Bill Lynch: How the ‘field of dreams' became a reality

The plan called for a new city hall sometime in the future.|

Music returns to the Sonoma Valley Field of Dreams Oct. 8, with some classic rockers like John Fogerty, Steve Miller and Dave Mason performing at the annual Sonoma Music Festival. The field is a great place for a community concert outdoors, and testimony to the versatile use to which that city-owned property has been put since its completion 22 years ago.

Originally, it was part of the Montini Ranch, some of which was sold off in the 1970s as the Montini family reduced its farming operations.

Approximately 18 acres of that land was purchased by the State of California in 1974 and added to Sonoma State Historic Park that includes the home of Gen. Mariano G. Vallejo.

Then, in February of 1977, 11 acres off First Street West was purchased from Annie Montini for $163,000 by the City of Sonoma as a future site for a Sonoma civic center, including a new city hall and other public buildings.

City Manager Frank James emphasized at the time of the purchase that this was part of a long-term plan and no immediate building construction was anticipated.

In December of the same year, a city committee announced that City Hall in the Plaza was obsolete because its city council and court chambers did not meet federal accessibility standards (for which there was a 1981 deadline). This pushed discussion of possibly using the recently purchased Montini property for a new city hall and court chambers.

In July of 1978, a new engineer’s report added to the city’s building woes by finding that the police station, then located in an old auto repair building on Patten Street (next to the firehouse) was seismically unsafe because it had no steel reinforcing in its concrete walls.

By November of that year, the city unveiled an architect’s plan for a new civic center for the former Montini site on First Street West opposite the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Building. The first phase would be the construction of a police station, followed by municipal court chambers. The plan called for a new city hall sometime in the future. Based on that original plan, about half of the 11 acres would be reserved as a park and open space.

But, opposition to moving city hall there and to the development of that property into any kind of civic center was already growing. One local resident, Garth Eliassen, was an active and outspoken critic of the civic center idea.

He was so successful in his opposition that by early 1978 he managed to get enough signatures on a petition to put a measure on the ballot that would block any building on that site without approval of city voters.

The city, desperately in need of at least a new police station, put its own proposition on the same ballot, calling for the public approval of constructing the police station and court on the site.

In a special election held in September of 1978, both measures passed; Eliassen’s by 41 votes, the city’s by 58 votes.

As a result, the city was able to build a new police station and muni court (which eventually became the city council chambers). But any other buildings on the site, including a new city hall, would have to be approved by a vote of residents.

The city eventually found other funds to make the current city hall in the Plaza accessible and in compliance with federal regulations.

The restrictions on additional buildings on the remaining property behind the police station are what facilitated the use of that property for the Field of Dreams, developed and maintained by volunteers under a lease arrangement with the city. Except when it is being used by one of the local youth athletic leagues, the area is open to the general public for recreational use, and once a year for the big music festival.

Not bad for an original investment of $163,000 by the city.

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