PD Editorial: A win-win plan for Santa Rosa’s West End neighborhood

No one wants to live under an airport flight path, and residents of Santa Rosa's West End will tell you that living next to an asphalt plant - well, it stinks.

It's dusty and noisy, too, with heavy trucks rumbling in and out, even in the middle of the night, when highway work is often done to limit the impact on daytime traffic.

West End residents would like the plant to go away and, Staff Writer Will Schmitt reported Monday, they finally may get their wish.

Good for them and, if plans work out, good for the rest of the community, too.

BoDean Co., which owns and operates the plant on Maxwell Court, is planning a new, state-of-the-art facility on Shiloh Road near Highway 101 in Windsor, ensuring a continued local supply of paving materials to fill potholes and fix roads.

BoDean's departure would clear the 6-acre Santa Rosa site for desperately needed housing for as many as 400 people within walking distance of downtown and the SMART station in Railroad Square.

The surprise announcement came less than a month after BoDean and the city settled a lawsuit, effectively affirming the company's right to continue operating its Santa Rosa plant.

Credit for the change of direction goes to the Soiland family, which has owned the plant since 2001, and Santa Rosa City Councilman Chris Rogers, who began meeting with the Soilands several months ago at the recommendation of a mutual friend. Give an assist to architect Warren Hedgpeth, who drafted preliminary housing plans for the Maxwell Court property and says a “socially conscious” nonprofit developer is interested in the project.

Under contemporary land-use rules, an asphalt plant wouldn't be approved in a residential area. But the West End plant has been in operation since 1953, according to court filings, and past news accounts say it has been continuously permitted by the city since 1961 and is authorized to produce up to 760,000 tons of asphalt annually.

Having prevailed in court, BoDean presumably could have continued operating on Maxwell Court indefinitely. But owners Dean and Belinda “Bo” Soiland, who lost their own home in the 2017 wildfires, recognize the need for affordable housing in Sonoma County.

“Unfortunately,” Dean Soiland said, “we have a lot of marginalized and underserved people in this town who can't afford to live here.”

The city has identified Maxwell Court as a natural extension of its efforts to promote affordable housing near transit. Last year, the City Council voted to prohibit cannabis businesses on the street, and a downtown plan update now in the works may increase the amount of housing allowed on Maxwell Court properties.

Housing will be a better fit for the West End, an active neighborhood with single-family homes, many of them dating to the late 19th century, small businesses, the Chops Teen Club and the historic De Turk Round Barn.

BoDean plans to move to a more suitable site for an industrial business and, as Dean Soiland noted, reduce its environmental impacts. “Right now we have a '57 Chevy,” he said, “and we're going to be getting a Tesla.”

Sounds like a win for BoDean, the West End, Santa Rosa and Sonoma County.

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