Santa Rosa’s Roseland annexation sails through protest period into final vote Wednesday

So few people have lodged protest votes against Santa Rosa’s plan to annex the Roseland neighborhood that it is expected to be approved easily today by the obscure but powerful agency that controls government service boundaries in Sonoma County.

Hundreds of voters or property owners would need to file formal protests with the Local Agency Formation Commission by the end of its 2 p.m. meeting to force an election, but that seems highly unlikely, said Mark Bramfitt, executive officer of the agency.

As of Monday morning, just 25 voters had filed formal protests and the owners of 33 parcels had done so, he said.

“The annexation is very likely a done deal,” said Bramfitt. “We could all be surprised, but I don’t think so.”

If it stands, the annexation will be the largest in city history, bringing an estimated 7,400 new residents, the approximate population of Cotati, into the city’s jurisdiction for the first time.

The long-planned move - some would call it long delayed - promises to reshape the city’s political, social and economic landscape, making five unincorporated islands under county jurisdiction officially part of the city.

The parcels, which are bordered on all sides by Santa Rosa, cover 714 acres mostly in the city’s southwest area, including the Roseland neighborhood and four other smaller islands along West Hearn Avenue, Victoria Drive, Brittain Lane and West Third Street.

An Aug. 2 decision in favor of the annexation by LAFCO started the clock running on two 30-day opportunities to block the move. The first ran out Sept. 1 with no one requesting the commission reconsider its decision. Then on Sept. 4 a formal protest period began. During this period, the estimated 2,200 registered voters in the areas being annexed had the chance to file written objections. If a quarter of affected voters - or 525 voters - were to do so, then an election would be held, Bramfitt said. Only 25 voters have filed such objections to date.

The owners of property in the areas - whether they live there or not - have similar protest rights. There are 1,618 parcels in the five annexation areas.

Owners for 408 parcels would need to file formal protests to trigger an election, but only 33 have to date. Of those, 18 were filed by a single owner of 18 separate parcels, Bramfitt said.

It’s possible someone will show up at the meeting and deliver hundreds of valid protest letters, but there is no indication of such an organized opposition, Bramfitt said. Verbal objections to the annexation are allowed but legally meaningless.

All of which means the LAFCO board seems likely to reaffirm today its August decision, leaving only the process of recording the decision with the county clerk-recorder by Nov. 1, Bramfitt said.

The city asked for the extra time to complete the transition of services from the county to the city, he said. As of Nov. 1, Santa Rosa police officers will begin patrolling streets long monitored by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. Residents and contractors looking to pull permits will no longer go to the county Permit and Resource Management Department but the city’s Planning and Economic Development Department at City Hall.

Minor permits already in process will be completed by the county, and new ones will need to be processed through the city, explained Jessica Jones, Santa Rosa’s supervising planner.

More complicated projects are a different story.

The Roseland Village Neighborhood Center, which envisions a plaza, a library and community center and mixed residential and commercial uses on the site of a former Albertsons supermarket, will need to get its building permits from the city, Jones said.

It’s not yet clear how the 167-unit Paseo Vista unit subdivision on Dutton Avenue, which Jones called “a complex and difficult project,” will be permitted, she said.

If everything goes according to plan, the city will begin sending notices out to all Roseland residents welcoming them into the city and giving them a host of information about how to obtain services, such as required trash and recycling pickup, or to switch to city water service, which will be simpler than the current process, she said.

On Nov. 1, the annexation will become official, and then the city plans to throw a party.

On Nov. 4, from noon to 3 p.m., the plans call for speeches, music, cultural displays, food trucks and other fun activities “to celebrate an annexation that has been a long time coming,” Jones said.

Representatives of city departments are set to be on hand with information to share with the city’s newest residents.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.