Hanna’s 60-acre development draws mixed reactions from Sonoma Valley community

During Wednesday’s Springs Municipal Advisory Council meeting, community members shared differing opinions about the Hanna Boys Center’s potential 60-acre development on Agua Caliente Road.

Michael Woods, a local attorney who has been representing Hanna Center since 2014, gave a presentation that outlined possible development ideas, including affordable housing for its staff and community members, senior housing, the preservation of 20- acres of the site for bike and walking paths, a vocational training site, a hotel for visitors and a child care center with a preschool.

Hanna plans to maintain ownership of the site, which, according to Woods, will give the center the ability and motivation to maintain the property after it’s built.

According to Woods, the Hanna Center began discussing this development as far back as 2004. The exact site under consideration is 810 W. Agua Caliente Road, near Arnold Drive.

The Sonoma County Housing Element, a state-required document that guides future development in unincorporated areas, suggests as many as 668 housing units at the Agua Caliente site, but Woods said the total number of units Hanna will propose hasn’t been finalized.

“This is totally an inappropriate project for the infrastructure,” Avram Goldman, a broker at a local real estate firm, said. “There are just way too many concerns about this project...”

Neighbors of the proposal were first notified of the project in a June 9 letter, with a chance to share their thoughts in small group meetings hosted by Hanna last month. Woods said the issues raised by residents included fire evacuation routes, noise, traffic, water supply and “neighborhood character.” Their concerns were echoed in the Springs MAC meeting during public comments.

“I don’t think anything surprised us,” Woods said of the feedback. “We’ve had a mix of support for the project and concerns over the issues that we mentioned.”

After his presentation, roughly 10 community members spoke during the public comment period, with opinions split between concerns over large-scale building in a rural area, and the need for affordable housing. Maite Iturri, chair of the Springs MAC, showed general support for the proposal, highlighting the vast need she’s seen in the Valley for housing.

“I was an educator in this Valley for many, many years, and I watched my school go from 500 students to under 300 in the time that I was principal. I’ve watched families leave this community,” Iturri said. “My wondering is, if not in these locations (Hanna Center and the Sonoma Developmental Center) that have been discussed over and over again, and I don’t expect an answer—I’m just putting this out there, then where?”

Direct neighbors to the proposed site were most concerned about its impact and purpose.

“I’m alarmed by the unanimous kumbaya of this committee over this project, and congratulations again to the San Francisco Public Relations Firm that is handling the spin of what this project is,” Sean Fisher, a resident along Agua Caliente Road, said. “The primary reason this is happening is because Hanna wants money.”

Worried about the effect on the rural character of the neighborhood, one resident, who addressed himself only as “Barry,” said that he and more than a dozen of his neighbors on the south side of Agua Caliente Road were organizing and committed to keeping development out of their neighborhood.

Springs neighbor Mario Castillo highlighted the paradox of Valley residents who speak out against affordable housing developments while also saying they want to see support for working-class people who can’t afford the region’s higher-than-average rents.

“It really comes down to people concerned about their own interest,” Castillo said. “It really comes down to fear, and losing their comfort because they know, they know that housing is a problem.”

Iturri pointed out that the area’s lack of housing options has changed demographics in the region. “We are becoming a community without children. We are becoming a community that is going to be less and less diverse, and my concern is that out future is not looking like a community of families and people who have gathering spaces, that we are becoming very siloed, and I am concerned.”

The Hanna Center hopes to finish its site plan in the next couple of months and submit it to Permit Sonoma, the county’s land-use planning and development permitting agency, for review. An environmental impact report is also planned.

“The issues that we are planning to have studied in our enviornmental report are the issues that were mentioned last night (at the Springs MAC),” Woods told the Index-Tribune on Thursday.

Woods will next address the North Sonoma Valley MAC meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 15, where he will give the same presentation and take public comments. Find the agenda and the link to join the meeting at sonomacounty.ca.gov, or head to Zoom and enter the meeting ID: 921 6738 8545 and passcode: 475848.

Contact the reporter Rebecca Wolff at rebecca.wolff@sonomanews.com.