Nearing closure of Sonoma Developmental Center, community envisions future of campus

Even in bucolic Sonoma Valley, the Sonoma Developmental Center campus is a place apart, a historic institution rooted in its landscape of tree-lined boulevards, verdant lawns and forested hillsides.

For Robyn Anderson, a valley resident who takes walks on the sprawling Eldridge site, the place evokes a sense of serenity. Her background is in professional planning and design, so she appreciates the classic architecture of many campus buildings.

“Even though there’s buildings and cars and people, there’s just a feeling of calmness,” Anderson said. “And I take a lot of pride in the community service that that site has provided over the years, particularly with the disabled community.”

Anderson was among several hundred local residents who showed up Saturday to learn more about future plans for the campus as the state prepares to close this year the 125-year-old developmental center.

“When you hit this point along Arnold Drive, you really feel like you’ve arrived someplace,” said Jim Stickley, principal with WRT, the design firm hired to produce an in-depth analysis of the 860-acre site. “There’s a special character about that.”

Stickley was the emcee for the town hall meeting Saturday at the Hanna Boys Center. It focused on the initial findings from the state-commissioned study, with a main objective identifying SDC’s present condition so decisions can be made down the road about what’s to become of it.

The analysis confirmed some of the crowd’s worst fears - that the bulk of the property’s utility systems are obsolete and require as much as $115 million in upgrades to meet modern codes. That’s if the campus is to be kept in working order for ongoing institutional needs, which almost no one expects.

Those costs don’t, however, include multimillion-dollar seismic upgrades necessary to ensure the structural integrity of more than 100 buildings. Moreover, the Nuns fire in ?October burned through part of the campus and destroyed about three dozen other structures, including several on-campus homes.

In the three-hour presentation and feedback session Saturday, results from early stakeholder meetings were presented, pointing to community ideas for land conservation, maintenance of recreational amenities, reuse of other campus facilities and future governance of the site.

A majority of respondents said they’d prefer the site be overseen by the county, with protections added for the critical wildlife habitat and public access to the roughly 16 miles of developed trails on the site.

Eighty-four residents remain at the developmental center, with about 900 rotating employees sharing duties providing care and overseeing the massive property and its operation. Advocates for the developmentally disabled have voiced their preference that some portion of the land is dedicated to ongoing services for that vulnerable population.

Members of the influential Parent Hospital Association say it’s the least that can be done to pay tribute to the property’s original purpose.

“We want to go back up there and remember, because this is a special place,” said Kathleen Miller, the group’s co-president. “We want, basically, the history preserved. In an ideal situation a visitor would come in … and they could know this is a place where people were cared for, for decades.”

Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin, whose district includes Sonoma Valley, said she’s heard from constituents who want to see the land dedicated to public open space. She articulated a plan that would see the state grant the property to the county, and then see it transferred to the adjacent state and regional parks systems.

“First of all, we’re still so grateful that the campus still stands,” Gorin told the audience. “But look at this mountain - the Sonoma Mountain, the backdrop on this - we walk on it, we hike on it, we go through Jack London (State Historic Park). We feel so strongly that this is so connected to Sonoma Valley that we want to see that preserved.”

Other floated concepts included full-scale redevelopment of the core property for housing, room for office or commercial spaces and potential for a satellite college campus. A spokesman for Sonoma State University was on hand Saturday and noted an interest in any education-based components at SDC should they arise. No specific plans or funding sources are in the works, he said.

Additional opportunities for public input are expected in the coming months and beyond as the conceptual design phase and list of alternatives is produced. Saturday’s feedback will go toward finalizing the consultant study, which should be finished in July.

After residents transition out by year’s end, state funding will allow the developmental center campus to be maintained through June 2019 while more definite decisions are made about the site’s transformation.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or at kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @kfixler.