City Council's new majority has smart-growth ideology, labor support -- and looming budget challenges

Together they are part of a mostly successful grass-roots effort across Sonoma County to get like-minded candidates into key government positions. Vas Dupre and Wysocky referred to a ?new progressive majority? on the Santa Rosa council in an invitation they sent to a neighborhood association seeking applicants for several city commissions and boards.

But in an interview, Wysocky took issue with being labeled as such.

?I really don?t like labels because I think that stereotypes,? he said. ?Yes, I was backed by environmental organizations because I have environmental leanings. But I?m a CPA. I see each issue distinctly.?

Gorin lists her occupation as ?environmentalist.? Vas Dupre is a retired school counselor, and Jacobi is an engineer.

COLLECTIVE INFLUENCE

Collectively, they could bring great influence to bear not only on growth and development issues, but also on attempts to close the city?s historic budget deficit. That includes the possibility of asking voters to approve tax hikes and negotiating new labor contracts.

Wysocky and Vas Dupre both signed controversial pledges with the county?s largest and most powerful employee union, Service Employees International Union 1021 ? promising to ?publicly support and actively encourage? SEIU?s organizing efforts and to encourage other employers to quickly reach labor agreements once workers vote to unionize.

Wysocky said that pledge will not influence his involvement in labor negotiations with city employees.

?It has no bearing whatsoever,? he said. ?This is a business negotiation. It?s not about the right to organize. It?s about whether we have the funds to pay their (employees?) contract demands.?

On the issue of development, these council members insist that their efforts toward more ?sustainable? growth can also lead to jobs and revenue, and that their goals mirror those outlined in Santa Rosa?s 2035 vision plan.

That plan describes a positive economic climate as one that supports ?environmentally friendly businesses? and smaller, convenient neighborhood shopping centers that allow residents to walk or bike to local grocery and service retailers.

In both words and deeds, the new council majority has begun imprinting this long-term vision on the city.

That includes rethinking plans for a six-story hotel and 545-space city parking garage on the E Street surface parking lot that formerly housed the White House department store.

The previous council ? over qualms from Gorin and Jacobi ? supported the plan, which would have its Tiburon developer add 90 parking spaces to the garage for the hotel and 8,200 square feet of retail space.

The new majority, however, earlier this month extended the exclusive negotiating agreement with the developer for only 60 days, instead of the requested six months, while raising the possibility of scaling down the number of parking spaces downtown.

Wysocky referenced approval of the SMART train and a possible winding down of the ?gasoline age? as reasons for his concerns.

SPECULATIVE PARKING

?I?m questioning whether it makes sense to up put another 300 to 400 spaces on the speculation that we will need them in the future,? said Wysocky, a founding member of the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition.

He said he has similar concerns about a proposed retirement community at Fountaingrove that would cater to gays and lesbians. He said a city staffer informed him the number of parking spaces requested by the developer for that project could be ?two to three times? what may be necessary.

?Does a 95-year-old in a continuing-care facility need a place to park?? asked Wysocky, who also mentioned the project?s footprint and the fact mature trees are on that site as other areas of concern.

Ernesto Olivares, like Wysocky, is a council novice but with his 30 years as a former Santa Rosa police officer, he sees ?a definite shift? in the council?s direction.

The White House mixed-use pro-ject, originally designed to act as a welcome mat for expanded downtown development, signifies the change, he said.

The new majority?s talk of scaling back the amount of parking is a move Olivares contends could ?sabotage? economic development efforts.

?I see a failure to see that long-term need,? said Olivares, who believes building the garage ?doesn?t mean we ignore a livable and walkable downtown.?

?They can co-exist,? he said.

Wysocky joined Gorin and Jacobi in accepting the adequacy of Fountaingrove Lodge?s environmental impact report, which is a preliminary step toward a vote on whether to approve the project.

?I?m not opposed to the concept. I?m not opposed to that site being developed. But the devil is in the details,? Wysocky said.

Vas Dupre, the only member of the council to oppose the Fountaingrove Lodge environmental review, has become a lightning rod for critics who contend the new council majority is biased against developers.

Vas Dupre has long been an opponent of ridgetop development such as that proposed in Fountaingrove, though her two-story home on Ridgeview Drive in east Santa Rosa includes a panoramic view from her back porch.

She made a distinction between her home, which she said was built on a ?contoured pad,? with developments such as the Skyhawk subdivision, which she said was ?scraped? out of the hillside.

?My home is nestled into the hillside,? she said. ?We have a filtered view. We do not cut down the trees. It means you respect the environment.?

But it was a Feb. 3 e-mail that Vas Dupre sent to Wysocky and Jacobi that really got tongues wagging. In the e-mail, the vice mayor expressed remorse that ?we all didn?t support the environmentalist rationale? after she was the only council member to vote down the Fountaingrove Lodge?s environmental report.

She went on to tell Wysocky and Jacobi, ?I hoped that you?d both stand w/me. I think that we?ve got to get our strategy better organized. We need help from the environmental community when the opposition has standing room only.?

STILL UNDECIDED

In an interview, Vas Dupre ? who recused herself from voting on the Fountaingrove project after the developer threatened to sue the city over her alleged bias ? insisted that she had not made up her mind about the project and that she is not against development in general.

?We are supposed to make a final decision based on as much information as we can get,? she said. ?To say I was biased against the developer is totally inappropriate. I was just saying it was too bad we didn?t have any representatives from the environmental community because they were all at the Board of Supervisors speaking on (another) project.?

Wysocky at first defended Vas Dupre?s e-mail, saying council members as a matter of course try to influence one another. But he later labeled the message ?inappropriate,? and said that if Vas Dupre was trying to corral him, the effort failed.

?I vote my conscience,? he said. ?I make my own mind up.?

Gorin said she would not ?second-guess? Vas Dupre?s decision to send the e-mail, which the city attorney determined was not a violation of the Brown Act, the state?s open-meeting law.

?You should not isolate one council member?s thoughts as being reflective of the full council, or Planning Commission for that matter,? the mayor said. ?You?re looking for the consensus opinion.?

But critics pounced on the e-mail as another example of what they say is a council majority beholden to ideology. They say developers are increasingly shy about trying to bring projects to the city.

BUSINESS UNHAPPY

?The business community is generally unhappy with the tone of the first three months with this council,? said Keith Woods, the chief executive officer of the North Coast Builders Exchange. ?That?s all I hear: ?I don?t want to go to war with them.??

He criticized the council majority for pushing a ?social agenda? and for reconsidering projects such as the hotel and parking garage plan in downtown Santa Rosa.

?You might as well hang a closed-for-business sign at the city limits if they?re going to undo agreements the previous council members and business members thought were in place,? Woods said. ?They have a right to do that, but I don?t think they are right for doing it."

Chris Lynch, the executive vice president of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, said developers are increasingly frustrated by the uncertainties of the city planning process and the time it takes to get approval for their projects ? only to have them second-guessed.

?We make the process here so complex and so uncertain that what we are doing is driving jobs away from the city,? he said.

But Lynch said the council has inherited a big budget problem and that any differences with the business community may play out in the long run.

?There are a lot of areas where there is agreement,? Lynch said. ?We see, too, that good, green business in the long run makes you money. I think there are differences in tactics and timing, but the goals are the same.?

However, visible tensions exist between the council majority and the business community, a fact underscored at the council?s March 10 meeting in which they considered a request to convert 28 apartments on Lomitas Avenue into condominiums.

Flynn Investments sought the conversion for the Marketplace Apartments with an offer to keep them as apartments for approximately 10 years. Such conversions can increase the value of a property and, long-term, provide some flexibility dealing with an unstable housing market, said Joe Keith, owner of Cobblestone Homes.

Keith, who built the apartments, said he agreed after selling them to the investment company that he would assist with the conversion request. A city ordinance prohibits such conversions when Santa Rosa?s apartment vacancy rate falls below 3 percent. But the moratorium applies only to apartments built before 1979.

The Marketplace Apartments were built in 2003. The conversion request was recommended for approval by the Planning Commission and the city?s Community Development Department. But on a 4-3 vote, with the progressives locked together, the request was denied.

Keith was unhappy with that decision.

?It?s not really in their purview, for one, and it?s anti-business. It?s foreclosing on a person?s ability to deal with and dispose of their real estate property,? he said.

CITY REQUIREMENT

The Marketplace Apartments marked the first time the city required a developer, in this case Safeway, to build housing in exchange for a use permit. At the time, the city was seeking to make homes more affordable and reduce traffic congestion by putting housing closer to jobs and stores.

Sonia Taylor, a housing activist involved in the project since its inception, was the only person to speak at the public hearing on the conversion request, which she opposed. She also was a recipient of the e-mail that Vas Dupre earlier sent to the two other council members urging all three to support the environmental rationale in regard to Fountaingrove Lodge. The vice mayor said she sees no conflict with Taylor then coming before the council on city business ? or voting in line with Taylor?s position on the conversion request.

?I think that you will often see council members communicate with their constituents. It?s just a natural thing to do,? Vas Dupre said.

Vas Dupre said she voted down the conversion request because she believes having the apartments switch to condominiums could push people out of their homes.

?It?s very important, with so many foreclosures, that we have people who can get rentals,? she said. ?They can?t afford down payments on condos. That?s what that vote was about. I don?t see that as anti-business. I see that as being cognizant of what?s happening in our city.?

The council majority has expressed opposition to big-box stores such as Wal-Mart, which by some estimates would have raised $500,000 in annual sales tax revenue for the city and created 300 jobs. Instead, Gorin cited Bellevue Ranch, the relocation of Traverso?s Market to Fountaingrove Village and Skyhawk Village in Rincon Valley as models for future growth.

Skyhawk Village, which sits on busy Highway 12 at the entrance to the 515-home Skyhawk subdivision, was for sale as recently as February of last year because of disappointing sales, but is now off the market and thriving, according to owner Mike

Runyan. He said all of the retail space in the 32,000-square-foot village is leased, as are seven luxury apartments and most of the available office space.

As the former owner of Food4Less, Runyan has a unique perspective on big-box and smaller retail outlets. He said city leaders have to be cautious about approving larger-scale development out of concern for the little guy.

But he also cautioned the council against judging big-box stores as all the same, or hewing so closely to an agenda that it ends up hurting the community.

COSTING JOBS

?The more difficult you make it for people to build in this area, to expand in this area, the more you?re going to increase the cost of living and drive jobs away,? Runyan said. ?I think they have to be very cautious if they start throwing a lot of environmental stuff at us.?

Businesses of all sizes have been hurt in this economy. Circuit City, Mervyns, Linens ?N Things and others have closed in Santa Rosa in recent months, and other bankruptcies may be coming.

Is Gorin worried that the city will miss out on revenue and job-creating businesses while waiting for the ideal project?

?Obviously people are anxious for a business to go in there because they want both jobs and enhanced services and shopping,? she said of the Roseland site where Wal-Mart wanted to locate. ?But let?s get the right mix in there. Let?s take some time and do it right the first time, because whatever is going in there is going to last awhile.?

That site has been vacant since 2002. The mayor said she has had discussions with the property owner about possible businesses that could be located there. But she declined to elaborate further, except to describe those plans as ?pie in the sky.?

You can reach Staff Writer Derek J. Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com.