July 8, 2025. After various approvals today by the Board of Supervisors, Sonoma County is poised to launch a second round of public hearings and regulatory review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for a proposal to redevelop the shuttered campus of the state-owned Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) property.  The last attempt by the County to approve a Specific Plan for SDC development in December 2022 was subsequently voided by an October 2024 Superior Court ruling (SCALE v. The County of Sonoma). The Court ordered the Board of Supervisors to de-certify all land-use approvals for SDC and prohibited “approval of any entitlements” based on the Specific Plan and discredited Environmental Impact Report (EIR).

The application under consideration by the County this time around was submitted by a consortium of developers in August 2023 (Keith Rogal and Grupe Homes via “Eldridge Renewal LLC”) in cooperation with the California Department of General Services (DGS) who still own and manage the SDC property. Promises of early community engagement were never realized as Rogal-Grupe filed a surprise “builder’s remedy” application that far exceeds the 630 homes contemplated in the 2022 Specific Plan. According to the Permit Sonoma “SDC Housing Development Project” website, the Rogal-Grupe proposal for a Major Subdivision, Design Review, and Density Bonus includes:

• 990 residential units ranging from 500-3,200 sf with 200 “affordable to lower income households.”
• 130,000 square feet of commercial uses, including office, retail, research and development, micro-manufacturing and other uses
• A 150- room hotel (approximately 120,000 square feet in total) with a parking structure

Sonoma Land Trust (SLT), many of our local partners, and hundreds of individuals provided extensive public comment on the SDC Specific Plan EIR from 2020-2022. These comments formed the basis of the public record that Judge DeMeo relied on in the SCALE case to overturn the County’s approval of the Plan. The main concern for SLT and many in the community has always been the same: how much housing and associated development is reasonable at SDC while fulfilling the Specific Plan’s Vision and Guiding Principle to “Promote a sustainable, climate-resilient community surrounded by preserved open space and parkland that protects natural resources, fosters environmental stewardship, and maintains and enhances the permeability of the Sonoma Valley Wildlife Corridor for safe wildlife movement throughout the site [and] supports the responsible use of open space as a recreation resource for the community.

Coupled with the procedural and substantive advantages of the “builder’s remedy” application, the much larger development footprint proposed by Eldridge Renewal LLC creates a more difficult path for meaningful public participation and engagement. Here are next steps in the County’s review process for 2025-2026:

Notice of Preparation

Permit Sonoma will publish a Notice of Preparation (NOP) for responsible agencies and interested parties to provide comments on what should be included in the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the project.  The NOP is scheduled for August 15, 2025 which describes the project that will be analyzed in the EIR and identifies areas of probable environmental effects. Sonoma Land Trust will be filing comments in response to the NOP which we will post on the transformsdc.com site along with suggestions for public comments.

Scoping Period and Public Meeting

The scoping period for the NOP is 30 days, and sometime during this period the County will hold a scoping meeting “to provide an additional opportunity for agency staff and interested members of the public to submit comments, either written or verbal, on the scope of the environmental issues to be addressed in the EIR”. The tentative date for the scoping meeting is September 11, 2025, and we will post confirmation and more information when the date is finalized.

Release of Draft Environmental Impact Report

Once the consultant preparing the EIR (Dyett & Bhatia) have completed all necessary studies and received input and direction from local, state and federal regulatory agencies through the NOP process, the County will release the Draft EIR. Dyett & Bhatia’s scope of work indicates the Draft will be released on January 5, 2026 with public comment through February 19, 2026. The “builder’s remedy” statute limits the County to only five public hearings/workshops in total, so this will be a very truncated process with a Planning Commission and Sonoma Valley Citizen’s Advisory Committee hearing set for February 4, 2026.

Consideration of Final EIR and Revised Specific Plan

Once all public comments have been reviewed and responded to, the Final EIR will be released on April 29, 2026. The Planning Commission will consider approval on May 21, 2026 with the final vote by the Board of Supervisors scheduled for June 9, 2026.

Sonoma Land Trust will use this blog, our e-news and website, and public workshops later this fall to make sure that everyone has the information you need to submit effective and compelling comments and testimony through the CEQA process.

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