Letters to the Index-Tribune editor, Nov. 26, 2021

Thank goodness

EDITOR: In the 1870s, Colonel Armstrong set aside an area for a natural park. In 1917 Sonoma County purchased the property for $80,000. The State of California opened Armstrong Redwoods State Park in 1936. Thank goodness.

Local activism in the 1960s stopped the Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant from being built 2 miles west of the San Andreas Fault. Thank goodness.

In the 1990s, a North Bay International Airport was proposed to be built on Highway 37. Supervisor Mike Kerns believed the bayside area was best suited for restoration of wetlands habitat. No airport was built and the wetlands are being restored. Thank goodness.

In the early 2000s, Graton Rancheria proposed a casino on an ecological jewel at the gateway to the Sonoma Valley. Local residents rallied with the “Cows Not Casinos” campaign. Residents and land use organizations prevailed and saved the land. Thank goodness.

In 2021, Sonoma County residents, land use and ecology organizations rejected three proposed Sonoma Developmental Center redevelopment alternatives and created a community-driven fourth alternative to protect the wildlife corridor, character and safety of the Sonoma Valley, and ecological health of the North Bay. This alternative became a model for visionary planning in the era of climate change. Thank goodness.

Sharon Church

Glen Ellen

More housing at SDC

EDITOR: The recent Sonoma Developmental Center redevelopment plans have been revealed, and they are deeply flawed and exclusionary to affordable housing.

The lack of affordable housing is the number one issue in Sonoma Valley. Instead, the handpicked secret study group which was supposed to guide the process engaged in the creation of development parameters that are exclusionary to families, farmworkers and special needs populations who need help the most.

With 945 acres in the SDC, the alternatives that were presented produce no more than 310 affordable units (at most). At standard Sonoma County densities of 24 units per acre, that works out to less than 1.5% of the total area.

The ratio of market rate housing to affordable is four to one. This ignores the County’s Housing Analysis of Need and common sense.

• Why is the market rate housing proposed at all? Why is it proposed to be single family housing, which is the most wasteful of land?

• What is the need for non-residential development (such as a luxury hotel) to be proposed at all? Valley businesses can’t currently fill their existing jobs, and we need to stop catering to tourists to the detriment of working locals.

It appears to me that an exclusionary NIMBY approach has been followed from the beginning, behind the scenes, which advances an agenda favorable to no-growth ideologies and economic segregation.

This is a unique opportunity to address urgent needs which, sadly, is being sabotaged.

David Brigode

Sonoma

Support for district-based elections

EDITOR: I am excited that the City of Petaluma is evaluating transitioning to district-based voting. My mother and I immigrated from El Salvador 50 years ago. I worked in the restaurant industry for many decades. I am one of millions of hard working Latinx people who help feed, care for, serve in the military, grow food for, heal, invent, teach, engineer and build for this country. Collectively, we’ve paid billions of dollars in taxes in this country. We are the movers and shakers of America, yet we have had so little visibility and representation in local, state and national politics.

We are overdue for a seat at the table. District-based voting will crack open doors for those who've been left out. However switching to district based voting, by itself, does not guarantee representation. We need to give would-be-candidates of color encouragement, support and opportunity. We need everyone to get involved too! Visit cityofpetaluma.org/district-elections and sign up to get updates on public hearings. There is a quiet revolution happening in the city hall. Don’t miss out on it.

Oscar Miranda

East Petaluma