Rebuilding Sonoma County: Coffey Park a model for local rebuilding efforts

In Sonoma County, Coffey Park has become ground zero for home reconstruction this summer.

Workers this month are rebuilding a quarter of the nearly 1,300 single-family homes that burned in the northwest Santa Rosa neighborhood during the October wildfires. The building activity there far surpasses what’s underway in any other area of the county, whether for fire recovery or for new housing subdivisions.

And crews are expected to start more homes in Coffey Park in the coming weeks. It has taken almost 10 months, but fire survivors have applied to rebuild nearly half the houses lost in the neighborhood.

“We are ahead, definitely,” said Jeff Okrepkie, chairman of the Coffey Strong neighborhood group.

Nonetheless, Okrepkie noted that only 14 months remain before most fire survivors reach a key deadline - the end of insurance rental payments for temporary housing. When those payments stop after October 2019, many who haven’t rebuilt their homes could end up paying both rent and a mortgage.

“There needs to be a significant amount of movement in the next three to six months,” Okrepkie said.

Coffey Park has 325 single-family homes under construction, according to Santa Rosa records. Crews there already have completed seven houses, including the Kerry Lane home of Dan Bradford, the first resident to move back to the neighborhood at the end of May.

By last week, Coffey Park homeowners had applied to rebuild 592 homes. That amounts to roughly 45 percent of the homes lost there, and represents more than 40 percent of all the permits sought to replace the roughly 5,300 residential units lost in the fires throughout the county.

Coffey Park is humming with activity as construction crews from different contractors work next door to each other. The companies that are building multiple homes often find their projects separated by several blocks.

“It looks like the most unorganized subdivision I’ve ever built,” said Aaron Matz, president of APM Homes of Santa Rosa.

The amount of work has markedly increased this summer, with slightly more than 100 homes started in the past month.

Here is a recap of other Coffey Park news.

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Model homes in the burn zone

Fire survivors no longer need limit themselves to eyeing carpet swatches and architectural drawings when trying to picture what their rebuilt homes will look like. Now they can tour two model homes in Coffey Park.

The models were opened this month by Gallaher Homes of Windsor. The company rebuilt the homes for owners who had rented them before the fires. Gallaher Homes is leasing the new houses as showcases, perhaps for the next few years.

At least one other builder plans to open a model home in the neighborhood this summer.

Other large builders said they don’t need such models because they are essentially rebuilding the homes as originally designed. However, those builders still are providing ways for their clients to pick out new flooring, appliances, cabinetry and other fixtures.

About 200 guests attended the models’ grand opening. Even clients who already had picked out one of at least 14 floor plans offered by Gallaher Homes found it worthwhile to behold the houses’ 9-foot-tall ceilings and examine the kitchens, baths and bedrooms.

“This makes it real,”said Magie O’Meara, who lost her home on Pine Meadow Place.

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Artists capture fire recovery

They come to Coffey Park not with hammers and saws but with watercolors and paintbrushes.

They are reportage sketchers and over the past nine months they have captured scenes of devastation, debris and recovery in the neighborhood.

The artwork, often posted on social media, is sometimes referred to as reportage illustration or urban sketching. Interest in such art is growing, with more than 200 Urban Sketchers chapters in more than 50 countries around the world, including one in the North Bay.

The handful of artists have filled sketchbooks of images from Coffey Park, Fountaingrove and the emergency operations at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. As they sketched, they often ended up talking with firefighters, contractors and fire survivors. The experience, they said, has been unforgettable.

“When there’s something that touches our hearts like this, there’s just more in it,” said Carole Flaherty, a Sebastopol apple farmer and artist. “It’s more compelling.”

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Meeting set for park rebuild

City parks officials are gearing up to host their first meeting for the design and rebuilding of the public park for which Coffey Park gets its name.

The meeting will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Finley Community Center Auditorium, 2060 West College Ave.

The neighborhood’s 5.9-acre park, one of 10 city parks or open spaces damaged by fire, has remained closed since the night of the infernos. City officials have said the cost to rebuild it could approach $5 million.

At the meeting, officials will provide an update on the testing of toxic contamination at the parkland, as well as the plans for debris removal and rebuilding. The city will seek residents’ input on the new park’s design. Possible items to be added include a dog park, a restroom and a commemorative art project.

Those who can’t attend the meeting can still sign up to receive updates and an online survey by visiting the website: tinyurl.com/coffeyupdates.

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Restoring utilities

Utility workers have hit the halfway mark in their efforts to replace the underground power and natural gas lines in the streets of Coffey Park.

After four months of work, Pacific Gas & Electric has completed 50 percent of the underground replacement project in the neighborhood, said spokeswoman Deanna Contreras. That includes digging more than 10 miles of trenches, with 5 miles worth still to dig.

The project, which includes installing new electric, gas, phone and cable television lines, is on track to be completed by the end of the year, Contreras said.

In the southwest portion of Coffey Park, the underground work already has been completed. Once the permanent streetlights are ready to operate, PG&E will start removing temporary overhead electric lines, poles and streetlights from that area, Contreras said.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 707-521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit.