Cloverdale City Council grants revisions to Alexander Valley Resort
Cloverdale’s days as a sleepy little Mayberry, tantalizingly close to Wine Country darling Healdsburg yet largely overlooked by tourists, could be coming to an end.
The economic backwater at the northern end of Sonoma County has struggled for years to attract more business and visitors with such mottos as “Where the Vineyards meet the Redwoods” and “Gateway to the Mendocino Coast,” the latest plug, which still suggests a place to drive on through.
But a long-planned, estimated $200 million to $300 million resort and housing development at the city’s southern entrance has had some major revisions that developers say will help entice investors and make it a reality for the town of nearly 9,000.
The first major change approved by the City Council last week was to drop the requirement for building an 18-hole golf course, a mandate imposed during the last decade when golf courses were more commercially viable.
Another change will allow developers to add more stores and businesses, a concession despite the concerns of Mayor Mary Ann Brigham, who said it will hurt downtown merchants.
The City Council last week voted 4-1 in favor of the revisions to the Alexander Valley Resort, adding 12 adjacent acres that can be developed commercially with a wide range of possibilities.
“This is going to be a great, great opportunity for the city,” Councilwoman Carol Russell said of the destination resort expected to lure well-heeled visitors, stoke economic growth and bolster city tax revenues.
“This broadens the opportunity for the property to be developed,” said Councilman Gus Wolter, who said the council’s vote on the project would help counter the “bad rap of not being business-friendly” that Cloverdale officials consistently hear.
“This sets the tone - we’re open for business,” he said.
The planned resort and housing on 254 acres south of Santana Drive, between Asti Drive and the Russian River, was first approved in 2009. Supporters see it as a game-changer for Cloverdale, with total property, sales and bed taxes estimated at $1.7 million annually for the cash-strapped municipality. The city won’t see all of that initially, because some of it will go toward paying project-related public infrastructure improvements that also benefit the rest of the city.
Still, Councilman Joe Palla called Alexander Valley Resort “huge for the future of our city.”
Cloverdale’s economy has languished over the past couple of decades following the closure of most of its lumber mills, as well as re-routing busy Highway 101 out of the downtown, to a new freeway bypass to the east.
The resort location was the site of the old Louisiana-Pacific wood processing mill and required a massive $24 million clean-up by the current owners, Spight Properties LLC, hauling away wood debris and other waste, along with environmental remediation to clean soil and groundwater.
Although Alexander Valley Resort is seen as an economic boon for Cloverdale, Mayor Brigham doesn’t want it to come at the expense of existing merchants.
“The cream in this town is very limited,” said Brigham, who said she was not happy with the long list of businesses that can be added to the resort property. She cast the lone dissenting vote Tuesday.
“We still have to protect the downtown core. It is going to affect the downtown businesses,” she said.
Brigham, a former Cloverdale brew pub owner, said “it perplexes me - we still expect downtown businesses to thrive, but keep hitting them over and over.”
But her concerns were brushed aside by the council majority, which said there shouldn’t be a problem attracting resort visitors and new residents to spend money downtown.
An enterprising person might even start up a shuttle service to bring resort visitors to the downtown, about a mile away, Russell said.
“Bring the people. We’ll make customers of them,” she said.
Palla said Cloverdale suffers now from retail “leakage,” or residents forced to go elsewhere - for instance to Healdsburg or Windsor - to shop. He disagreed that the downtown is going to be hurting more because of the added commercial component of the resort. He asserted it will help downtown merchants.
“Every city in this county has multiple shopping service areas,” Palla said.
Concord-based Tyris Corp., which manages the property on behalf of the Spight family owners, said potential purchasers want more of a commercial base for a revenue stream, which the new “destination commercial” zoning will provide.
Some of the allowed uses will include restaurants with cocktail lounges; small specialty grocery markets; hotels; athletic clubs; culinary and brewing arts schools; and auto rental agencies.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: