, and any other kinds of revisions or refinements that come out of the discussion tonight. But we feel this is a sound project and it will be ultimately something that the commission can support.”

Whether or not the commission, and the public, agrees with that evaluation will be decided at the May 10 Planning Commission meeting, when the Gateway project returns.