PD Editorial: County should retain control of Sutter site

Next month will mark the one-year anniversary of the opening of the new Sutter Hospital near the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts ­- the final step in a project that was more than five years in the planning.

But as of yet, there’s no clear plan for what will become of the former Sutter Hospital campus off Chanate Road, which remains under county ownership.

In August, county supervisors approved a general vision of selling or leasing the site for the development of affordable housing, commercial and retail space with some grounds set aside for walking trails and other amenities. But such a plan is still in the preliminary stages.

“We want to ask for maximum flexibility,” Supervisor Shirlee Zane, whose district includes the property, said during a recent visit with The Press Democrat Editorial Board.

It’s understandable. Zane is also asking for a sense of urgency to the process given the region’s immediate needs for housing. As a result, the board is acceler

ating the solicitation of plans with the hope of choosing a development proposal possibly by this time next year. Whether the county can meet such an ambitious schedule it’s questionable, particularly given the many interests that will want to have a voice in what happens with the site.

We certainly support the idea of using the site for housing, a critical need. But the county needs to assure the highest and best use for the county as a whole, not for each and every person and interest group who has an idea for how the property should be used.

With that in mind, three things stand out to us.

1. There’s little hope of reusing the old hospital building. The 161,000-square-foot structure, built in stages beginning 1936, is tired and most likely needs to be torn down. The building’s internal heating and cooling systems are in dire need of repair which would make reuse of the building prohibitively expensive.

2. At the same time, the public needs to keep in mind that the hospital takes up only a fraction of the space on this vast county property, which covers 117 acres in 16 different parcels. Some of the parcels are owned by the county while others are owned by the Sonoma County Water Agency or the Open Space District. Paulin Creek runs through the heart of this site, which also is home to Piner Creek Flood Control Reservoir and the Chanate Historic Cemetery. It’s also home to a variety of county and nonprofit uses, from the Charles M. Norton Mental Health Center, to the county morgue to the Bird Rescue Center, all of which are located on the south side of Chanate Road. Given the complexities of this site, the development of a master plan is the only sensible way forward.

3. Finally, master plan or not, the county needs to retain ownership of the parcels. Selling large segments of the site to private developers would certainly produce more short-term revenue, but it also would result in a loss of control of one of the largest pieces of developable land the county owns. Long-term leases would not only give the county a steady stream of income, it would allow the county to keep its options open for future uses of the site - uses we may not yet be able to envision.

Furthermore, retaining ownership would not necessarily allow the county to bypass the city planning process either. Santa Rosa planners say that a private development that involves a change of use, including the building of housing, would still need to go through the city planning process even if the county remains the long-term owner.

As Zane suggests, the county needs to keep its options open and to work with nearby residents to ensure that whatever is built is compatible with the neighborhood and does not intensify the traffic issues that were there previously.

Moreover, the development of this site represents a tremendous opportunity, one that shouldn’t be missed by trying to do too much for too many. The best way to ensure that is for the county to seek a master plan and to retain control through maintaining ownership.