PD Editorial: Clearing a path for a brighter future in Roseland

Finally, there is visible momentum surrounding Santa Rosa’s often neglected and underappreciated Roseland neighborhood. That is good news for residents, businesses and the entire community.

Demolition began anew this past week on a 7-acre site on Sebastopol Road, clearing the way for Tierra de Rosas. A signature development in the heart of Roseland’s commercial district will include a Mercado Food Hall, a plaza, a community building and quality housing with a 75-unit affordable apartment complex and 100 market-rate units. That housing is sorely needed. So is attention to the neighborhood’s economic vitality.

Nine years have elapsed since an old grocery store and bowling center were torn down, leaving behind empty concrete slabs. Crews now are removing the remaining structures in preparation for revitalization.

Residents have been waiting even longer than that, though. Roseland, with a high proportion of Latino and immigrant families, has been shortchanged for years. A whiff of attention arrived in 2005 via several bilingual public workshops, which led to the Sebastopol Road Urban Vision Plan two years later. But progress since then has been, at best, uneven.

The situation was complicated by politics. The neighborhood’s future was unclear while the city of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County negotiated annexation. Although Santa Rosa ultimately annexed the area in 2017, the county is overseeing the redevelopment project.

Then there were funding challenges. California’s elimination of redevelopment agencies made it more difficult to find the estimated $40.5 million needed for the project. Plans stalled until the county and state helped fill the gap.

Some progress has been made. A short walk from the demolition site is another symbol of Roseland’s resurgence. The award-winning Roseland Community Clubhouse, part of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma-Marin, opened this year on a former industrial site.

“It’s incredibly important because it’s validation of who we are as people, of who this community is, of all the rich flavor and all of the exciting things that come with being part of Roseland culture,” Magali Telles, then the vice president of youth impact for the Boys and Girls Clubs, told The Press Democrat in June.

Her words underscore the importance of the entire Roseland redevelopment. The state-of-the-art Roseland clubhouse seems the perfect complement for the nearby housing to be known as Casa Roseland.

Services at the housing development are expected to include assistance with homework, literacy development, computer training and vocational development. The affordable housing will provide one-, two- and three-bedroom units for households earning up to 60% of the area’s median income — $52,860 for an individual and $75,480 for a four-person family.

Roseland’s momentum began with the opening of the Mitote Food Park on the redevelopment site. It might be the first Mexican food truck park in Northern California and its future deserves careful attention. The immensely popular food park will continue operating during the initial construction of Tierra de Rosas but then must find a new home. Hopefully it will remain nearby.

Roseland isn’t the only underserved neighborhood receiving good news in time for the holidays. Sonoma County officials this month appropriated money to expand a plaza project in the Springs, a lower-income area in the Sonoma Valley that also has been overlooked too often through the years.

One project doesn’t undo years of neglect, but it can help a neighborhood and a community turn the corner for a brighter, inclusive future.

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