Showroom swap at Williams-Sonoma store prompts flap with Sonoma officials

The upscale cookware retailer Williams-Sonoma has found itself in hot water with Sonoma city officials just seven months after opening a store on Broadway in the same spot where the kitchenware company launched in 1956.

A move by Williams-Sonoma to convert the former home and garden of founder Chuck Williams into a furniture showroom has put the retailer at odds with city planning officials, who say they never approved the overhaul for that purpose and discovered the changes only at the grand opening.

Williams-Sonoma initially intended to use the space connected to the store as an overnight retreat for visiting chefs, executives and other guests. However, representatives from the company said their vision changed as the site was being restored.

City employees learned about the furniture showroom when they went in for an inspection just before the highly anticipated grand opening in October, said Rob Gjestland, a senior planner.

“That space had been shown always as a residential space, not a commercial use,” he said about the original proposal.

In attempts to right the situation, the retailer is now seeking changes to its permit that would allow it to continue to display furniture and home decor, as well as hold after-hours events throughout the year in the store, at 605 Broadway.

“During the construction process, knowing the home was going to be furnished, the team came to realize the public was going to want to see the full house,” said Carrie Crespo-Dixon, a spokeswoman for Williams-Sonoma.

City planning commissioners said the retailer should have come to them for approval before moving ahead with those plans.

“We can’t keep allowing people to say, ‘We’ll apologize and get forgiveness later,’?” Commissioner Chip Roberson said at a recent Planning Commission meeting. “That’s not how we can effectively govern our community.”

Bill Willers, chairman of the commission, voiced similar frustrations. He said he lives in the neighborhood and was excited about the project when it first came to the panel for approval in 2013.

“I also was dismayed by the fact that from day one, essentially what was sold to us as a residence in kind had been converted to retail space without any discussion,” Willers said at the April 9 meeting.

He said the disputed changes would not have earned his approval in 2013. “And I feel even less compelled, even though it’s in place and has been operating, to approve it today because of that fact, unfortunately,” he said.

Commissioners directed the retailer to come back with a scaled-down special events proposal, as well as a more detailed plan on how it would handle parking.

Max Crome, the architect on the Williams-Sonoma project, said Thursday he hopes to have a revised application submitted to the city Planning Department in two weeks. The idea to turn the home into retail space came late, just prior to the opening, he said.

“We heard the feedback and took it to heart,” Crome said about the planning commissioners’ response. “With the new application, we’ll have the opportunity to address (their concerns).”

In the initial application, Williams-Sonoma sought to hold up to four large events a year that could draw up to 100 attendees, and up to 15 slightly smaller events for as many as 75 people. It also requested permission to “routinely” hold smaller events that would be attended by no more than 50 people.

Crome said the company has reduced the number of special events and scaled back attendance numbers by 10 percent in the revised application. He said Williams-Sonoma also will bring forward more detail on its plans for valet parking after residents and neighboring businesses raised concerns over heavy traffic on Broadway and around the historic Plaza.

“There was a misperception on the public’s part that valet parking would go on public streets,” Crome said.

He said the valet company the store works with has an agreement to use a church parking lot about seven blocks away.

The Planning Commission likely will decide next month on the events and whether to allow the retailer to continue to use the home and garden to sell furnishings, Gjestland said.

It’s not the showroom that concerns former Mayor Larry Barnett, who spoke out against the changes at the Planning Commission meeting. He’s concerned with the special events request. He said the store was intended to pay tribute to Chuck Williams, not to hold large events.

“They bought the building for sentimental reasons,” Barnett said in a phone interview this week. “It ought not to be a big event center with a constant stream of events each year.”

He added, “It’s not fair to the community.”

However, Sondra Bernstein, owner of The Girl & The Fig restaurant downtown, said there are few locations to hold special events in town and that the Williams-Sonoma store is an ideal space.

“We’re really lucky they spent the money to build this property here,” she said during the April meeting. She added that parking always will be a problem in Sonoma.

“The Girl & The Fig does 500 lunches every day,” she said. “I don’t know where people park.”

You can reach Staff Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@eloisanews.