On Monday night, Sonoma’s City Council upheld the appeal by the owners of the historic Cooperage Building, long a matter of controversy among the neighbors of northern First Street West. The appeal was prompted by the denial by Sonoma’s Planning Commission of the use of the second floor of the building for a vacation rental, which had been prohibited in the original conditions of approval when the project was initiated.
The approval, however, came after the McQuown’s, owners of the now renovated and rehabilitated structure, abandoned the idea of using the second floor residence as a vacation rental and modified their use to include a by-appointment wine-tasting facility on the ground floor. The intention now is for the Stone Edge Farm tasting room to move from its location on First Street East at Patten Street to the Cooperage location. A family member will reside in the second floor residence.
The rehabilitation project was approved in 2018 under the terms of the city’s Adaptive Reuse Ordinance which provides flexibility of use to facilitate the preservation of historic structures. Under the condition of approval at that time, a “lifestyle store” use was approved for the ground floor. In addition, use as a vacation rental was prohibited.
The controversy erupted when the owners of the building changed their plans from using it as a residence with lifestyle store to asking for a modification of use for a vacation rental and wine tasting room and placed the building on the market for sale.
The application has been the subject of repeated council meetings. Neighbors objected to the vacation rental proposal vociferously, engaging an attorney and speaking at length to support their opposition.
The matter will be returned to the City Council at least one more time. Staff now need to prepare a final resolution reflecting the council’s direction and new conditions of approval applying to the wine tasting use, its hours of operation, etc.
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