Sonoma Developmental Center

Coalition Unites Around SDC Conservation Priorities and Wildlife Corridor Study

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August 26, 2024

With large-scale housing and resort hotel development proposed for the campus of the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) and a new regional headquarters for CAL FIRE in the planning stages, the 900-acre property is facing unprecedented threats to the integrity of a regionally important wildlife corridor and the abundant water resources of the Sonoma Creek watershed. In response, a coalition of NGO’s including the Sonoma Land Trust, Jack London Park Partners, Sonoma Ecology Center, and Audubon Canyon Ranch, have united to design and fund a comprehensive studyto develop recommendations for the conservation and enhancement of the irreplaceable natural resources of SDC.

As part of the final state budget approved in June 2024, the Legislature appropriated $200,000 in funding through the Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) to contribute to a study analyzing “the impacts on wildlife and habitat from the redevelopment plans for the core campus submitted to Sonoma County, the proposed siting of a new regional headquarters and fire station for CAL FIRE, and addition of portions of the property to Jack London State Historic Park.” 

Sonoma Land Trust (SLT) is in the process of submitting a grant proposal to WCB to secure these funds and will match the investment to employ the leading scientists and experts to focus on three areas of research and recommendations: 

  1. Developing a baseline of current habitat conditions and wildlife use of the property
  2. Designation of areas most appropriate for limited development and public use to protect sensitive wildlife habitat
  3. Design guidelines that recommend avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures for any known development plans for the property.

There are serious concerns that the various development proposals for the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) will lead to several negative environmental and community impacts, including increased fire risk, thousands of additional cars on already congested roads, water quality degradation, and the permanent loss of the rural and agricultural character of the Sonoma Valley. The recent Superior Court decision in the case of SCALE v. County of Sonoma highlights these issues. The Court found that the SDC Specific Plan included “toothless and vague” mitigation measures for environmental impacts and “did nothing more than set forth hopeful intentions and vague statements…with no definition of what any of this means.” The SDC Specific Plan was approved in December 2022, so the CAL FIRE regional headquarters project was not considered in the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) or planning documents.. 

It is unclear if or when Sonoma County will revise the SDC Specific Plan to comply with the Superior Court’s ruling that overturned the plan and its Environmental Impact Report (EIR). For Sonoma Land Trust and our partners, protecting the wildlife and habitat resources of SDC has always been the top priority for the property’s future use. Instead of waiting for the state or county to develop a meaningful conservation strategy, the community will be prepared this time with focused, science-based recommendations. These recommendations will guide any future development while ensuring that the wildlife corridor, water resources, and open spaces are not ignored or discounted.

CAL FIRE proposes new Regional Headquarters on SDC Open Space Lands

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August 22, 2024

In early 2024, a surprise proposal to build a new regional headquarters for CAL FIRE on a portion of the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) property was included in Governor Newsom’s FY 2024-2025 Draft Budget. In December 2023, the land in question—about 52 acres along the eastern part of SDC’s open space—was transferred from the Department of General Services (DGS) to CAL FIRE through a ‘transfer of jurisdiction’ that was not previously disclosed to the public or Sonoma County officials. This land was originally intended to be added to Jack London State Historic Park. 

According to CAL FIRE’s Budget Change Proposal, the area will be the site of a new Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit Headquarters and relocated Glen Ellen Fire Station. The project includes the acquisition of property, design, and construction of a new administration building, an Emergency Command Center (ECC) building, an auto shop, a service center, a training building, Captains Barracks, a training tower, a communications tower, a fire pump test pit, a generator/pump and storage building, a self-contained breathing apparatus recharge building, and a radio vault/repair building. Total project costs are estimated at $152,392,000, including a performance criteria phase ($7,619,000) and a design-build phase ($144,773,000). The performance criteria phase is estimated to run from Summer 2024-Summer 2026, and the design-build will be completed by June 2029.

After reviewing the budget proposal, Sonoma Land Trust worked with our lobbyist and legislative staff to create a new statutory requirement that CAL FIRE include protections for the wildlife corridor and natural resources in the performance criteria phase of the project. Specifically, CAL FIRE must ensure that:

“the design, siting, acquisition, planning, and construction of the facilities and related infrastructure conserve and protect to the greatest extent feasible the habitat, open space, and wildlife resources of the area within the former Sonoma Developmental Center property that is designated as a Habitat Connectivity Corridor and Community Separator in the Sonoma County General Plan. The design and location of the facilities and related infrastructure including, but not limited to, the placement of the facilities, lighting, and fencing, shall avoid and minimize impacts to the habitat connectivity corridor to the greatest extent feasible.”

Sonoma Land Trust will be meeting with CAL FIRE, the California Natural Resources Agency, and other interested parties throughout the fall to ensure that these statutory requirements are included in the performance criteria for this newly planned facility. It remains to be seen how the cumulative impacts from the campus redevelopment proposal and CalFire headquarters will be analyzed to ensure that environmental review is not done in a piecemeal fashion. It is also critical that the performance criteria ensure the protection and compatible use of the adjacent recreational and open space resources of Jack London State Historic Park and Sonoma Valley Regional Park.

Redevelopment Proposal for SDC Campus in Legal Limbo

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August 22, 2024

The developers chosen by the State of California to purchase the 180-acre Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) campus faced a major legal challenge earlier this year. The Sonoma County Superior Court ruled in SCALE vs. The County of Sonoma that the Board of Supervisors violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when they approved the SDC Specific Plan in December 2022. In a sweeping ruling overturning the Specific Plan and associated Environmental Impact Report (EIR), Judge Bradford DeMeo found that the “purported mitigation measures in the Plan are, as a whole, ineffective, vague, and devoid of any semblance of performance standards in violation of CEQA.”

As reported in the April 2023 Transform SDC article, the California Department of General Services chose Keith Rogal and Grupe Homes as the “selected buyer” for the redevelopment of the SDC campus. Promises of early community engagement were never realized as Rogal/Grupe filed a surprise application with Sonoma County in August 2023 that proposed a housing, hotel, and mixed-use development that far exceeded the 630 homes contemplated in the Specific Plan. As reported in an August 23, 2023 article in the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat article, the developers used a “newish interpretation of California law (SB 330) that allows developers to skirt local zoning ordinances and specific plans when a local jurisdiction doesn’t have a state-approved housing element” to propose over 930 homes for the environmentally-sensitive SDC site. 

 As Supervisor Susan Gorin said in the article, “I was absolutely blindsided, and Permit Sonoma was as well,” referring to the county’s planning and building agency. “It came in at the very last minute. I felt comfortable about Keith Rogal and Grupe, and how they were engaging the community. And this came out of nowhere.”  Keith Rogal promised that “Six months from now, we will submit a full planning application that will have a lot more detail,” he said. “Along the way, starting very soon, we want to be getting lots of input and feedback, and we expect to improve and refine what we’re doing.”

The full application was submitted by Rogal/Grupe to Permit Sonoma in February 2024 with none of the promised public input, dialogue or refinements. In March, Permit Sonoma found the submittal incomplete with disagreements over the number of affordable units proposed, the placement of a hotel in the northwest corner of the campus along the wildlife corridor, the overreliance on single-family detached dwellings, and underutilization of housing types for middle-class buyers. Under the name ‘Eldridge Renewal,’ the developers resubmitted the application in June with an even higher housing count of over 960 homes, only to have it rejected again a month later as incomplete. The County found numerous shortcomings in the application, including a lack of sufficient detail on the placement and architectural design of the homes, no open space framework, not enough information on water supply and wastewater treatment, and numerous other deficiencies. Rogal/Grupe have 90 days to resubmit the application for a third round of review. 

What does the April 2024 Superior Court ruling mean for the future redevelopment of SDC? Without an approved Specific Plan for the property, the developers have no underlying authority or Programmatic EIR to rely upon to determine what level of development is permitted, and what mitigation may be required to reduce significant environmental impacts. Even though the court overturned the Specific Plan, Rogal/Grupe can still legally proceed with their application for just the campus development. This will require a very detailed Project EIR, which will have none of the procedural advantages of using the Specific Plan as a reference point. Because the application falls under the auspices of SB 330, which streamlines approval for development to address California’s critical housing shortage, Permit Sonoma explained that while public hearings will be required before the project is reviewed, “there can be a maximum of five for a project like this, so none are being scheduled until the application is complete.”

As we await Judge DeMeo’s final published ruling, it remains to be seen when or if the Rogal/Grupe development proposal will be able to meet Permit Sonoma’s application completeness requirements.

State Releases Agenda and Presentation Materials for June 23rd SDC Community Workshop

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The agenda and PowerPoint presentation for the state’s upcoming SDC community workshop on June 23rd has been released. Please follow the links below to access these documents.

In addition to providing these documents, the state’s consulting team (led by Wallace Roberts Todd-WRT) released the following note:

“We understand some of you have requested a draft copy of the Existing Conditions Assessment.  At this time, the draft is still under review and the State prefers to complete that process and incorporate whatever additional input may be provided at the Community Workshop prior to releasing the document. We think it is important to reiterate that our report is meant to be a site assessment only. It is not a plan for the campus, nor does it presuppose anything about the campus’ future state. It is primarily intended to help the community better understand the current state of the campus. We feel confident that the document, when released will serve as a useful, fact-based foundation for whatever future planning efforts occur.”

Community Workshop agenda

Community Workshop presentation

For more information, contact John McCaull at johnm@sonomalandtrust.org

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.

State Announces Public Meeting on June 23rd to Release SDC Site Assessment Results

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The California Department of General Services (DGS), the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) and Wallace Roberts and Todd (WRT) are hosting a community workshop to share findings from the existing conditions site assessment of the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) property and to gather feedback from the community. See attached workshop flyer.

SDC Site Assessment Community Workshop
Saturday, June 23, 2018
10 am to 1 pm
Hanna Boys Center Auditorium
17000 Arnold Drive, Sonoma, CA 95476

The workshop will provide an opportunity for the community to:

  • learn about the key takeaways from the assessment.
  • talk with the WRT consulting team members about assessment findings.
  • offer thoughts and feedback about the site assessment.
  • learn about next steps in the process.

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.

Update on Evacuation of Sonoma Developmental Center

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October 19, 2017.

This report was sent out to the members and friends of the Parent Hospital Association (PHA) and tells the incredible story of how the state safely moved all the resident and staff of the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) to the Dixon Fairgrounds.

Dear PHA families and friends:

Kathleen Miller and I are touching base to let you know that all appears well at the SDC Village that has been set up at the Dixon Fairgrounds. During our visit yesterday, we were amazed to see how comfortable our loved ones are, what care has been taken to ensure their physical, mental and spiritual health, the safety systems that are in place and to experience the calm and positive the atmosphere that has been created.

All of the nursing facility residents are together in their own area and each has his/her own bed, wheel chair and other special equipment that was transported last week from his/her room at SDC thanks to the National Guard. Staff is on duty and working hard to ensure that our loved ones have the care that is required. Other residents are enjoying their regularly scheduled meals, donations from the community, field trips, concerts, outdoor movie nights and other recreational activities.

Large FEMA-style tents have been erected to create an activity room, staff rest area, and storage for all extra equipment and supplies. Portable ADA compliant showers have been set up and the kitchen is producing all normal meals in accordance with dietary needs. The SDC pharmacy has been relocated to the Fairgrounds and all the regular medications are available and administered on schedule; the SDC physicians and nurses from the units are on duty and making their regular rounds. Normal schedules are being maintained including the administration of routine flu shots for staff and residents.

The atmosphere was one of normalcy with hint of a grand adventure. There is one entrance and only staff and family members with appropriate identification are allowed into the SDC Village. Security is provided by police and National Guard units. National Guard units continue to provide all security and guard services back at SDC to ensure that all remains as it was left on October 9th.

Kathleen and I were both very impressed by what we saw and with the people we talked with yesterday. Sadly, we did learn that some staff have lost homes or are also evacuated from their own homes; some are able to stay at the Fairgrounds in their own evacuee tents when off duty. But in spite of all that the staff is going through with long hours and extended commutes, they continue to make certain that our family members are doing well and enjoying themselves in spite of being in new surroundings and experiencing new routines. The air quality was much less of an issue than in areas much closer to the fires. Nancy Bargmann, Director of the Department of Developmental Disabilities, is on site daily and the personal and political support of the Governor Jerry Brown and Secretary Diana Dooley has been critical to the success of not one but two evacuations and the stabilization and care of our family members.

Kathleen and I would also like to commend the staff that were responsible for the efficient and thorough evacuation of SDC in the early morning of Monday, October 9th. We were told that their adherence to the evacuation plan, their quick and calm responses and the way in which units were left in order were truly remarkable and were commented upon by the emergency services inspection team who came to officially confirm that SDC was fully evacuated. We would also like to thank the out of area first responders who arrived to help with the evacuation of the last two units.

I also want to say that after seeing my own daughter at the Veterans Memorial Hall in Sonoma last Tuesday and after seeing everyone at the Dixon Fairgrounds yesterday, I am confident that it is safe and appropriate to continue to work with our Regional Center and SDC staff to implement our original transition planning process/ timeline and I don’t feel the need to accelerate my daughter’s placement process. I look forward to the return to SDC and a return to normal schedules and activities when it is deemed safe and appropriate to return.

At this time, the next general PHA meeting is scheduled for the second Saturday in November and will be in the Slater Building at SDC. Please watch for information about the November PHA meeting and about the Sonoma Town Hall meeting which will address future land use issues at SDC.

All our best,

Kathleen Miller

Karen Moen

Co-Presidents, PHA

 

 

A Busy Fall for SDC Site Assessment and Community Engagement

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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.

Specialized Medical Home to be Established in Sonoma County for SDC Residents and Developmentally Disabled

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December 19, 2016:

Sonoma Developmental Center residents and Regional Center clients will be able to receive healthcare close to home from a state-funded health center expansion

Sacramento, CA – With the Sonoma Developmental Center slated for closure by 2018, nearly 350 of the most medically fragile patients in the state system will transition into the community and require specialized healthcare services. Senator McGuire and Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin have been committed to ensuring that the health and well-being of SDC residents will be the top priority during and after the transition and closure of the facility.

To that end, and while there is a lot of work to do in the year to come, Senator McGuire, Supervisor Gorin and the State Department of Developmental Services announce that a Request For Proposal (RFP) will be advanced at the end of this month to establish a healthcare hub in Sonoma County in a to-be-determined Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that will be dedicated to residents with developmental disabilities.

The hub will serve the residents of the SDC and hundreds of other individuals with developmental disabilities within the Regional Center system.

Working with the Department and its Director, Nancy Bargmann, $2.5 million in community placement plan funding has been secured for the North Bay Regional Center to develop a healthcare hub that will be embedded in a to-be-determined FQHC located in Sonoma County. This hub will offer residents high quality healthcare, dental care, mental health and adaptive services. These services will be specially designed for individuals with developmental disabilities. This investment will create unique exam rooms – with special adaptive equipment – that will cater to individuals with developmental disabilities.

“We know that this closure process has been extremely difficult to so many residents and their families over the past three years. Many have called the SDC home for decades and we have been working overtime to ensure the most medically fragile in the State system receive quality healthcare close to home, now, and into the future,” Senator McGuire said. “This investment is so important. Not only will it keep health care, dental and mental health here in Sonoma County, we are creating a new health care home for hundreds of Californians who need specialized services to thrive.”

The nearly 350 individuals who currently live at the SDC today are some of the most medically fragile or most behaviorally involved consumers in the developmental services system.

That is why Senator McGuire, Supervisor Gorin and the County of Sonoma, the Parent Hospital Association, the Department of Developmental Services and the North Bay Regional Center have been focused on keeping a specialized healthcare home thriving in Sonoma County.

“Ensuring access to essential services for residents of the SDC has been of critical importance to me and the County of Sonoma,” commented Supervisor Gorin. “I have been working for a number of years with a local coalition of stakeholders to develop a vision for the future of the SDC and its residents, and appreciate Senator McGuire’s efforts at a state level to realize the health resource center concept in Sonoma County. The Coalition had hoped to site the health center at the Sonoma Developmental Center.  Although we are disappointed that model is not feasible, we are pleased that specialized services will be available to North Bay clients in the near future.”

This investment will create unique exam rooms catered to individuals with developmental disabilities. There will be specialized services delivered by uniquely trained medical professionals, along with specialized services for shoes and durable medical equipment.

This is the first time the Department and Regional Center have partnered with a local community to fund a comprehensive healthcare hub with specialized services for individuals with developmental disabilities.

In addition to the new healthcare hub, working with Assemblymember Dodd, Senator McGuire passed a new law this year that mandates monitoring and evaluating the transition of residents from Developmental Centers to the community to ensure the state follows through with its commitment to provide appropriate services to developmentally disabled Californians.

This new law created a much more robust tracking system, and as Developmental Centers close and any issues are discovered, immediate steps can be taken during this transition if appropriate services and housing are not being provided.

Senator McGuire will attend the Parent Hospital Association’s January meeting to provide more information and updates on the RFP, the $2.5 million and services that will be offered.

Provided courtesy of Senator Mike McGuire’s Media Release.

For Immediate Release: December 16, 2016
Contact: Kerrie Lindecker, Kerrie.Lindecker@sen.ca.gov or (707) 319-3654

Bill Approved to Help Monitor Transitional Developmental Center Residents

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September 26, 2016:

Senator Mike McGuire has spent the past two years working with the state and local officials, families, residents, staff and providers to ensure a safe and seamless transition for the nearly 400 medically fragile residents who call the Sonoma Developmental Center their home.

SB 982 will be an important tool to track a minimum of 250 residents for two consecutive years starting from the time they leave their developmental center. It will assure that the State is providing the services needed for residents to thrive within the community.

“This new tracking study will hold the state accountable and bring needed transparency to the transition process. We’re at a defining moment for our state as major changes are made to the system of care for California’s developmentally disabled residents,” Senator McGuire said. “We have to ensure that as Developmental Centers are slated for closure, we are closely monitoring the health and well-being of residents so that immediate steps can be taken during this transition if appropriate services and housing are not being provided.”

Read more at the link below.

Bill to help monitor transitional Developmental Center residents

Provided courtesy of the Eureka Times-Standard.