Santa Rosa residents to get first look at plans for former Chanate Road hospital campus

The owner of the former Sonoma County hospital campus on Chanate Road is gearing up to submit redevelopment plans that would transform the property into hundreds of new homes with pockets of green space and other amenities for future residents.

The housing project, likely to be among the largest in Santa Rosa in a generation, is expected to breathe new life into the complex that has sat mostly vacant since the primary occupant Sutter Health relocated to its Mark West Springs Road site nearly a decade ago.

Construction is still years away as any proposal is expected to undergo an exhaustive environmental review and close scrutiny if not stiff opposition from neighbors, many of whom banded together to sink a previous developer’s deal for the site.

This time, however, a proposal is emerging amid a groundswell of legislative action and state pressure to build more housing as short supply and high costs edge many Californians out of the market.

Detailed site plans haven’t yet been submitted but the development team headed by Las Vegas builder Iyad “Eddie” Haddad, who purchased the property from Sonoma County in December 2021 for $15.05 million, envisions a mix of for-rent and for-sale apartments, townhomes and single-family homes on the 72-acre property.

The project could help diversify housing options in Santa Rosa’s northeast hillsides and make a dent in the region’s housing shortage, Haddad said in an interview with The Press Democrat.

“This is something that northeast Santa Rosa needs and hasn’t had … in a long time,” Haddad said. “We’re pretty excited. We feel that what we want to put in front of the community is the best plan for the property.”

City and county officials have long eyed redevelopment of the property to meet critical housing needs but numerous prior attempts by the county to unload the property failed.

Residents will get a first public look at the latest proposal and a chance to meet the development team at what’s been billed as a neighborhood meeting Monday at City Hall ahead of the team filing an application to amend the property’s land use designation and zoning to accommodate future housing.

The proposed changes would open the door to the construction of up to 878 units if approved.

The meeting, scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. at the Santa Rosa City Council chambers, is likely to draw a crowd and tough questions from neighbors who have long sounded the alarm over safety risks associated with redevelopment.

Neighbors, many of whom have organized under the banner of Friends of Chanate, worry thousands of new residents could clog narrow, winding Chanate Road during an evacuation. Seismic mapping of the property also has clouded prior efforts to redevelop the site, which is bisected by the Rodgers Creek Fault.

The concerns have raised questions about whether housing is appropriate for the site. Redevelopment is not needed to meet the city’s state-mandated housing construction obligation under a city plan approved earlier this year.

Friends of Chanate, in an email blast Friday, encouraged residents to turn out to the meeting in force.

“Show Santa Rosa and the property owner that you care about what happens on this property,” the email reads.

Haddad has already begun to line up local partners, including Christopherson Builders, one of the region’s largest homebuilders, and hopes to begin site work within 24 months. Expected project costs aren’t yet known but any plans likely will require millions of dollars in demolition and cleanup. Many of the existing vacant buildings have been ransacked in the years since Sutter’s departure.

The project stands to be one of the biggest projects Haddad and his business partner Georges Maalouf have undertaken.

Haddad acknowledged neighborhood buy-in will be key to a successful project and said he’s well aware of the roadblocks prior developers have faced. He plans to address that by working in concert with residents to craft a project that makes sense for the community and considers their concerns, he said.

“There’s a win-win solution out there that requires transparency, communication and a balancing of interests,” Maalouf said. “There’s a clear need for housing in the community but there’s also the concerns from neighbors about fire and traffic. It’s a balancing of all these concerns to come up with a solution.”

The general plan application will kick off a thorough review under the California Environmental Quality Act, the state’s landmark environmental law. That study will examine the project’s impact on everything from water resources to traffic, and residents are expected to have additional opportunities to weigh in on the project as it moves through the pipeline.

Transforming site for housing

Developers propose a mix of low to medium-high density housing as part of the project, now known as The Woodlands — an homage to the area’s landscape and a name the team said evokes the harmony they’re trying to strike between the project and surrounding community.

It’s currently zoned for public institutional uses.

The number of units allowed under the proposed densities ranges from 388 to 878 homes spread across three distinct neighborhoods on the site, which stretches across Chanate Road.

At least 15% of the units must be reserved for people with low or moderate incomes, per the sale agreement with the county. Age-restricted apartments are also planned, according to a project description submitted to the city in June.

No homes are planned in the wooded meadow and or in the immediately vicinity of the creek reservoir in the center of the property.

Green spaces throughout the property will provide recreation opportunities for residents and a buffer between the project and the surrounding neighborhoods, developers said. The project is expected to allow for continued access to informal walking trails and the adjacent meadow and creeks that border the property.

“We want to incorporate the natural beauty of the property into the property,” Haddad said.

Haddad was not required to disclose plans for the site as part of his winning bid and the team has been slow to solidify, or at least publicly reveal, a project since Haddad purchased the site 21 months ago.

The team spent the first several months tackling immediate maintenance needs at the property — work that continues today — and meeting with neighbors and city officials to better understand what they’re looking for in a project as they crafted their proposal.

Haddad previously told The Press Democrat that retail, a hotel, golf course and even a tribal casino could be on the table but various preliminary plans shared with Friends of Chanate and the city have largely called for housing.

An earlier proposal circulated last summer called for nearly 1,000 townhomes and apartments. About a third of the units would be three-story, three-bedroom for-sale townhomes and another 300 rental apartments were planned.

Haddad, who is steering the project under the company Chanate Development Group, said the team has amended the proposed density following discussions with residents.

The numbers proposed in the general plan amendment application are more in line with the low density detached single-family neighborhoods and medium density apartments that surround the site, he said.

“We feel that we’re only developing only similar type of (uses) to the neighboring communities,” he said.

Some county, nonprofits operations to remain for foreseeable future

The project will require Haddad to demolish the former hospital and nearly a dozen other buildings on the property.

Future plans are still being considered for several buildings that still house county and nonprofit operations.

The sale allowed the county to lease back the public health lab and morgue buildings as well as the Coroner’s Office through December 2026 with the option of two six-month extensions.

The Board of Supervisors has allocated more than $34 million to build a new facility for those operations and has identified a preferred site in a lot south of the Sheriff’s Office on Paulin Drive.

Planning and site assessment work is underway and the county anticipates beginning construction in February 2025, Senior Capital Projects Manager Yulis Ayton said.

Johannes Hoevertsz, the county’s director of public infrastructure, said officials hope the new building is ready by the time the lease ends.

“We are working as hard as we can to get them in by the deadline,” Hoevertsz said.

The Bird Rescue Center, which plans to relocate to a new site, and a women’s shelter, also continue to operate on the site as part of the sale agreement.

Small-scale commercial development could replace some of those properties, but Haddad said he didn’t want to propose anything that would add unnecessary traffic on Chanate Road.

Safety concerns likely to dominate public feedback

Lingering concerns about the safety and maintenance of the site as well as the impacts of adding new housing are likely to garner much attention on Monday as developers meet with residents.

Santa Rosa Council member Victoria Fleming, whose northeast District 4 includes the property, said residents want to see developers beef up security and reduce potential fire risks that stem from people camping on the site and overgrown vegetation.

“It’s an attractive nuisance and having some protections for the property that exceed what’s currently there are in order,” she said.

Ensuring public access to a historic cemetery on the western edge of the property, which was blocked to vehicles earlier this year to protect the area from vandalism, also is important to residents and visitors, Fleming said.

The abandoned hospital, built in the 1930s, as well as other vacant buildings on the site, have been hit by vandals and used by squatters since Sutter moved out.

Maalouf, Haddad’s development partner, said they hired 24-hour security to patrol the property and crews have boarded up doors and windows to keep people out of the buildings.

The team has fixed several broken water lines and leaks across the property, addressed dumping on the site and in the last few months begun to clear vegetation and brush on the property, Maalouf said.

Redevelopment of the site will likely reduce many of those concerns as the property is repopulated, developers contend.

Residents will likely raise questions about traffic volume on the narrow, winding roadway that serves as the major route in and out of the wooded, fire-prone neighborhood.

Neighbors worry hundreds or thousands of new residents could pose a risk for new and existing residents trying to safely evacuate during an emergency. The two-lane street already is prone to backups.

The 2017 Tubbs Fire, which carved a path from Calistoga to Coffey Park, burned within blocks of the hospital complex and sent thousands of residents fleeing with little warning, which jammed the roads — underscoring the need to have safe and efficient evacuation routes.

The team has begun a traffic study to analyze how many residents and additional trips the area can handle and has spoken with emergency officials about evacuation plans, Haddad said.

He noted that local emergency response, including how residents are notified of an emergency, have significantly improved since the fire.

The impact of an earthquake striking on or near the site also is an increasing concern, especially following a magnitude 4.4 temblor last September that was centered less than a half-mile from the property.

The earthquake didn’t damage any buildings on the site but scientists have predicted an even larger earthquake is likely on the same Rodgers Creek Fault in the future.

That potential danger and the fault line’s proximity to the property have plagued prior redevelopment efforts.

City and state requirements limit how close new structures are allowed to a potentially active fault and could require projects to adhere to certain construction and structural requirements, including height limitations or stronger bracing.

Members of Friends of Chanate, which blocked a previous developer’s deal with a successful lawsuit, have acknowledged something needs to be done with the site but the group has yet to say what type of density or other elements they would support.

The group in its Friday email said it wants to “ensure that any project proposed/approved on the Chanate property will be safe, including making certain that all existing (and new) residents can safely evacuate during a wildfire or after an earthquake.”

They’re seeking a thorough environmental review and a transparent and robust public process as the project goes through city reviews.

Haddad and Maalouf said they look forward to the feedback and plan to incorporate it into future plans where possible.

Fleming said as plans come into clearer focus she wants to see that developers took residents’ feedback seriously.

“What residents and what I’ll be on high alert for is does the developer not only have an interest but show a sincere dedication to these concerns and a willingness to adapt plans to address the legitimate risks that are present at this site,” she said. “If he can’t demonstrate that sincere willingness to adapt, then this project is going to be very difficult for residents to accept.”

You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or paulina.pineda@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @paulinapineda22.