OCCIDENTAL -- Save for a couple of people laboring in the chilly offices of a few nonprofit agencies, there's little sign of life at Harmony School, abandoned in June 2004 by students and teachers.
On nice days, maintenance crews get around to tearing up pieces of the playground and yanking out utility lines in preparation for demolition of a central building. On overcast days, the weeds sprouting through playground asphalt and the moss creeping out from under composite roof shingles become more noticeable.
Next June, though, construction at the 9-acre defunct school site should be in full swing, just a short downhill stroll from the center of Occidental. Now that Sonoma County supervisors have given the go-ahead to transformation of the 50-year-old school into a cozy condo and commercial project called Harmony Village, developer Orrin Thiessen is penciling in details on building blueprints.
"Putting clay tiles on the roofs and retexturing the stucco walls . .. that looks good on anything," muses Thiessen as he polishes sketches for submission to county planners.
With scant community opposition, Thiessen secured approval for construction of 11 town house-style homes and 12 condominiums as well as renovation of the Harmony School into an arts center and office space. When complete, it will be a $10million project.
Declining enrollment forced the Harmony Union School District to consolidate its eight elementary grades at Salmon Creek School and sell the site. Only Thiessen stepped forward with a $2.2million purchase offer and a plan.
"We bailed out the school and the arts center," Thiessen said.
West county Supervisor Mike Reilly said that for a long time he fretted about what would emerge at the site, fearing "it would leave a huge hole in the town."
Reilly said that "of all the things that could have happened, this is by far the best outcome."
Thiessen's projects and proposals in Windsor, Graton, Cotati and Forestville have, on occasion, prompted debate on building style and substance.
Few are more pleased than Doris Murphy, a veteran community activist who has championed the effort to find a permanent venue for the Occidental Performing and Visual Arts Center.
"We've been working on this a good 10 years and we've never had enough money until Orrin came along and said he'd deed us the property," Murphy said. "Now it is full speed ahead."
When the school's multiple use room gets renovated, the arts center will get 2,400 square feet of indoor performance space that will seat 200 people, 900 square feet of display space for art shows and use of the school's concrete terraced amphitheater chiseled into the hillside. Plans call for up to 120 events annually, including theatrical performances, film screenings, choir practices and group meetings.
Having improved the stage, the walls and the kitchens, the arts group has already used the facility for a few events. Choir events, music recitals and book signings are scheduled for 2007 because the group need not keep pace with the rest of Thiessen's project, Murphy said.
"It enables us to put on more plays, more events and more music that we couldn't do before," Murphy said. "It gives us an appropriate place for fund-raisers because my house can't take any more of them."
The county Planning Commission staff report notes that "because of the mixed use nature of Harmony Village, some residential units would likely experience outdoor noise limits in excess of county standards."
Thiessen's proposal includes sound barriers in addition to obligatory warnings to purchasers of residences that some noise accompanies the novelty of living in Harmony Village.
Most of the former classrooms will be remodeled into office space; current tenants such as VeriHealth Ambulance and the Gold Ridge Conservation District intend to stay in what they've found to be good locations for their headquarters.
Thiessen plans to create a small central plaza by demolishing the school's middle building - or classrooms 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, as they were known by students.
"The structural integrity of school stays the same. You can do a lot with the open space and high ceilings of a classroom," Thiessen said.
He expects the single-family homes and residential condominiums to be the last part of the project. Prices will be determined when they are ready to market, but he anticipates that costs will range from $300,000 to $800,000 depending upon the size of the yard and residence.
"The Occidental community said it did not want to tear down the school and it wanted some of the campus to be left to the community," Thiessen said. "They got no bids on that idea, but it took a couple years and that's what they'll get."
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