Give your input on city’s housing strategy

When it comes to housing, everyone imagines the growth of the valley differently. Some people want small homes on big lots, others advocate more live-work housing or mixed-use projects with stores downstairs and apartments upstairs. Now is your chance to give your opinion on how the city should grow. The city is holding a community workshop this Tuesday on the housing element of the general plan, which will set forth the city of Sonoma’s housing strategy for the next five years.
The community is encouraged to come and give input on Tuesday, March 3 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Sonoma Community Center, Room 110, 276 E. Napa St. Light refreshments will be provided.
The City of Sonoma Housing Element was last updated at the end of 2003. The basic themes for the document were:
• Ensuring diversity: There should be a variety of housing provided in Sonoma, consistent with its historical and small-town character, and this variety should be reflected within individual developments.
• Promoting innovation: Innovation in design, ownership, and living arrangements should be encouraged in residential development and redevelopment, using town design guidelines to achieve this intent.
• Respecting town and neighborhood context: The unique qualities of Sonoma’s architecture and the integrity of its neighborhoods should be respected and emulated in new development.
• Providing housing opportunities: Those who work in Sonoma should be able to live here. Sonoma should not become a bedroom community.
• Preserving housing assets: Sonoma’s existing housing assets—its neighborhoods, architecture, and affordable housing stock—should be preserved and enhanced.
Those overarching goals and themes are outlined very concretely in dozens of implementation measures.
The workshop on Tuesday will provide an overview of the housing element, and then facilitators will put questions to community members such as:
• What are the greatest strengths of Sonoma’s housing and neighborhoods?
• What are Sonoma’s most important housing needs?
• What options should the city pursue to address its housing needs within the housing element of the general plan?