Sonoma County acquires land for Andy Lopez park

The empty Moorland lot where 13-year-old Andy Lopez was shot and killed by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy has been officially acquired by the county.

Efforts to build a neighborhood park at 3399 Moorland Ave. and adjacent 405 Horizon Way will now begin in earnest, county officials said. The purchase of the two parcels was finalized in late December and announced Monday.

Legal maneuvers initiated by the county in October allowed the county to obtain the two parcels for a total of $57,400 - the amount of the back taxes owed by the owner, Santa Rosa real estate agent David Poulsen. Combined, the property’s assessed value last year was $476,097.

“This (park) project is finally going to happen,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo, whose district includes the site.

Poulsen did not respond Monday to phone calls and an email request for an interview.

Carrillo said the “favorable acquisition” of the property will allow the county to quickly begin the park development process, which will include substantial input from Moorland residents.

Becca Kennedy, a volunteer who has worked with Moorland neighbors and supporters hoping to create a memorial park for Lopez, welcomed news that the county was now the official owner of the properties. Development of a park at the site has the potential to bring the community together and heal rifts created by the fatal Oct. 22, 2013, shooting, she said.

But Kennedy said she was troubled that the county’s announcement of the property acquisition made no mention of Lopez’s death.

“If the county is expecting to create positive change, they’re not going to get very far if they won’t even admit to what the problems at stake are,” she said.

Another activist, Michael Rothenberg, a member of the Justice Coalition for Andy Lopez, called the county’s park initiative a “whitewash” of the fatal shooting.

“This is another example of the Board of Supervisors trying to dodge the reality of Andy’s death,” Rothenberg said.

But Carrillo rejected the contention the county was trying to play down Lopez’s death or paper over chronic community grievances - with law enforcement and other public services - by creating a park in the boy’s memory.

“There is broad community interest in the project, and part of that is due to the fact that it the home of the Andy Lopez memorial altar,” Carrillo said. “I don’t think that anybody at the county has not acknowledged that something tragic happened at the site.”

Poulsen’s property was slated to be sold in public auction on Oct. 18, the day after the payment deadline for property owners owing back taxes dating back to 2009. But the county removed the property from auction by filing with the state a written objection to the process.

Poulsen, a former Santa Rosa planning commissioner, was then given 21 days to pay back taxes and regain control of the property, but that never happened, county officials said. Poulsen’s inaction paved the way for the county purchase the property by covering the cost of the back taxes.

David Sundstrom, the county’s auditor-controller treasurer-tax collector, said his office made extensive efforts to let Poulsen know that he had a chance to redeem the property, including sending him several notices and emails and publishing legal notices in the media.

”All I know is we acted within the bounds of the law,” Sundstrom said.

The 1-acre Moorland Avenue property, where community activists and local residents have erected a makeshift memorial to Lopez, was assessed by the county at $117,331 a year ago. The Horizon Way property was assessed at $358,764. Sundstrom said the properties’ assessed value has likely increased since then.

Lopez died on the Moorland Avenue property when he was shot by Deputy Erick Gelhaus, who reportedly mistook an airsoft BB gun the boy was carrying for an AK-47 assault rifle.

In the aftermath, activists and county officials resumed the push to build a park in the Moorland neighborhood, which ?has been promised in county planning documents for two decades.

David Rabbitt, outgoing chairman of the Board of Supervisors, echoed Carrillo’s comments that the county was seeking to make good on the promise in the wake of Lopez’s death.

“At then end of the day, we’re going to have a community park out there,” Rabbitt said.“And community residents are going to be the ones who design it. It will be there for generations to come and hopefully provide a good safe place for kids of all ages to play.”