Roseland : southwest Santa Rosa community revitalization

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to Sonoma County in the nineties with your host Dana Jericho and Gina Lash. Hello, I'm dana d'Errico and welcome to Sonoma County in the nineties. Today we will be discussing the southwest santa rosa revitalization of that community and I have with me two very special guests

supervisor mike Reilly from the fifth district and Pat Wiggins from the santa rosa City council. So let's join them. Nice to have you on. It's nice to be here and Pat, it's great to have you. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself mike before

we get started into these very interesting questions. Well, I was elected to the board of supervisors last november and I actually took office in january and it's been uh, a very exciting and hectic six months, you know, getting dealing with all of the diverse issues of

the fifth district. My district is the entire coast of Sonoma County, but it also extends all the way in to highway one oh one and actually includes the entire southwest area of Roseland, right in Bellevue. So it's very different issues in very different landscapes in the

fifth district. That is a very diverse area that must have been on a world wind. I'm sure it keeps you busy and Pat. Tell us about yourself. Well, I'm in my third year on the santa rosa City Council and I'm watching and participating in the annexation

of the area that we're gonna be talking about. That actually wasn't underway at the time I came on the council. So we're gonna have, this is the beginning of a new collaboration. Who can define the boundaries of the Southwest district F santa rosa. I think it's

it's uh roughly bounded by highway 101 on the on the east and highway 12 going out towards Sebastopol on the north. I think most people would probably take the western boundaries around stony Point Road. Maybe a few neighborhoods on the other side and then down around

Todd and Bellevue is kind of the southern boundary of what we look at as as southwest. It's basically the, the elementary school districts of Roseland. Right? And Bellevue in that, in that, in that square area on the other side of the freeway. Okay, what are the

problems or issues that make the area so important to the community? Well, the number one, it's a degraded infrastructure. So The southwest area is the targeted planning area where new development is going to occur one of the planning areas and in the southwest area, the boundaries,

he just described that Mike Riley just described 44,000 new residents are projected over 20 years as part of the Santa Rosa. General Plan, it's going to be tough because there is uh degraded infrastructure. And then when you get to the heart of that area, which is

the Roseland urban area along Sebastopol Road, it is very degraded. A lot of pollution, toxic issues, big cleanup problems in order to repair Sebastopol road, those have to be addressed. So we'll be talking about how we're going to go about that together. Could you explain to

our viewers degraded infrastructure? Well, part of it? Well, you could just start with 101 the on and off ramps the over cross passes. If you've gone over the Hearne Avenue overpass, for example, if you just start connecting the east side to the west side right there,

you see what, what, what a mess that is. Then the roads themselves are degraded Sebastopol road if you've got is like, well it's an obstacle course. I mean the uh, what you call potholes so and also putting in, you know, when, when you're having a new

development because this is a combination of putting in new development and upgrading existing, developed. The existing development was developed under the county as an unincorporated area which became like a town onto itself and they have a lot of stuff substandard housing. A lot of the infrastructure

that needs to be brought up to speed or up to code and actually I will tell you credit for one. I think one step forward that were made when it's annexed an existing area. When there is substandard housing, but it is some of the only really

affordable housing for people who are poor coming up to city code when it's annexed, will jeopardize a lot of the existing residents. So I got a transition policy so that in fact, unless it's a life saving issue that there is a couple of years to allow

um, the existing housing to come up to code and that they're not going to be penalized. So we're making special consideration so that that area isn't, that had to have a talk to them. That's when the neighbors talk to me about infrastructure, they express it in

concerns about their Children going to school on roads with no curbs or sidewalks with traffic going both ways. I mean, those are the kinds of conditions I think that that really need to be addressed in the southwest. See, I wanted to define that because I wasn't

quite sure. So our viewers and myself know what you're talking about. Um, what about the problem of toxic waste? You mentioned that? Is that a major problem in that area? There have been historical toxic problems that have been identified in the commercial area, primarily along Sebastopol

Road. And it's one of the reasons that it's been so difficult for us to rehabilitate and bring that road up to modern standards because we've had to additionally contend with the cost of dealing with, uh, the toxic waste removal and soil removals. And it ends up

being a much more costly process to upgrade the road that normally would be uh despite that, we're moving forward with that effort. But uh we're working with the regional Water quality Control Board and our public works and water agency people and the city of santa rosa.

And I think that having gone through the first half of the Sebastopol road upgrade from stony point to about a half mile up, we're we're all learning how to work together better in terms of the regulatory agencies and what exactly our roles are and what we

have to do. So we're hoping the second half of that road upgrade goes a little bit smoother than the first half. Well, that's good because the second half has more toxic points than the first half. So it's going to be more expensive to finish the second

half. But the good news is we just had a briefing on this a couple of weeks ago is that the remediation of those areas is going to be less costly than first thought that there are new techniques of varying soils and so forth. So even though

there are more toxic spots along this end of Sebastopol road that we're going to be working on, it's also, you know, there's been some new steps in the technology. Federal government also has come up with a program. I think it was first forwarded by Vice President

al Gore. That is a browns field program that's designed to provide federal assistance in areas that need economic revitalization but are being held back because they can't deal with problems of toxic waste that have been there historically. And and we're looking at in conjunction with the

city, we're looking at whether or not that program that federal program might also give us some additional assistance in being able to address some of the historical problems of toxics in the area. Yes, that would be very helpful. It sounds like in this area, it sounds

like that there's quite a bit to be done before you get too much further. Previous or prior to the show, you were discussing how the city and the county has come together in a joint group to work on this issue. And can you tell me a

little more about that Pat from the city council level initiated a city council study group on Southwest issues, I think your credit and along with councilman martini and and Runyon and I heard about that. And I was feeling strongly enough that we needed to have a

forum for the county and the city to be able to discuss transitional issues with annexation and and coordinate what we're both doing because so much of the southwest is still partially in the county and partially in the city. It's it's kind of a mish mosh down

there for law enforcement, fire protection for all of our streets and roads and and social services. And and so we through that process of created an ad hoc committee with two members of the board of supervisors and three city council members and we've had several meetings

and they've been very productive and I think we've been able to make some real progress in terms of defining what our common priorities are and being able to move together together and in concert as opposed to historically, I think some of the finger pointing that probably

went on between the city and the county on who's responsible for what in the southwest. In fact next week coming before the council will be uh some recommendations from this committee which is to loan $500,000 to the fund to get Sebastopol Road and to approve about

$2.2 million worth of city work on the utilities and under grounding on Sebastopol road and ratifying the policy of phasing in the building standards for the existing structure. So that's happened actually pretty fast. I think we only started a couple of months ago. It sounds like

that there's a lot of problems and a lot of work that goes into the annexation into the city. And this is a very special annexation? It sounds like there's going to be a lot of things thrown at that area which are very positive. Is there any

other thing that you wanted to mention about? I think I think what we need to remember is regardless of what's legally within the city and legally within the county. What we're dealing with. there is an intact community and that we can only, we need to respect

that as we deal with with the citizens of of the southwest and Rosalynn in particular and, and try to do it as coherently as we can. So if someone on one side of the road happens to live in the city and someone on the other side

of the road happens to live in the county, I think it's our responsibility to make sure that there's a continuum and the continuity of services to people in that area and, and, and the governments of the city and the county are coordinating to ensure that happens.

You mentioned about the future growth of the area and I almost fell over there. Yes, it is shocking. What problems do you see with this amount of future growth? Well, that's, you know, if you're going to plan your growth, this was actually planned before I came

on the council, but it is a plan that, You know, it's a new, a new approach in a way that looking at an area where you're going to target, where development is going to occur and according to the general plan, there's going to be population increases

of a certain amount. Actually, it's capped at 500 a year, according to the growth management plan, as far as housing, but um, that is a targeted area. So it's trying to plan that there will be a neighborhood services, that people are not going and getting their

car getting on one on one to get a quart of milk that there has a viable commercial element to it and functioning neighborhoods. So in trying to make those plans work for exam sample, we waived the special impact fee on anything under 20,000 square feet with

the idea that if you keep those retail neighborhood retail services and if you keep people in their neighborhoods, they're not impacting the infrastructure and you want to encourage those kind of, you know, the cleaners and the, you know, corner grocery store or whatever to develop along

with the residential area. So it is, there's a lot of energy has to go into seeing that it develops according to plan, but that's the new growth and that's over 20 years. I mean that's projected into the future. Actually the growth is not happening at the

same rate as projected take longer, but that is what is projected over 20 years. So that's, and I see a problem with a new neighborhood bordering an existing older neighborhood, a poorer neighborhood that we don't have poor cousins and that everybody gets treated equally. So you're

starting to touch upon the social and economic problems such as gangs, etcetera. Do you want to elaborate on that? What I like to tell people is that Roseland and the southwest probably more than any other part of Sonoma County really looks like the rest of California

more than any Sonoma County does. And, and there are issues there, there's significant social and economic issues in the area. I'm going to have to break here, hang on to that thought we'll be right back. Stay tuned. My wife is always getting on my case about

smoking. She said it's bad for you. It makes the drapes smell. She even threatened to stop kissing me if if I didn't quit. I said it's my lung since my life, but I was wrong. I didn't quit. I had no idea the life I'd lose wasn't

mine. It was hers because she was my life. My wife was my life. Welcome back to Sonoma County in the nineties. I'm here with fifth district supervisor mike Riley and with city santa rosa, City Councilwoman Pat Wiggins Mike. We were just talking about the social economic

structure in the Southwest community and you were starting to talk about gangs and the problems that exist there. Well, Pat made a reference to new neighborhoods coming in and being compatible with old neighborhoods and I think that's, that's a real concern is that area develops. I

mean, currently there are 22 different languages that are spoken by Children in the local elementary school to give you a feeling for what the teachers are dealing with there and in the educational program And I know I walked most of the neighborhoods of Roseland in the

southwest during my campaign last year and had an opportunity to talk to people on their doorstep. And it's a, it's a blue collar area, but with very strong family values and people have hopes for their area and there are strengths there and, and there's strength we

need to build on. But there's been a, a lot of the government neglect for a long, long time in terms of the infrastructure and I think that that's what people need to see in terms of our making some investments so they can begin putting some of

their own energy into that, reclaiming their neighborhoods. We need to have youth facilities out in that area. We don't have them. Um, and we need to, we need to be working in that direction, both with the county and the city to help people get those things

for their neighborhoods. Now that you mention that there aren't any community areas or things out in the southwest that I know of. Well, four years ago there wasn't a doctor in that whole area either. And now through the efforts of Memorial, we have a wonderful health

clinic out in that area. And so steps are, but there's still a lot left to do well in the lack of parks, the park on Hearne Avenue Southwest community parks. Now the city's responsibility and there will be a boys and girls club built there. The cook

Fields. The city has partnered with kuk and those fields will be finished in a couple of years instead of 15 years from now. And so that will be an amenity for the neighborhood. But other than that, we need to new neighborhood parks and they cost about

a million dollars apiece to get that land to build those parks. And so the city is looking for Parkland, but there, they're lacking. There's just no question about it. But I would like to say that, you know, this diverse community in Roseland area is sort of,

that they're the ones that are after the american dream. And I think that uh, mike Riley put it beautifully that there's, there's a lot of heart and I think when they see the investment by the rest of, of, you know, the community and by uh, local

government, then they will have even more heart to put more energy into their communities as well. So there's a lot of really dynamic energy and Rosen a lot of positive energy. That sounds like one of the strengths. Are there other strengths? It sounds like that they

have a lot of heart. They're interested, they care about their Children. What other positive strength of this community exists. I think one of the really positive things that's happened in the whole southwest is the location of LCL in high school is a, I mean, it's clearly

a superior facility as a high school, it, it provides a continuity in the education of young people where they stay within the community throughout. And, and as I visit the kids down there, there's a tremendous amount of pride that they have in having their own high

school out there. I think the lobos even beat a couple of santa rosa teams in football last year. So that was good. Um, we're seeing people from neighborhoods in the different neighborhoods come forward to the city and to the county and asking for uh, speed controls,

asking for stop signs being worried about, you know, um, their Children being able to get safely through the neighborhoods. And I think that's a very, very positive sign when you see people organizing in the neighborhoods and really taking responsibility not just for their own property, but,

but for their whole area and, and networking with other neighbors to do that. I'd also like to put in a good word for the school districts in, in that area. And for the school for less Crawford, uh, Rosalynn School provides services on campus. It was absolutely

correct that there were no dentist office, no doctor's office. But now there is a medical building, nurses building on the Roseland campus. And the neighbors involved. The school board is involving more people and providing services right in the elementary schools. It is very, it's a model,

what they're doing in the Roseland area as a model. And Elsie Allen is one of the only high schools around, they have their own health center and a lot of, a lot of that effort has been local people, but a lot of it frankly has been

a commitment of the Sisters of Orange and Memorial Hospital to really upgrading the healthcare in that, in that community and they deserve a lot of credit for it. That's great. Thank you for that. Credit also thank you for the credit to the Roseland School district. My

neighbor and very dear friend is a teacher there and I've gone to some of the functions and I've really enjoyed going to those functions with her because they are just some really unusually committed and dedicated families. I was really surprised when I first started going with

her and um, I think that's great. So thank you for the compliments for, for both of those. Um, and it looks like the city and the county is working beautifully together to work on the different problems and to go forward and provide services, et cetera to

the community. Is there anything else that you wanted to mention about the city and the county and they're working together? You had mentioned the people that were on the committee. Um, how often do they meet? Is there any way that people in the community can become

involved? I think it's an overdue effort, Pat, would you say? And I think part of it has been fueled by some new energy on the city council as well as the board of supervisors. I'd like to thank you were talking to the city manager about that

with some history and I guess maybe that's the first time we really had a kind of sit down collaboration where we kind of walked through the issues and have an opportunity to talk to one another about. It was a rocky road apparently historically. So you're both

fairly new. It's new blood, energetic blood, have any history to overcome. And this is always a big question. Where will the money come from to address a majority of these problems? You mentioned a couple of sources as that one fund the grant that gore had started?

Well, I know I know the city and looking at taking on some of these new annexed areas are struggling with the cost of what that's going to cost them over and above the revenues are going to generate and and Pat can talk about that from the

county standpoint. I've basically just made the resurfacing and re rehabilitation of Sebastopol Road a priority for the fifth district. And part of what that's meant is um deferring a number of other projects throughout my district in order to really focus in and find the resources and

the dollars that we need to do to um to restore this road and to really rehabilitate it. Uh, and and you have to make those kinds of tough choices. Um, uh, in a couple of weeks we'll be coming forward, our public works department be coming forward

with priorities for under grounding for the next four or five years and one of the policy issues the board of supervisors will deal with is whether or not to elevate Sebastopol Road on the priority list. So we can actually begin doing that second phase through uh

get all of stony point and done and and accelerate that by two years and I'm hopeful that I'll get support from the board and moving the project forward. I'm sure you will, I'll be pushing for it. What are the residents of the Southwest area doing? We

talked about they have heart and the family oriented people. Is there anything else that they're doing to help themselves out there? This is one of the questions that I asked other than schools and other schools. Yes. Is there anything else that they're doing to help themselves?

One of the things that happened recently is a whole group of parents and neighbors organized around one auto shop that was continuing to pollute and and create toxic waste in the area. And actually organized a whole group of people to go to the, you know, state

regional water quality control board meeting and testify against this one. Auto dismantle er who was continuing to ignore uh toxic waste law. So they really are beginning to take responsibility for what's happening within their area and also demand some accountability of public officials, which I think

is a is a very positive thing for them to be doing. Yes, I I agree. Well there is a Southwest areas group that's been in existence for quite a long time. It's been, uh, an advocacy and lobbying group and have been pretty unified. So they do

have some existing organizations that are staying with this process as well. The Southwest Area citizens group has been a real force for the area, particularly with planning issues and there are moves afoot now that I'm supporting to really encourage the business community to get together in

the form of business association from that area. I'm hopeful that will happen in the near future. How can residents become more involved in improving the neighborhoods in the community? Is there any words of advice that you can give our viewers if they're in this area? And

is there anything that people who are not in this area do to help promote the southwest revitalization? Well, the meetings we've been having between the city and the county are noticed meetings and so anyone can call City Hall or call the board of supervisors and find

out when those meetings are going to be happening and they're, they're welcome to attend those. Obviously, both the city and the county have items periodically to come up on our regular agendas of our regular meetings that have a lot of bearing on on things that happened

with the Southwest priority decisions. We're moving into budget issues now with the county having to make tough decisions around how we spend our money. So all those things are important and people need to become more involved with actually coming to those meetings being informed about what

issues are coming up, we're on the county is on the internet now. We have our own web page so you can scan it and see what our agenda is. If you want to see if there's anything of interest to you that's that's available now through through

internet. So you're suggesting that they really make contact with the officials or these groups. Traditionally, the west side has been less aware of what's happening in the city, not just Rosalynn, it has been kind of a sleeping soon to be giant and Rosalynn has been fearful

of annexation, the urban part of Rosalynn historically. And so they have a little bit more awareness of, of change, I would say in some respects, but then we also have these diverse populations that aren't involved and they need to become more involved in forming their own

destiny. And I would say first thing is back to getting involved with these school districts because they are very strong and there's a lot of leadership there. So that is that I would, you know, I hope that these families would get focused on and involved with

the school districts and then also, you know, just exactly what mike Reilly is saying coming out and making their case before, if it's the city, if they've just been newly annexed and talking to their representatives and making people aware of what their special issues are, I

think that that's a very important point. The school district because knowing somebody who is there, the Children because of the ethnic groups and diversity there. They are the messengers of the information and the sometimes the only vehicle. And so I think that that is an excellent

recommendation through the school districts to contact and reach these people. So, Um, it sounds like you have very significant challenges in this area coming up here in the near future and also in the long term, what do you see 10-20 years down the line? Well, I

guess what I would hope for in, in the southwest area is to see a real integration of the new neighborhoods in the old neighborhoods And, and as we build new places for people to live in that area that there's still be an investment in the core

area there to, to bring those standards up as well. And that and that we develop a commercial area along Sebastopol Road there that everybody old and new can feel comfortable and good about using as their primary and shopping areas. So we're not having trips across the

freeway and stuff and that people can feel comfortable shopping in their own neighborhoods. I need to stop here. Thank you for being with us And I'm sure with you behind them they're going to have a very good supportive enforcement of having this occur. Thanks dana. Thank

you for joining us And I'm Dana do rico. And this is Sonoma County in the nineties.