Tandem workshops put focus on housing in Sonoma

For many, the top issue facing the Sonoma Valley community, both inside city limits and in the wider watershed, is housing: affordable homes for people who live and work here. That’s the conclusion that can be drawn from the focus on housing issues by both regional and hyper-local policy groups, including the City of Sonoma and the valley-wide Sustainable Sonoma.

“We need more homes at multiple price points, in a diversity of sizes, while protecting our small-town feel and rural character,” said Kim Jones, coordinator of Sustainable Sonoma, an alliance of 30 diverse community leaders representing business, the environment, social justice, local government and nonprofits.

Sustainable Sonoma will hold a “learning lab” workshop at Sonoma Charter School at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14, the first in a series designed to further the conversation with a panel of Sonoma Valley community leaders. Local leaders representing tourism, health, the environment, schools, seniors and other sectors will describe how the current housing situation is untenable for their sector of the community.

Supervisor Susan Gorin will open the meeting, and, after Sustainable Sonoma leaders describe the group’s strategy for improving the Valley’s housing situation, guest speaker Matt Franklin of MidPen Housing will discuss a range of innovative solutions that other communities have implemented to provide homes, and the outline barriers they overcame.

Two days later, the City of Sonoma will hold the second in its series of three Housing Our Community meetings, on May 16, at the Vintage House, at 6 p.m.

At that event, a panel of housing experts will discuss building and financing affordable and market rate housing – with a focus on practical, real world examples.

While the focus is on housing solutions inside the 2.2-square mile city limits, the discussion panel will doubtless have wider applicability. Attendees will hear from practitioners who are delivering housing and see how the concepts shared in the first Town Hall work in our region.

The Sonoma Charter School is located at 17202 Sonoma Highway, in the Springs. More information on the series is at sustainablesonoma.net/learning-lab-series.

The Vintage House is at 264 1st St. E., Sonoma. Information on the city’s town hall series is online at sonomacity.org/housing-our-community.

Contact Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.