Protesters in Sonoma demand transparency from controversial developer Ken Mattson

Kay Austin used to work as a pastry chef at CocoaPlanet, a formerly thriving everything-chocolate shop on Broadway in Sonoma. She returned to the site Saturday, but it was no reunion.

Austin joined about 40 people who gathered at the business — empty for several years, and now fronted by a draped chain link fence — to protest the mushrooming real estate portfolio of Ken Mattson, the Piedmont-based developer who has bought dozens of properties in and around the city of Sonoma and allowed many of them to idle in disrepair.

“It also bugs me to see the Cheese Factory boarded up. Our heartfelt favorite restaurant, the Depot Hotel — that’s boarded up,” said Austin, who has lived in Sonoma for 48 years with her husband, Kevin. “(Mattson) said he’s gonna buy ’em and make ’em better. Well, he lies. It hits home, but not because I worked here. Because it’s our town.”

The town potentially could be reshaped by someone in possession of so many properties, the demonstration’s organizers believe. Some of the sites are locally iconic, including the Sonoma Cheese Factory, the Depot, Duggan’s Mission Chapel, Ravenswood Winery and the sprawling Cornerstone complex in the Big Bend area south of the city.

But neither Mattson nor representatives of his two most active businesses, KS Mattson Partners and LeFever-Mattson, have ever articulated a clear strategy. The element of mystery is part of what drew people Saturday to the former CocoaPlanet site, just south of the downtown Sonoma Plaza.

The protesters carried placards reading “Stop the invasion of the business snatchers” and “People over profits.” One sign mimicked a Monopoly game box and advertised “Mattson’s Monopoly, Sonoma Edition.”

The more artful displays were designed by Veronica Napoles, a Sonoma Valley resident who has emerged as one of Mattson’s most energized critics. She and Mary Samson, another local, have organized the group Wake Up Sonoma, dedicated to shining light on Mattson’s purchases. Many of the protesters Saturday wore black “Wake Up Sonoma” T-shirts.

Area residents have been perplexed and increasingly alarmed since Mattson began to acquire properties in 2015. But there wasn’t any organized opposition until Wake Up Sonoma formed in late 2022 to speak out against a proposed partnership between Sonoma County and LeFever-Mattson to develop a small public plaza in Boyes Hot Springs.

Now, Napoles said, her group has about 250 Facebook followers and close to 400 people on an email list.

The goal of Saturday’s rally, she said, was “awareness of LeFever-Mattson, and the number of properties that they own and that we continue to discover.

“The hope is that they will become more transparent with the community about what their long-term plans are. If not with us, then hopefully with local government — the city of Sonoma and Sonoma County.”

Ken Mattson did not respond to The Press Democrat’s requests for comment. But he may have taken an interest in the protest outside one of his properties as Napoles said a car drove by at one point with license plate MATTSN1; a woman leaned out of the passenger window and recorded the assembly with her phone.

Organizers are convinced the chain-link fence was also a response to the group’s call to action. It didn’t go up until two or three days before the event, which had previously been publicized.

Wake Up Sonoma originally planned to protest every weekend at one of Mattson’s dormant properties, Napoles said. Though that plan may not stick, the group promised to demonstrate again soon. Napoles declined to name the targeted parcel, but said it would likely be closer to the Plaza.

The sky was brooding during Saturday’s late-morning rally and a bit of drizzle fell. For the most part, Mattson’s antagonists remained dry. A few passersby stopped to inquire about the protest and there were quite a few honks from passing motorists.

Hunter Mills, who lives in Sonoma with his husband, was drawn to the rally in part by a pattern of anti-LGBTQ+ behavior displayed by those in Mattson’s orbit. His wife, Stacy Mattson, was called out for several homophobic social media posts that since have been deleted. And his longtime business partner, Tim LeFever, has worked on a host of conservative causes that have included a fight against gay marriage.

But Mills is just as concerned by the number of properties being allowed to deteriorate by their enigmatic and low-profile owner.

“There’s no revenue, nobody hired, nobody working, no tax revenue for the city of Sonoma,” Mills said. “So, if they’re looking to make money off it somehow by being absent, then they’re taking money from our community.”

But as Austin had suggested, the impacts aren’t just financial. Something is lost, these community members said, when too many businesses and residential properties sit in a state of disrepair, surrounded by piles of debris and metal fencing.

“Dude, it’s not attractive,” Mills said. “I’m a gay man. I want pretty. I moved here for pretty.”

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Skinny_Post.