Saggio Hills: Has Healdsburg reached an impasse with developers?

<p>The developers of a proposed luxury hotel and residential project in Healdsburg are being asked to pay more for the cost of building a fire station, a move that threatens to bring developers and councilmembers to a stand-off.</p><p>The Saggio Hills luxury resort project continues through the government approval process that included a public hearing Monday. But with the city asking for more concessions from developers, it remains unclear who will blink first.</p><p>“We could get to the point where we’re at an impasse. Then it might be like an Old West stand-off, without guns,” Vice Mayor Jim Wood said late Monday, following the latest City Council hearing on the project.</p><p>Healdsburg officials are eager to capture the revenue Saggio Hills is projected to generate: at least $63 million by 2024, mostly in the form of bed taxes from the 130-room, five-star resort.</p><p>But the city wants developers to help finance a 37-acre community park and pay the full cost of a fire station, in exchange for getting their project, which includes 70, multi-million dollar homes, approved on 258 acres on the northern edge of town.</p><p>A year ago the concessions included donating 14 acres for an affordable housing site, 37 acres for a community park, about an acre of land and up to $1 million toward building a fire substation.</p><p>But Wood and Councilman Mike McGuire both said Monday they want to see the developers pay the whole cost of the fire station, now estimated at about $2 million.</p><p>Developers Robert Green and Tony Korman said they’re not ready to make that move.</p><p>“We’ve been negotiating for two years. Every time we’re asked to do more. At some point, we have to say ‘We can’t do more,’ ” Green said in a brief interview.</p><p>He said Saggio Hills will bring “unbelievable benefits” to the city and will more than double the $1.7 million in bed taxes the city collected from all its hotels and lodging facilities the past fiscal year.</p><p>Several speakers at Monday’s public hearing said it makes sense for the developers to foot the full cost of the fire station since it would service Saggio Hills.</p><p>Fire Chief Randy Collins said the new station is needed in order for firefighters to respond to Saggio Hills structures in less than five minutes.</p><p>But developer Korman said the fire station will benefit not only Saggio, but the “whole north end of Healdsburg.”</p><p>Some speakers Monday suggested the developers put up all the money to finance the regional park.</p><p>The developers have agreed to donate the land and pay $3 million toward the cost of building the $8 million park. But Healdsburg resident Richard Burg said instead of the city issuing $5 million in bonds to make up for the difference, the developers should put up all the money and let the city pay back its portion over time.</p><p>Monday was the seventh public hearing the council has devoted to Saggio Hills since April.</p><p>Two more City Council public hearings on the project remain; one is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday and another Aug.6.</p><p>Only three council members are weighing the application, since two others have disqualified themselves due to potential conflicts.</p>