Sonoma looks to add 10 properties to its historic register

The Sonoma Planning Commission had a meeting for the history books last week, as members voiced their support for a proposal that seeks to add 10 more properties to the city’s Local Inventory of Historic Sites and Structures.

The sites are all residential properties outside the Plaza-area Historic Overlay Zone that were built between 1840 and 1940.

The matter next returns to the Design Review and Historic Preservation Commission, which previously recommended the sites be added to the inventory at its Sept. 13 meeting. Commission members will again consider the proposal in a second and final reading, which they are expected to approve.

The designated properties, once the list has been OK’d, will bring the city’s tally of historic sites to 153. They are the first sites the city of Sonoma has added to the list since 2006 when officials compiled the original list of 94 properties.

“It’s one of the best kept secrets,” Sonoma Planning Director David Storer said at the Sept. 15 meeting. “We’ve got over 100 (historic) sites and structures in Sonoma — I think it’s a very rare thing.”

Added Planning Commissioner Ron Wellander: “The fabric that makes up Sonoma is pretty unique and we should recognize and value that.”

The inventory hasn’t been entirely static in the 16 years since the city established it, with such renowned sites as Mission San Francisco de Solano, the Vallejo Home and the Bear Flag Monument among the initial tally of 94.

When the City Council approved the inventory in 2006, it also established that any city sites added to national and state historic registers would automatically be added to Sonoma’s inventory, which is kept with the Office of the City Clerk.

Since then, such iconic downtown structures as the Sebastiani Theatre Building at 476 First St. E., the Sonoma Valley Woman’s Club at 574 First St. E. and the Masonic Building at 465 First St. W. have been added to the local list.

The proposed additions are the result of the city’s first internal review of historic properties since the inventory was created.

The review was led by Stacy Kozakavich, an architectural historian with consultants Page & Turnbull. The review focused on properties outside the Historic Overlay Zone, due to their potential vulnerability to development, Kozakavich told the Sonoma Design Review & Historic Preservation Commission in August.

The Sonoma League for Historic Preservation and the Sonoma Historical Society provided guidance on where to focus the review, said Kozakavich.

The 10 sites include:

• 19343 Highway 12

• 29 E. MacArthur St.

• 324 E. MacArthur St.

• 19990 Seventh St. E.

• 20100 Broadway

• 700 Curtin Lane

• 399 W. Napa St.

• 19360 Sonoma Highway

• 272 Patten St.

• 663 Second St. E.

Kozakavich told the Design Review Commission in August that another 11 properties would need some minor additions to their historic-register application forms in order to be ready for designation. On top of that, another 40 properties could be added to a “study list” for future designation.

Historic designation could have various impacts on owners of such properties, from a deeper level of review during development proposals to potential tax relief provided through such state programs as the Mills Act, according to planning staff.

“Our current municipal code does not address whether (the city of Sonoma) should consider the impact on property owners, it’s not really the issue,” said Storer. “But I think, as a matter of good public policy, it makes sense to have their blessing when we move forward.”

In voicing his support for the proposed additions to the inventory of historic sites, Wellander added: “I’m a strong advocate of doing whatever we can do to protect what we have.”

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