Close to Home: Making local voices heard on SDC — starting today

At the foot of Sonoma Mountain, near Glen Ellen, sits the Sonoma Development Center, a state-run residential care facility that has been serving patients with severe developmental disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, autism and Down syndrome, for more than 120 years.

The care facilities encompass approximately one-quarter of the 945-acre property. The remaining 700 acres stretch over Sonoma Creek, up the east slope of Sonoma Mountain and across woodlands, grasslands and two lakes.

Because the land has remained largely undeveloped for more than 120 years, it is also the heart of an important wildlife movement corridor running 85 miles from the Marin Coast up and over to the Blue Ridge Mountains in Napa and Lake counties. the Sonoma Land Trust, Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District and the Sonoma Ecology Center, members of the SDC Coalition chaired by Supervisor Susan Gorin, have been working for decades to ensure that this corridor remains open and protected. Couple this valuable habitat with an already developed trail system on SDC land, and you have a natural jewel of regional and statewide significance.

In January 2014, the state announced that it would fundamentally “transform” SDC in the next few years. The facility is expensive to operate. It serves a dwindling population and is very prime real estate. The threat of closure is real and would have profound negative consequences to our county. The state, as the landowner, has the legal authority to sell all or a portion of the center as surplus property with little opportunity for public input on its fate. We could lose this local gem to development.

We believe there is another way. The Sonoma Developmental Center could be our county’s version of the San Francisco Presidio. The property has the capacity to serve a broad array of health, economic, social, environmental, recreational and aesthetic needs for our county and the North Bay region. The opportunity for cost-effective land conservation at the center is tangible: Because the property is in state ownership, the state could opt to transfer the open space, watershed and habitat lands to state and local parks for conservation, stewardship, management and public use at little to no cost.

Dream. Create. Transform. These are the guiding principles behind a public dialogue being launched by the SDC Coalition to plan a new future for the Sonoma Developmental Center. The Transform SDC Project is holding its first public meeting in Sonoma today with an ambitious goal: Develop community consensus for specific recommendations for the future of the Sonoma Developmental Center, This is our chance to seize a rare opportunity and chart a course for this treasured land that fulfills the vision of our entire community. The only limit is our ability to organize - and our imagination.

This meeting will be part of a public process aimed at giving everyone a voice. We will work closely with county and state agencies, and a growing coalition of interests, to determine the future of this iconic place. Working together, we will craft a vision for how we can continue to provide a home and care center for the most vulnerable, to use buildings that stand vacant, to protect valuable natural lands and to create enhanced recreational opportunities for residents and visitors alike. Then, we will take this vision to Sacramento and Gov. Jerry Brown to gain their support and buy-in.

The meeting will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Vintage House in Sonoma.

Pat Eliot, a resident of Sonoma, is a member of the SDC Coalition and board member of Sonoma Mountain Preservation.