After years of planning and re-designs, and weeks of postponed meetings and mounting tension, the fate of the revamped Mission Square project faces its first public challenge before the Planning Commission on July 6.
This 1.13-acre parcel is one block from the Sonoma Plaza and is included in the Sonoma Plaza National Historic District.
The commission is tasked with reviewing the Environmental Impact Report, an impartial, 500+ page analysis commissioned by the city of Sonoma. Only if the panel certifies that document can the 165 East Spain St. project move forward.
Mission Square, as presented by architect Bill Willers, of Sonoma’s Marcus Willers Architects, is a complex of 16 apartments, 3,500 sq. feet of office space and 46 parking places. Compared to the prior design, a controversial plan shelved in 2007, the overall square footage has been nearly halved, Willers said, and the density is far less than the allowed by law.
From a zoning and code standpoint, the plan is acceptable to the city. But members of the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation, among others, are concerned about the protection of cultural resources in the immediate neighborhood, which includes the Mission.
The league retained attorney Susan Lynne Brand in April. Brand, based in Glen Ellen, is a specialist in land protection cases. Her firm litigates public-interest environmental cases throughout California, with emphasis on aesthetics, cultural landscapes, and historic resources.
At the Planning Commission meeting in May, league president Loyce Herron, asked the commission for the postponement because Brand had a prior engagement that night.
Willers called the move a delaying tactic and said all previous league concerns have been addressed. The postponement, ultimately spanning two commission meetings, was granted by a 5 to 2 vote.
In a statement released this week the league said, “Although the design has been scaled down significantly when compared to the previous two proposals, it still falls short of complementing or respecting the historical landscape that currently exits in the area, i.e. Blue Wing Inn, Mission San Francisco Solano, Castagnasso Property, Anne Appleman’s Flower Shop, etc.”
The initial plan, in 2002, called for a 34-room hotel and 10 apartments. It was widely opposed by neighbors and the league, who felt the scale of that and the subsequent 2007 design would overwhelm the neighborhood’s historical ambience.
The EIR describing the new, scaled-back plan is based on that public input, Willers said. “To be here in 2010 having to address an item that could have been brought up at the beginning… it seems like we’re being delayed intentionally.”
The meeting will be held Tuesday, July 6 at 6:30 pm at the Community Meeting Room, 177 First St. W.
