SDC and Affordable Housing

One of the state mandated -- and widely lauded -- goals of the final decisions about the future of the Sonoma Developmental Center is that it include Affordable Housing to a substantial degree. Laudable sentiment, no doubt: the phrase drips with political wisdom and pulses with social approbation. However, there are many factors arguing against developing substantial, useful affordable housing in Eldridge.

While not all people who need affordable housing have to work, or even can work, they are in need of services and public transportation, none of which cam be found within miles of the SDC. The property is publicly accessed by a single road: Arnold Drive. While not as remote as portions of the West and Northwest county, the lands of the SDC are situated on what is is arguably the most remote spot in the First District, surrounded by its highly regarded open spaces and mountains, snuggled up to the picturesque village of Glen Ellen, home of American icon Jack London, in the center of the romantic Valley of the Moon.

There is no functional public transportation to the SDC. From Santa Rosa, a bus would have to either drive through Glen Ellen on Arnold Drive or pass the first entrance to go to Madrone Road, cross over to Arnold and go back to the SDC to pick up passengers.

Access from Sonoma is no better. Buses would have to get to Arnold either further south or come up Highway 12 to Madrone Road, etc. Both H12 and Arnold already bear heavy traffic loads. 

Assuming that many, if not most, residents of SDC affordable housing would have to commute, the increases in traffic on Arnold Drive either way would be red flagged by the required EIR. Kids  have to get to school, deliveries have to be made, shopping trips have to be made; the list goes on. 

The unpleasant fact is that the SDC does not have the access it needs to develop serious public housing, the kind of access demanded by every state and regional planning document published over the past 40 years. The constraints of housing, maintaining and providing for the needs of 4,000 non-commuting patients with a concentrated infrastructure that was in many ways self-sufficient is substantially different from providing housing for a general population of residents.

The same constraint -- access -- will be a major consideration for any enterprise considered for the area. Any kind of business is going to require people who come and go, traffic that can ill be supported by the existing one street. While the  work-from-home ethic emerging from Covid-19 adaptation is no doubt here to stay, it's future impact on low income commute necessities remains to be understood.

From the SDC, you have to drive a couple of miles over narrow twisting roads to get to Highway 12 or the wide spots of Arnold Drive, and once you get to that point, you still have many miles to go to get to businesses and services. Increasing Arnold Drive's traffic capacity is a daunting and tremendously expensive undertaking that will have to be made a public expense. Widening roads and underwriting public transit have been two of Sonoma County's biggest expenses over the past 30 years: Highway 101's third lane and SMART have not resolved existing traffic to anyone's satisfaction other than the contractor's who have dined out on taxpayers for years.

The concept of turning the 200 non-park acres of the Sonoma Developmental center into vibrant community of affordable housing surrounded by economically viable enterprises generating enough tax base to offset the state's costs is magical thinking, at best. Museums, cemeteries, non-profit headquarters, etc. are all positive uses, but will not generate the $43 million payback the state is seeking under the current situation.

Stand back and take a good look at the big picture. How do you get there? How do you leave there? There are lot's of good uses for the place, I'm sure, but any use that involves high volume movement of people and goods is not among them.