| Urgent Eco Alert for Sonoma County |
We are sharing this urgent message from one of our environmental allies and hope you will take action as this could be a dangerous precedent setting project for our County.  URGENT ALERT: Help Defend Community Separators! A DEVELOPER IS PROPOSING A LUXURY RESORT AND EVENT CENTER IN A VOTER-PROTECTED GREENBELT! The “Solstice” is a proposed new luxury resort and major event center in a Community Separator between Santa Rosa and Windsor at 3890 Old Redwood Highway.  This is, essentially, a 24-room hotel and major event center (100 events per year, 10,000 people). Approval of the project would set a dangerous precedent for allowing intense hospitality development, including third-party rentals for weddings, on Resources and Rural Development (RRD) land. Such an expansive interpretation of RRD zoning would be especially egregious in a Community Separator and should be rejected. Please tell the County that you object to this intense, inappropriate development. DEADLINE July 6 for Public Comment; Public Hearing July 9. DETAILS are in SCCA’s comment letter, linked here . Additional comments: The project violates MEASURE K. In 2016, voters passed the measure by 81%, voting to protect community separator greenbelts, the rural lands between our towns and cities, from more sprawl and intensified development. Now unelected county planners are ready to compromise our open space legacy for the benefit of one luxury developer. Project approval would induce more hospitality centers outside urban areas. Thousands of rural RRD parcels are at risk. NOT NOW! We face the COVID crisis, a dangerous wildfire season, economic uncertainly and political unrest when most voters are not able to participate in the public process. Just one Zoom meeting! Don’t move forward now on a totally non-essential luxury resort and event center in the protected greenbelt. The project is the middle of the Tubb’s burn zone and will put more people and property at wildfire risk. TAKE ACTION! Thursday, July 9 Make your voice heard at the Public Hearing, Board of Zoning Adjustments, 1 pm via Zoom. Agenda will be posted here DRAFT A LETTER! Dear Sonoma County Supervisors, BZA Commissioners and Permit Sonoma, Please vote to deny or delay any action on the proposed luxury resort and event center at “Sonoma Solstice” in a community separator protected with 81 percent of the vote. Sincerely Yours, Name, Title, Organization SEND BY July 6, 2020 TO: Board of Zoning Adjustments Todd Tamura, Chair – District 2 – Todd.Tamura@gmail.com Richard Fogg, District 1 – sonomafogg@aol.com John Lowry, District 5 – JohnLowryCA@gmail.com Cameron Mauritson – District 4 (the project is in District 4)- cameron@mauritsonfarms.com Paula Cook – District 3 – pcook@ch-sc.org Permit Sonoma Deputy Director Scott Orr scott.orr@sonoma-county.org Planner Tricia Stevens tstevens@migcom.com Permit Sonoma permitsonoma@sonomacounty.org CC Supervisor James Gore James Gore District4@sonoma-county.org CC: Matt Callaway matt@conservationaction.org Our community benefits when we act together as citizens with a common goal to protect this amazing county. Forward To A Friend Through education and grassroots organizing, Conservation Action engages with the public on environmental issues and policies that affect Sonoma County, influencing the way our area will be shaped for years to come. |