October 2, 2017.

It’s been several months since we provided an update on the status of the closure and reuse planning process for the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC). As reported in May, the state Department of General Services has contracted with the San Francisco-based architectural and engineering firm Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT) for a $2 million contract to perform a “site assessment” of the 860-acre SDC property, which is scheduled for closure as a residential hospital by the end of 2018. Since their kick-off meeting in May, the WRT team has been hard at work examining the buildings, infrastructure, historical resources, and natural lands of SDC.  WRT expects to have the site assessment and “constraints analysis” completed in mid-December, and this fall signals the start of the community engagement phase of their work plan. Here is the lineup of meetings scheduled for the next few months:

September 28th and November 2nd:  Meetings of SDC Community Advisory Committee

The community advisory committee (see roster and agenda for 9/28/17 meeting) was created by the state to provide advice and feedback to WRT on the site assessment process. This committee has not been formed to start developing reuse ideas, but rather to make sure that key local stakeholders can comment on the preliminary site assessment findings, and their implication on opportunities and constraints for the SDC site. We will post a summary of the September 28th meeting and the background materials distributed by WRT on the blog site in the next week or so.

October 21:  SDC Town Hall Meeting at Altimira Middle School, Sonoma, CA

(Morning meeting, details and agenda pending)

Supervisor Susan Gorin and several of our state legislators are going to host a “town hall” style community forum on the current status of the SDC closure process, the state’s investment in a “safety net” for clients moving from SDC, and an update on the site assessment process. Supervisor Gorin is working closely with Senators Mike McGuire and Bill Dodd, and Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry to develop the agenda, and as soon as it’s official, we will post more details on the blog site.

December 2: SDC Community Workshop hosted by WRT and State of California

(Afternoon meeting, details and agenda pending)

As a follow-up to the SDC Community Advisory Committee meetings (which are invite only and not open to the general public) WRT and state agency officials will be holding a community workshop on December 2nd to present the results of the site assessment and answer questions from the audience.  We don’t have an agenda or location for the meeting yet, but we will post that information on the blog site as soon as it becomes available. Please mark your calendars for the October 21st and December 2nd community meetings, and get ready for a busy fall and winter of SDC-related news and events.

The Transform SDC Blog site was set up in 2014 to provide the Sonoma Valley community — and those interested in the future of the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) — a forum and information source for news related to the closure of SDC.  For more information, please post a response on the blog site, or email John McCaull at johnm@sonomalandtrust.org.