Opponents of Saggio Hills who successfully challenged the environmental impact report for the luxury hotel and housing resort have struck an agreement with developers and Healdsburg officials on what the new environmental review should address.
The agreement, contained in a draft order awaiting the signature of Sonoma County Judge Robert S. Boyd, suggests the project will not be tied up in court much longer, or subject to another marathon series of Planning Commission and City Council hearings.
Once the order is signed by the judge, the city can proceed with a limited environmental review that could pave the way for the five-star, 130-room resort and 70 homes, or result in a smaller project.
"It's a good step forward," Mayor Jim Wood said of the "meeting of the minds" on the issues that need to be addressed in the environmental document.
In the wake of the agreement, Robert Green, one of the principal developers of Saggio Hills, contacted council members individually to assure them he intends to make the destination resort and residential complex a reality.
"He told me he and his development team are committed to building the project," Wood said. "They said it will comply with whatever the judge requires, that &‘we still do want to move forward.'"
Green, who has developed several Four Seasons luxury hotels, and his partner Tony Korman, a former real estate director for Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates, did not return calls seeking comment.
Saggio Hills has been the hottest political issue in Healdsburg for the past several years. Rumored to cost around $300 million, it is planned on the city's biggest chunk of undeveloped land, 259 acres at the north end of town, to the north of the Parkland Farms subdivision.
Opponents said its "mega mansions" will further erode Healdsburg's character and gobble up scarce resources, such as water.
Proponents, however, said it will bring numerous benefits, including substantial city bed-tax revenues, and developer-provided features such as a large community park, public hiking trails, a fire station and a 14-acre affordable housing site.
The Saggio Hills site has been designated for residential use since 1987 when the city's general plan called for building up to 500 homes there. A previous owner prepared environmental studies for a slightly smaller hotel and number of homes before selling the land in 2005 to the current owners, Sonoma Luxury Resort, LLC.
The latest project was the subject of more than two dozen Planning Commission and City Council hearings before it was approved in late 2008. The opposition group Healdsburg Citizens for Sustainable Solutions, led by retired math teacher Warren Watkins, immediately sued, claiming the environmental review was inadequate.
Watkins insisted that his group was not out to stop the project, but wanted fewer homes built. "We never contested the resort. It was the number of homes on the ridge line," he said Thursday.
He said the 70 multi-million-dollar homes envisioned by developers may not have been marketable. "I think we did them a favor - not intentionally - to take another look at what should be there in the present economy," he said.
Judge Boyd in December upheld key provisions in the environmental impact report, but said it was flawed in three sections. He ruled that it failed to study the water demand associated with tree replanting of more than 4,000 oak seedlings; failed to consider aesthetic impacts on a nearby public open space area; and did not consider a sufficient range of alternatives, including a smaller project.
The parties in the lawsuit have agreed to restrict the new environmental review to those topics, but it is the smaller project alternative that is likely to draw the most discussion.
In his ruling, Boyd said the applicants did not consider reduced versions of the project or any meaningful, viable environmentally superior alternative. That included the Watkins' group suggestion to reduce the number of homes to 27.
Developers admitted that number would still generate a profit, but only 2.7 percent. The judge said the developers did not adequately explain their outright rejection of the reduced number of homes.
He said their action did not make sense in light of their insistence that the capital for the project is "all private equity .
.
. not dependent on Wall Street." "One cannot reject, much less refuse to consider, an alternative merely because it does not generate &‘enough' revenue without at least explaining why this makes it infeasible," Boyd wrote in his 23-page ruling.City Attorney Mike Gogna said that after the judge signs the writ for the scope of the new environmental review it will not be undertaken for 60 days because that is how long parties in the lawsuit have to appeal.How long the new review will take is "a timeline that's hard to estimate," said Councilman Gary Plass."I would say if we got through that entire process by fall that would be moving along at a pretty good pace," said Mayor Wood. "I don't see any way they'd be able to break ground in 2010. I don't see that happening."
"One cannot reject, much less refuse to consider, an alternative merely because it does not generate &‘enough' revenue without at least explaining why this makes it infeasible," Boyd wrote in his 23-page ruling.
City Attorney Mike Gogna said that after the judge signs the writ for the scope of the new environmental review it will not be undertaken for 60 days because that is how long parties in the lawsuit have to appeal.
How long the new review will take is "a timeline that's hard to estimate," said Councilman Gary Plass.
"I would say if we got through that entire process by fall that would be moving along at a pretty good pace," said Mayor Wood. "I don't see any way they'd be able to break ground in 2010. I don't see that happening."
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