Springs Specific Plan highlights several Mattson projects

As the finishing touches are added to the Springs Specific Plan before it heads to the environmental review stage, affluent real estate buyers Ken and Stacy Mattson are making their own mark with a proposed community plaza, among other projects.

The Springs Specific Plan is the planning guide for the future of the Springs and is intended to be an articulation of the community’s vision. The guidelines and policies outlined in the specific plan will shape future developments and infrastructure improvements.

A series of properties owned by the Mattsons are to be considered as part of the future planning efforts for the Springs, but residents of the neighborhood have expressed concern and mistrust over the slow pace of their development projects.

“We demand, instruct, beg, pressure, insist and strongly urge you to get the Mattsons to finish their project as proposed,” Springs resident Skye Hallberg wrote to Supervisor Susan Gorin about the Mattsons’ Moon Mountain property. “How can the county allow them to continue purchasing dozens of properties when they cannot even complete one of their two first purchases here? Is (PRMD director) Tennis (Wick) just rubber-stamping these construction permit extensions?”

But other acute issues — housing, transportation and parking — are sought to be addressed in the Specific Plan, too, with millions of county dollars headed toward the Springs.

The (proposed) Springs Plaza

First District Supervisor Susan Gorin said one of her goals before leaving office is to develop a “long overdue” community plaza in the Springs. She said Ken Mattson offered help in the form of his property at 18092 Sonoma Highway, the former Post Office building, as a potential location.

Chair of the Springs Municipal Advisory Council Maite Iturri said a community gathering place is something she and others on the MAC have advocated for a “very, very long time.”

“We need that sense of community and a plaza park that could build that sense of belonging and that sense of place for us,” Iturri said.

A spokesperson for Mattson, Jeff Nead, said the developers’ residential and mixed-use projects will “enliven the Springs and benefit the entire community. The team is currently working collaboratively with the county regarding project approvals.”

Gorin said she has been tucking away funds in a county escrow account for the plaza, enough to potentially build the project without assistance. But she felt it made sense to partner with Ken Mattson, and there is an “agreement to form an agreement” which would require the Mattsons meet specific deadlines to ensure the project is completed on the county’s schedule.

In addition to creating the sought-after community plaza, Mattson’s proposal would create a parking lot underneath the plaza, which would address a need for parking also identified in the Springs Specific Plan.

But with multiple projects left untouched, including the Boyes Food Center and Lanning Structures, residents have questioned whether the plaza would ever be built.

“I've heard the Mattsons announce plans, and then more plans, and then more plans. And I have seen them able to accomplish nothing,” Hallberg said. “The Springs needs a lot of help, but not from the Mattsons.”

Still, the Mattsons are within compliance on their properties with Permit Sonoma and national issues concerning building supply chains have affected Mattson’s properties, Gorin confirmed.

“I expect to see construction commence shortly on the Lanning Structure property, followed by the initial phase of Boyes Food Market and completion of exterior construction and landscaping around the Moon Mountain houses,” Gorin said.

Logistical challenges of new food center

Another point of emphasis in the Springs Specific Plan was the creation of mixed-use development to house both commercial businesses and residents. But this may present challenges to the current occupants of the Boyes Food Center located at 16205 Sonoma Highway.

The redevelopment of the property will temporarily displace the current residents in off-site housing during construction of the mixed-use building.

“The applicant (Ken Mattson) is committing to offer any qualified household... a onetime initial opportunity to enter into a renewable, non-transferable lease of a market-rate unit at an equivalent low-income rate,” Permit Sonoma documents confirm.

Mattson and his associates have “calculated that an additional 13% of the units, or five units, will need to be made available to the existing residents to help ensure no one is displaced by the project.” In total, the new mixed-use building would crate 37 housing units, with eight of those restricted to affordable housing.

The current occupants would have the first right of refusal to any of the apartments in the new building, which “provides a greater level of affordability than otherwise required by the county,” Permit Sonoma documents state.

Iturri, raised concerns about the temporary displacement of residents and the slow pace of other projects developed by the Mattsons. Many of these residents, Iturri noted, are farmworkers or essential workers who are commonly low-income and housing insecure.

“We need to make sure that they're housed and sheltered,” Iturri said. “They're the economic backbone of our community...I want to see that plan. And I want lots of people to have eyes on it to make sure that it is in a timely manner.”

Crosswalks coming?

The Springs has seen a number of pedestrian deaths along Highway 12 in recent years, and leaders in the community, including Gorin and Iturri, have advocated for safety improvements to pedestrian crosswalks along Highway 12.

“With the completion of Highway 12, it is apparent that painted crosswalks may not be sufficient to provide protection for pedestrians crossing the highway at key intersections,” Gorin said. “We are asking the Board of Supervisors for funding for lights and more visible crosswalk treatments for four locations along the highway for pedestrian safety.”

Similar lights were placed at crossings in the City of Sonoma as Caltrans repaved a 7-mile stretch of Highway 12 earlier this year. And Iturri believes that a commitment to equity must ensure the Springs receives similar upgrades.

“We just saw the crosswalks in the City of Sonoma have lights placed on them...Are we going to do the same thing for the Springs?” Iturri said, adding, “I want it to be walkable, I want the crosswalks to be controlled, I want there to be transportation up and down through the valley.”

Contact Chase Hunter at chase.hunter@sonomanews.com and follow @Chase_HunterB on Twitter.