Springs Festival will mark revival in Sonoma Valley

With business facades repainted in wild, eye-catching colors, streets widened and repaved, new sidewalks, bike lanes and streetlights, the Springs area of Sonoma Valley is ready to party.

The Springs Festival, marking a major revitalization of the culturally varied community, kicks off Saturday at noon with a ribbon-cutting at Boyes Plaza Center.

It celebrates a major milestone, the multimillion-dollar Highway 12 roadway overhaul project for Agua Caliente, Boyes Hot Springs, El Verano and Fetters Hot Springs.

The project had its genesis more than two decades ago, but there were challenges, including the loss of state redevelopment programs that left local officials scrambling to fill the funding void.

“The sidewalks have only been ?25 years in the making,” Rich Lee, chairman of the Springs Community Alliance Group, said Friday. “To finally have them is almost surreal.”

“The Springs Festival is an opportunity to recognize the progress we have made together,” Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin said in a statement. “We will celebrate everything from new sidewalks to the Larson Park master plan update, as well as collaborative community and economic development in the Springs.”

After the ribbon-cutting, there will be a walk on newly installed sidewalks through Flowery School field to Larson Park, where the communitywide celebration goes from 1 to 5 p.m.

Food truck vendors, a bike safety skills rodeo with ?175 free helmets, watermelon-eating contest, potato sack race, youth soccer clinics and a tree giveaway are some of the highlights. There will also be a water tank with the opportunity to dunk county and school officials, newspaper editors and Sonoma Police Chief Bret Sackett.

The revitalization of the Springs area continues with plans advancing to build a small plaza, or a community hub, and bring in new businesses around it.

Approximately $2 million has been set aside in the county budget for more improvements, including to potentially construct a community hub on an abandoned portion of Boyes Boulevard near Sonoma Mission Inn that’s long been pushed for a town square.

It could serve as a place to hold farmers markets, art exhibits or a corral for food trucks, as well as a spot to relax on a bench under a shade tree.

“We are looking forward to the next era in the Springs, which I think holds a lot of promise,” Lee said. “Everyone can see the possibility and likelihood of new development coming.”

More housing and parking, he said are especially in demand.

There are other transformations underway. A $27 million affordable-housing project is being constructed on a 6-acre site off Highway 12 and Rancho Drive. The first phase is ?60 units for low-income families, followed by a second phase with 40 senior apartments.