The Sonoma City Council this week pursued a new process of assigning City Commissioners, asking staff to draft specifics that would, in effect, throw out all the sitting commissioners and start over. To fill the spots, each Councilmember gets a free pick, a choice not subject to peer or public review. All boards (Design Review, etc.) would be vacated, and rebuilt –it sounds like the NFL draft – to begin new terms in February. Current commissioners can re-apply, but conceivably all members of each panel could be new. Councilmembers felt the system would be more transparent. “Each one of us is responsible and intelligent,” said Amy Harrington. “Nobody here would appoint someone they didn’t think would do a god job… Staggered terms, sudden resignations, who gets the first draft pick – it’s all quite confusing. Councilmember Gary Edwards admitted he liked the current system, in which boardmembers are picked by a Council sub-committee. Still, he went with flow despite, when the details were confusing even the city attorney, this wisecrack: “the old system is looking pretty good about now.”
The Planning Commission will be reconstituted first, in time to hear the November report on the Sonoma Hotel Project. Of particular note in the recent successful lawsuit invalidating the County’s Climate Action Plan was the court’s reference to the need to use VMT calculations (Vehicle Miles Traveled) to better asses and calculate the full impacts of Greenhouse Gas emissions. During the recent, successful appeal of the certification of the Environmental Impact Report for that project, appellants objected to the fact that VMT methodology was not used to calculate GHG impacts. City staff and the EIR consultant argued that calculations using VMT need not be used. Will the Superior Court’s take on VMT alter the local discussion?
One of the few empty lots along the West Napa Street corridor is priming for a 30-unit apartment complex. The City Council approved dividing the two-acre property that runs between West Napa (street address 590) and West Spain (in the 600 block). DeNova Homes wants to develop a 1.5-acre portion, while the Norrbom family will keep the other half-acre, with an existing residence.
Sonoma author Kira Catanzaro, who by the way has several freelance pieces for The Sun on page four of her resume, has been selected as a finalist in the “Lucky Shorts” short story festival at Napa’s Lucky Penny Theater. Her story, “Tiramisu”, was selected from dozens submitted by authors in Sonoma and Napa counties to be dramatically performed by actors in front of a live audience at Lucky Penny on August 13. The story, she says, “is titillating in it’s own way. It’s a love story within a love story and it takes place in Venice.” Excited? “I made a new dress especially for the occasion!” Get more info at Luckypennynapa.com.
Sad news out of the Mt. Shasta area, where artist and impresario Rico Martin reportedly drowned earlier this week. Martin was the creative force that essentially transformed the look of the Springs with vivid colors and lively designs – complete with giant metal chicken. Controversial at the time, now, just a few years later, his work is the signature of the neighborhood; it’s hard imagine Highway 12 without that distinctive Martin look. He was 62.
— Val Robichaud
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