City of Sonoma OKs permit-parking for Clay Street area

Clay Street residents are just looking for a place to park – and they have been for several years.

On May 4, the City of Sonoma steered closer to establishing a Residential Permit Parking Program (RPPP) for the neighborhood encompassing Clay, Bragg and Cooper streets, three blocks on the southern edge of town that are adjacent to such busy weekend attractions as TrainTown and the Lodge at Sonoma, whose visitors regularly take up valuable street parking spaces.

The Sonoma City Council voted 5-0 to move forward with an RPPP and directed city staff to work with the city Traffic Safety Committee to develop specifics for the program.

“Something has to be done for the neighborhood because it’s pretty aggravating,” said Councilmember Madolyn Agrimonti. “If you can’t have friends over at certain times of the day, maybe somebody can’t get out (of their driveway), to me it’s always been a huge issue.”

Residents of the neighborhood have for years complained of the dearth of parking when out-of-towners contribute to an influx of vehicles on the Broadway corridor during weekends and the high-season summer months. Neighbors say the situation has exacerbated this past year after the opening of the Alta Madrone Apartments, a 48-unit affordable housing complex at the corner of Clay and Broadway.

Sonoma Planning Director David Storer said that an informal survey of parking in the neighborhood last October showed that TrainTown’s parking lot fully populated within 90 minutes of its opening, and “by 11:15 or 11:30 a.m. (vehicles) were bleeding onto (the surrounding streets).”

In June of 2021, the Traffic Safety Committee recommended that the City Council establish a RPPP. Management of the Lodge, TrainTown and the Alta Madrone Apartments are all in support of the establishment of the plan, according to city staff.

The establishment of a formal RPPP in the Clay Street neighborhood is described by city staff as “unique” in that weekend visitors to TrainTown are visiting a business that is not located within city limits.

“If TrainTown was located within city limits, the City of Sonoma would be able to exercise land use control to address on- and off-site parking and any need for parking on public streets,” staff wrote in its report for the meeting.

Storer last Wednesday elaborated on the situation where, unlike other nearby land parcels, TrainTown is carved out of the city limits.

“The question arises as to whose responsibility is it to provide for parking for that particular attraction,” said Storer. “Is it the city’s responsibility? Is it TrainTown’s?”

He said that without land-use authority, the city can’t require TrainTown to provide parking facilities “to meet the demand that they’re creating.”

“It goes to the question as to why it would be the city’s responsibility or anybody else’s for that matter (to provide parking for TrainTown),” said Storer.

Vice Mayor Kelso Barnett said that a recent draft municipal services review from the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) urges the City of Sonoma to annex the TrainTown parcel into its city limits.

Even if TrainTown is annexed into Sonoma, the county entitlements it has been accustomed to would likely be grandfathered in, said City Attorney Jeff Walter.

Clay Street resident Gail Miller spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, imploring the council to do something about this “huge issue.”

“Not only are (TrainTown visitors) crossing Highway 12, but they’re roaming up and down our streets and it’s an accident waiting to happen,” said Miller. “I don’t know why TrainTown didn’t get incorporated into the city limits in the first place.”

The council directed staff to move forward with an RPPP, as well as Councilmember Sandra Lowe’s suggestion to reach out to the Sonoma Valley Unified School District to gauge the possibility of using the Adele Harrison Middle School parking lot for overflow parking for Broadway-area vehicles on weekends and in the summer. Additionally, the council urged staff to continue looking into the viability of a cross-Valley shuttle service to alleviate traffic and parking.

Staff will next prepare a RPPP, including details as to its duration and geography, and present it for review to the Traffic Safety Committee, with a goal of bringing a resolution before the council before its July break.

Email Jason Walsh at Jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.