Eldridge For All - Save Our Space
Imagine the future
Proposals
Eldridge For All - Save Our Space does not endorse any specific proposal. The purpose of this page is to make these proposals easily accessible for anyone wishing to stay informed. SCROLL DOWN to read. Note: The following proposals are not the official alternatives.
The following 3 proposals - New Town, SDC Campus Project, and Eldridge Enterprise - focus on housing on the SDC campus.
1. new town development
Victor Gonzalez is a developer and a member of the PAT.
- The New Town plan, as proposed by Victor Gonzalez, calls for development of 600 to 700 housing units, including affordable housing, and sets aside a pocket of the campus for a 100-room boutique hotel.
- The map below reveals a concentration of multifamily housing on the east side of Arnold Drive in duplex clusters and single family dwellings on medium-sized lots. On the west side, duplex clusters, housing in renovated buildings, and single family dwellings on small, medium, and large lots are mixed with other uses.
- New Town designates about ~315,000 square feet of existing and new buildings as commercial, hospitality, and institutional space, where the hotel, retail outlets, artists’ studios, and community services for residents would be accommodated.
- With a nod to open space and historical values, New Town sets aside ~50 acres within the campus as open space setbacks to minimize impacts on the wildlife corridor and Sonoma Creek.
- The plan includes a road connecting the campus to Highway 12 to help alleviate both traffic and emergency evacuation concerns.
- Gonzalez believes New Town represents a financially feasible plan that could be attractive to a savvy developer able to deal with the major expense of upgrading aging and failing infrastructure.
For a more detailed discussion of the New Town plan, read Tracy Salcedo's article, Focus on SDC: Three groups create proposals with housing front and center, published in the Kenwood Press on Oct. 1, 2021.
2. SDC Campus Project
Local Citizens Imagine Reuse of Existing SDC Buildings
- The SDC Campus Project proposes repurposing of existing residential buildings on the site as affordable housing now, in the interim, and later, as the property is redeveloped.
- The number of people who could be accommodated in affordable housing on the site in the near term is modest. This plan calls for two former residential units on the east side of the campus to be converted to that use relatively quickly: the Cohen and Malone residences are representative of an H-style building that could be converted into co-housing. Fourteen large, separate living units with half-baths would be located in three wings; the remaining wing would include a shared kitchen, dining hall, and smaller spaces that could become libraries and reading rooms, exercise and music studios, etc. Each building has a laundry and showers.
- Outside, lawns surrounding the buildings would be converted into gardens. Sustainable agriculture is a major element of the campus project vision, which incorporates carbon sequestration and reduction among its goals.
- Rent would be scaled based on income. Who would collect rent is still an unknown.
- Another benefit cited by project proponents is preservation of the distinctive architecture of the buildings.
eldridge enterprise
Check back soon for revised materials.
Eldridge Enterprise is a conceptual proposal for a live/work development on the former SDC campus focused on research, design, and development in response to the global climate crisis.
- Land uses: residential, offices, service/retail, nonprofits, laboratories, and engineering and design space
- Caitlin Cornwall presented the Eldridge Enterprise concept at the Glen Ellen Forum monthly meeting on September 14, 2020.
- Source: Sonoma County supervisors stated early in 2021 that they wanted something “transformational” and “visionary” at SDC, with a “generational impact.” Supervisor Susan Gorin asked a small group to develop a concept that would accomplish that intention. Group members included Rusty Klassen and Karen Eggerman, consultants to Sonoma County; Dale Roberts at Sonoma Water; Bill Keene, formerly Ag + Open Space general manager; David McCuan at Sonoma State University; and Richard Dale and Caitlin Cornwall at Sonoma Ecology Center. An economic impact study was conducted by Robert Eyler at Sonoma State University.
- Scale: The original Eldridge Enterprise proposal fit into the existing footprint of SDC’s buildings. Some buildings at the edges of the campus were proposed to be removed and not rebuilt.
- Status: The proposal is now being down-scaled. Revised documents will be shared here.
File coming soon.
additional Proposals
California Equestrian Park & Events Center
CEPEC
The original CEPEC proposal for use of Sonoma Developmental Center land was submitted to the State of California in 2015 and updated in 2017. Click on this button to read the 2019 amended proposal. It is too long to post here as a pdf.
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