Fountaingrove Lodge controversy returns to planning commission

After four years of planning and sometimes acrimonious debate, the proposal to build Sonoma County?s first gay and lesbian retirement community goes before the Santa Rosa Planning Commission on Thursday for approval.

The project, called Fountaingrove Lodge, is proposed for a 9.8-acre hillside site in northeast Santa Rosa between Fountaingrove Golf Course to the east and Thomas Lake Harris Drive to the west. The commission is being asked to approve a total of 148 residential units that include a 74-unit, three-story main building, a 36-unit care center and a dozen apartments for employees.

The commission meeting begins at 3 p.m. at City Hall.

The review of the project?s development plan is the latest phase of a proposal that has been marked by controversy almost from the day Aegis Senior Living of Santa Rosa announced plans in 2005 to build the $75 million complex intended for people 60-and-older.

Over the past two years the project developer has accused the city of unnecessary delays and some neighbors of having anti-homosexual agendas in opposing the project.

Neighbors contend the complex is too big will overwhelm an area of mostly single family homes that surround the sloping hilltop site. Some have said it was the developer who raised the specter of neighborhood homophobia as a way denigrate the motives of anyone with legitimate criticism of the project.

In March the developers demanded that Councilwoman Marsha Vas Dupre, the lone council vote in February against approval of the project?s environmental analysis, remove herself from future discussions because of ?personal bias.?

They cited a private e-mail Vas Dupre sent to council members Gary Wysocky and Veronica Jacobi criticizing them for not taking her side on the February vote and calling the developer?s presentation ?a snow job.?

Vas Dupre subsequently responded by saying the developers ?are trying to silence me with the threat of a lawsuit,? but agreed to remove herself from future discussions.

Erin Morris, the senior city planner who is handling the project, is recommending that planning commissioners recommend to the city council that the project be denied ?without prejudice.?

?I don?t think it?s compatible with the neighborhood at this point. It?s all about site design,? Morris said.

Morris, while praising much of the project, said it falls short in two areas ? preserving enough trees and providing setback distance to ?soften the appearance? from Thomas Lake Harris Drive.

?Those are some pretty big buildings,? she said, referring to the 316,000 square feet of development.

Extensive grading is necessary to cope with the hillside geography and ?one of the few nice oak groves? on the site would be eliminated to make room for a parking lot, she said.

?We try to keep tree removals under 50 percent,? Morris said, noting that the current design requires removing 350 of the 500 trees, many of which are protected heritage oaks.

Morris said denying the project ?without prejudice? allows the developer to return ?at any time? with a revised plan to deal with changes recommended by the commission.

?The applicant would get some useful direction,? she said. Outright denial, however, would bar them from returning for a year.

Final authority at City Hall rests with the council.