A Serious Game

We appreciated the discussion at the city council meeting last week, concerning possible amendment of the city’s Urban Growth Boundary to allow the city to serve a new hospital with sewer and water. As Sherlock Holmes might have noted, “The game is afoot.”
Only it’s not a game. It’s a very serious issue facing all of us in Sonoma Valley. Health care is vital, literally, and we’ve been covering the issue carefully, writing about it frequently.
The UGB will need to be amended in any case. That is to say, the sites for the two active proposals thus far (discounting the feasibility of an “in-town” alternative) both require a UGB amendment, if city water and sewer services are to be provided. Even the Measure C proposal for the Leveroni property would have required amendment of the UGB. And once again, as it should be, it’ll be up to us voters to decide, come June.
Cirrus Health Group needs to get 915 voters in the city to sign its petition to qualify for a June ballot measure to extend the UGB to allow that company’s proposal to move forward for a privately operated hospital on Eighth Street East. Local architect Michael Ross, representing Cirrus, laid out for the city council the advantages of a private group building and running a community hospital at that site, especially the fact that no long-term tax bond would be required.
Recently retired councilman Larry Barnett, who is right about many things, expressed his fears that commercialization of that area would be unstoppable, were Cirrus to construct a hospital there. We agree with his fears – that was a concern of ours and others for the Bromberg site on Arnold Drive that the hospital board had originally selected, and it’s a concern for the Eighth Street East site, as well. It’ll be up to Cirrus in the months ahead to develop a way, whether through conservation easements dedicated to the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District or by some other mechanism, to satisfy the community that the proposed UGB amendment won’t lead to urban sprawl.
For now, we counsel patience. It takes time to qualify a ballot initiative, and it’ll be a full five months before we vote on it. By then, the volunteer Sonoma Valley Health Care Coalition will have finished its evaluations, will have made its recommendations, and will have made public its extensive voter survey data. The hospital board will have an opportunity to take action before then. And Cirrus will have ample opportunity before then to address any and all concerns about its plans.
Readers know that we are always happy to see the voters have an opportunity to be heard. We were pleased with their stance on Measure C, since a viable alternative to the Leveroni site did emerge. And even before the UGB issue hits the ballot, we voters get to express ourselves in March, about the proposed $195 parcel tax that the hospital wants for five years to keep its doors open. Consensus among the several factions is that the hospital does need this extra income during the time it takes for a new facility to be approved, planned, and built. No opposition ballot statement was filed, but whether two-thirds of the voters will concur is yet to be seen. If that measure fails, it could come back to voters as another item on our June ballots, too, when the present parcel tax expires.
Perhaps by that time the solution will be, as Holmes used to say, “elementary.” One can only hope.