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Sonoma City Council pushes hotel EIR decision to July

Posted on June 23, 2017 by Sonoma Valley Sun

hotelOverwhelmed at the end of a four-hour special meeting of the Sonoma City Council to take up the appeal of the certification by the Planning Commission of the EIR for the Hotel Sonoma Project on Napa Street West, the council closed the public comment portion of the meeting and continued the appeal hearing until July 19th at 6:00 pm.

The staff report for the meeting alone totaled nearly 200 pages, and included entirely new material to the EIR. Referring to this new material as “errata and clarifications”, it included 43 pages of changes in the certified EIR document. This was in addition to lengthy submissions from the public and the those formally appealing the EIR certification. Among those appealing are Fred Allebach and Larry Barnett, member of the Sun Editorial Board. Other appellants include Patty Daffurn, Victor Conforti, Johanna Patri and David Eichar. Appellants, represented at the meeting by land-use attorney Rose Zoia, characterized the “errata” as substantive changes which require recirculation of the EIR for additional public review, analysis and comment. Her assertion was rebutted by both staff and the attorney for the project developer.

Over 30 members of the public spoke, three quarters of whom expressed support for the appeal. The appellants were asking for the council to overturn the certification of the EIR and recirculation of the newly revised document. They also asserted that the lack of a project alternative showing housing, required on the site unless waived by the Planning Commission, needed to be included in the EIR according to CEQA rules and guidelines. The staff and project developers disagreed with this assertion as well. Michael Ross, project architect, characterized the concern about housing on the site as “just a recent concern” and one in a list of successive objections to the 62-room and 80-seat restaurant proposal.

Overall, the meeting attendees maintained proper decorum. The strangest moment occurred when James Cribb, Chair of the Planning Commission, came to the microphone not to make comment on the EIR, but to strongly chastise the Mayor and the City Council, and leveling accusations and criticisms for the council’s treatment of the Planning Commission.

 



One thought on “Sonoma City Council pushes hotel EIR decision to July

  1. The Sonoma residents should sue the Planning Director, planning commission, city council and the city staff for failing in their fiduciary duty to protect the residents from large corporate development in and around the Historic Plaza.

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