Sonoma County Housing Initiatives to Planning Commission August 30th (date changed)

Climate, Groundwater, News, Opinion, Resources / August 12, 2018

Permit Sonoma staff will present a set of housing initiatives to the Planning Commission on August 30, 2018. (This item had previously been scheduled for August 23.) 

OPINION: Our Supervisors  think all development damage can be mitigated, nothing is ever a significant impact and continue to ignore the cumulative impacts of their decisions.  CEQA (California Environmental Act) is a nasty word that will make them cringe. Since the fires the supervisors have exempted environmental provisions in order to rush through housing. The plans being developed will have major implications for the unincorporated areas of Sonoma County and yet our county’s leaders want to rush through new development with little or no environmental studies or impacts. We are experiencing “disaster capitalism” with the fire being used as the excuse to do away with thoughtful planning for future generations.

We all live in that lack of generational insight: traffic congestion, pollution from the alcohol farms (2 million pounds of chemicals a year in vineyards), housing prices skyrocketing due to the investor class (homes are investments not community) buying out our neighborhoods for weekend party/rentals. Our aquifers are being depleted at a rapid rate by the wine industry and our agricultural heritage is a joke. How can you call our county “agriculture” oriented when 96{5fc40a96f14c4a6aa4c2a32569b0a57dcc67c0b31eb04c341474283f11b6cdd2} of all our food is imported? You can’t live on wine. Will the supervisors listen to the community or their donors? D. Franklin
Another opinion:
What I am currently seeing around the county are large 50+ acre vineyards going in quickly. One in Petaluma, one in Sonoma Valley. Some of the vineyard
development costs came from Open Space District funds by eliminating housing.
The reason for the rapid push is the landowners concern about WATER regulations and the 3 new groundwater regulatory bodies formed in
county. The landowners want their wells in now and their vineyards in the ground to justify their water use. I noted the expansion in the Carneros Winery claiming to use existing well with no environmental impact claimed. People should be filing complaint on all these permits against those water claims.
We’ve seen other counties with major groundwater damage from over farming. Unless groups file against these projects, there is no paper claim to
appeal their new or increased water usage IF our groundwater begins to suffer.  B. Cooper

Permit Sonoma staff will present a set of housing initiatives to the Planning Commission on August 30, 2018. (This item had previously been scheduled for August 23.) 

Staff completed an initial study for this project and determined that the adoption of the proposed code changes would not result in significant impacts on the environment and a Negative Declaration is appropriate. More information as well as an electronic version of the Negative Declaration will be available here: sonomacounty.ca.gov/HousingInitiatives

The first phase of the project involved code amendments designed to remove constraints to housing production. Those amendments were adopted by the Board of Supervisors in May. More information about the first phase can be found here: sonomacounty.ca.gov/PRMD/Regulations/Housing/News/Board-of-Supervisors-Approves-First-Set-of-Housing-Initiatives/

The Planning Commission staff report will be available for download the week of August 27 at the Housing Initiatives website. 

Please let us know what you think! You can email questions or comments to: HousingInitiatives@sonoma-county.org

Permit Sonoma is introducing a series of housing initiatives designed to reduce constraints and expand opportunities for housing development. You are receiving this email because you have expressed interest in receiving updates on these initiatives.