‘Nice project – wrong site’

The Sonoma City Planning Commission at its meeting last week tabled the proposal for “Second Street Lofts,” a three-story development of nine three-bedroom condominiums for the vacant parcel on Second Street West at Perkins Street.
It wasn’t that the commission didn’t like the design; it’s that the commission didn’t like it at that location. “I see this project going in the wrong direction,” said commissioner Tom Anderson. “It’s a great project for the right neighborhood, but it’s incompatible with this neighborhood and totally out of scale.”
The Brentwood, California, firm SDG Architects, Inc., designed the project for owners Rob and Sarah Purcell. At the first hearing on October 11, Ralph Strauss, President of SDG, had said, “The design will articulate the light into shade, augmenting the colors nicely and playing to the depth.” On October 25, SDG project architect Jeffery Potts offered to “dress the project in different clothes” if that would please the commission, though he noted it did “exceed the number of points required to be green.”
The project proposes a two-story expanse of glass at the entrance, with the first unit plan a 1,620 square foot, three bath, two car tandem garage with an exterior deck off a third floor master suit; one of these would be considered an affordable housing unit.
With a two-story volume over the living area, the second unit plan varies from 2,573 to 2,632 square feet, with two and a half bathrooms and a two-car garage. These units have a second floor exterior deck shared by two secondary bedrooms and two large deck spaces off the master bedroom on the third floor.
Commissioner Randy Cook worried that the commission seemed disinclined toward building in general and was being unfair to the applicant by not giving direction as to modifications that the commission might accept. The vote was five to one on the motion to table further consideration, with commissioner Jean Barnier dissenting.