Sonoma County to sell former Water Agency headquarters for future housing project

Sonoma County supervisors agreed Tuesday to sell a vacant public property in west Santa Rosa to another county agency in order to make room for the eventual development of housing on the site.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a sale of the county Water Agency’s old headquarters at 2150 W. College Ave. to the Community Development Commission, which will help determine the future use of the property, likely another sale to a housing developer.

The county will loan the commission $4.2 million, the site’s appraised value, to fund the purchase. The loan, which comes through a county treasury-issued note, will be paid back over five years.

The county estimates the about 7.5-acre site could support some 170 housing units, with 32 to 50 affordable to a four-member family earning an annual income of $49,560 or less.

A series of public meetings is planned to sketch out the property’s future. The first of those is scheduled for Aug. 2 at 6 p.m. at the Finley Center.