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Save Arnold Drive and | |
| West Sonoma Valley Conservation League | ||
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Current |
Schwab PGA Golf Tournament Threatens Arnold Drive Environment - Successful Boycott of 2009 Schwab Cup Golf Championship
Latest News(November 5, 2009): They Are Back...
The Sonoma County PRMD had issued a 'Negative Decalaration' with regard to a permanent application for the PGA Schwab Golf Tournanment finding 'no significant environment effect' at the Sonoma Golf Course at 17700 Arnold Drive or the additional parking lot use for the Schwab Tournament at 800 Agua Caliente Road, Sonoma. This ultimately resulted in the approval of the permit which will cause enormous ongoing negative environmental impacts for the entire Arnold Drive Corridor.
The only way left to respond was to encourage all to Boycott the Schwab Golf Club Championship as we have since 2005 and in future years. This was a clear case of Tourism over the Environment. It was a choice of business dollars over the health of and well being of all Sonoma Valley residents and their children. It was an indelible Black Mark on Sonoma Valley of Business Greed over preserving the sensitive environment in Arnold Drive Corridor. In 2009 the attendance at the tournament was down over 40% over 2008 in wake of largely environmental concerns in the Arnold Drive Corridor. As a result the 2010 Schwab Cup Golf Championship has moved to Harding Park in San Francisco.
Previously, the SVCAC recently acted recklessly by recommending approval of the Use Permit for the Golf Tournament before the Sonoma County PRMD had even completed analysis of the Use Permit Request. It appears that the Sonoma Valley Citizens Advisory Committee is promoting a reckless increase in tourism events over concerns of local citizens.
To have your voice heard on the Schwab Golf Tournament Expansion please send email to the Sonoma County PRMD through David Hardy at (dhardy@sonoma-county.org) and request that the Use Permit for the Schwab Golf Tournament at Sonoma Golf Course be denied. Please see our recent Letter To The Editor of the Sonoma Index Tribune which outlines our concerns.
Historical News And Ongoing Concerns Of Sonoma Golf Course Environmental Problems
See also.. -
As with previous proposals submitted for expansion of SNG facilities there were the same
old but valid concerns (water, traffic, environment, loss of scenic view) and new ones regarding
new uses(heath club, large pool, yearly large golf club and other events, etc.) all of which
negatively impact the surrounding environment. This project combined with the impacts of
the planned new charter school at the Altimira Middle School Site obviously are not
compatible with the surrounding community. This proposal, when carefully reviewed appears
to be a first stage of re-introducing over time the former Hotel expansion which was so
strongly opposed by the community. Also troubling is the fact that PRMD did issue a permit
to demolish building(s) that are part of the SNG expansion prior to public review of the project.
A preliminary copy of the Sonoma County PRMD Staff Report by David Hardy, Project Planner dated December 3,
2003 is available in PDF format. The PRMD Design Review Meeting was held on December 3, 2003 at the PRMD offices in Santa Rosa.
Other documents concerning the current project include -
Yes, Sonoma Mission Inn/Sonoma Golf Course Expansion Is Back Again On The Table - Towering Three Story Sonoma Golf Course Club House Project Proposal Threatens Arnold Drive Environment... This Watered Down Version of the Sonoma Club Project Is Suspected To Be A First Stage Of Plan To Re-Introduce Former Hotel Complex..
New Events, Tennis Courts and Pool Will Add to More Arnold Drive Traffic. Communicate Now To Sonoma County Planning Department - Request Full EIR...
On October 24, 2003 SAD has received a copy of another new proposal (PLP03-0076) for expansion of the SMI/Sonoma Golf Course on Arnold Drive.
The proposal provides for a Large Three Story Clubhouse of 35,535 square feet. Tennis
courts and swimming pools will be added. Project proposal claims that use intensity will
not increase but this cannot be true since facilities planned are far in excess of what is
currently in place and plan overview does mention additional special events and 'welcoming'
of all SMI guests to use facilities.
It is now our opinion that a full EIR should be completed by the Sonoma County PRMD. All
comments should be sent directly to David Hardy(dhardy@sonoma-county.org) at the
Sonoma County Permit and Resource Management Department as soon as possible.
SAD believes the expansion will greatly increase traffic in and out of the Sonoma Golf Course site since it appears to be directly related to:
The scope of the project does not appear to be compatible with the surrounding rural/semi-rural residential community. Accordingly it is critical that a full Environmental Impact Report(EIR) be required.
More Sonoma Club History... The Notice of Preparation of Draft Environmental Impact Report and Notice of Public Scoping Meeting was received by Save Arnold Drive from the Sonoma County PRMD on July26, 2002 which provides notice to a Public Scoping Meeting with respect to an Environmental Impact Report to be prepared for the subject project. The meeting is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, August 6, 2002 at 7:00pm at the Veteran's Memorial Auditorium, 126 First Street West, Sonoma, California.
Save Arnold Drive and the West Sonoma Valley Conservation League are still concerned about the short notice given for the meeting; however all were encouraged to attend since it is unlikely that the PRMD would re-schedule the meeting as a result of such a protest. There were numerous glaring deficiencies in the Project Description with respect to the general outline of environmental impacts to be studied. For example, under Biological Resources(page 4) no mention is made of the acres of wildflowers that will be plowed under, loss of open space or the damage to critical riparian and native plant habitat on the Golf Course Academy Site. If the Golf Academy is approved p>
A public scoping session was be scheduled in the Sonoma Valley and the EIR consultant was in attendance. The purpose of the scoping session is to identify environmental areas of concern to be addressed in the project EIR. No decisions regarding the project are made at the scoping session. Based on the availability of the EIR consultant and meeting space, the County had hoped to schedule the scoping session in early to mid August 2002.
The scoping meeting never occured since SMI withdrew the request due to huge mounting opposition to the project led by Save Arnold Drive -SAD.
SAD remains committed to fully opposing the project. Unlike other recently formed groups, we do not see anything that would make this project fit in the Arnold Drive Corridor.
The Revised Plan Overview (4 pages) along with a more Detailed Project Description (22 pages) are now available for download in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Other documents including site maps are now available. The new 'Revised Plan' actually has a much larger Open Space Destruction Impacts than the original plan. The So-called 'Scaled Down' Plan will have 65-Multi Room Units from 640 up to 1846 square feet - still quite large and capable of handling large numbers of guests way beyond those noted in project estimates.
The proposed Golf School will destroy 13 acres of Prime Native Wildflower, Oak and Riparian Habitat on east side of Arnold Drive directly across from entrance to the golf course. For a complete listing of 'Revised Plan' Documents and Site Graphics showing endangered Native Plants click here.
Rosewood Clone 'Sonoma Club' Opposed on Arnold Drive
The original Sonoma Mission Inn plan proposed to build a 100 Multi-Room Suite(with plans to expand to 150 'Rooms') Elitist 'Resort' consisting of a group of Huge Three-Story Hotel Buildings at Sonoma Mission Inn Golf Club on Arnold Drive in Sonoma Valley California. Both Sonoma Mission Inn and Sonoma Club are owned and operated by Crescent Real Estate Equities Company. Sonoma Mission Inn is one of the resorts in the Crescent portfolio of Hotels and Resorts.
Sonoma Club a Rosewood Clone Project
Nick Di Iorio of Land Plan Company has been hired by SMI to "grease the skids" with Sonoma County Government and expedite (ramrod) the plan through. The original project was withdrawn after immense public protest but will be back by September 2001 in a so-called scaled-down version.
New 'Scaled-Down' Plan Actually Has Larger Negative Environmental Impact Than Original Plan!
SMI Shows No Regard For Neighbors Meetings held in September and October at the Golf Course by SMI were held strictly to put on a show of concern for
local residents - and it really was just a show.. The Sonoma Index Tribune later followed up in it's tradition of biased reporting
geared towards its legedary pro business and growth theme by reporting that all concerns of residents were addressed by
SMI by the minor adjustments made. The truth unfortunately is exactly the opposite - the scale of the project is actually much larger and the environmental impact has increased several fold...
Sonoma Club Golf Course Depleting Ground Water
Most Local Golfers To Be Shut Out From Sonoma Golf Course
The Sonoma Women's Golf Club has already disbanded solely due to this horrific news that local golfers can no longer access Sonoma National. There are no local community golf courses. It has also been speculated that Clinics for Sonoma Valley Youngsters will probably also be eliminated,
unless they are part of an exclusive member plan.
Groups Opposed to SMI/Sonoma Club Project
How you can help...
Project History... Responses were due from the Effect Agencies by January 2, 2001. Only two weeks during the Christmas Holidays were provided for Effect Agencies (Dept of Fish and Game, Public Works, Flood Review, LAFCO, Water District, Regional Water Quality, Land Development/Road and others to respond!
At the request of SAD, PRMD had extended the deadline for Effect Agency Responses through January and possible through February, 2001.
Revised plan filed with Sonoma County PRMD in early November, 2001.
Save Arnold Drive, even though involved with preserving the sensitive environmental character of the Arnold Drive Corridor from Glen Ellen to HWY 37 since 1988, was not included in the notification and thus not permitted to respond as an effect agency even though other community, non governmental groups were such as the Native Plant Society.
In response to the above action, Save Arnold Drive has formally requested that PRMD extend the response period for Effect Agencies for an additional 90-120 days from the date of the approval of the extension, if approved. See our Letter to the Editor of the Sonoma Index Tribune discussing this request and related matters which appeared in the SIT on Tuesday, January 9, 2001 or view the original letter in pdf format.
Scheduled Public Meetings and Hearings
At the SVCAC meeting on February 15, 2001, in regard to the original plan the Commission missed an opportunity to convey the true interests of the citizens on to County Government with regard to the SMI Arnold Drive Hotel/Suites Project.
SVCAC Commissioner, Alden Brosseau proposed a very intelligent and well thought out resolution which captured perfectly the overriding sentiment of the public on the project - in essence, to recommend that the project be rejected along with underlining the fact that LandPlan Co. and SMI have grossly misrepresented the project. Unfortunately, the resolution never came to a vote and even failed to garner a second. We hope Alden revives his resolution and again submits it for approval to the SVCAC with respect to the revised plan!
Instead, the SVCAC passed a resolution proposed by Ig Vella recommending a Full EIR and there were some amendments, one of which requests that the matter come back to the SVCAC after completion of the EIR. Since PRMD is leaning towards a Full EIR anyway, such action, while conveying a bare minimum requirement for a full study - obvious to everyone at this point, fails woefully to communicate to county government staff and elected officials the strong sentiment against the project from across the valley, east to west.
Such a weak response and the fact that SVCAC actions are usually nothing more than a footnote when it comes time for the Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors to review and vote, leads one to the conclusion that the SVCAC does not serve a useful or honest purpose and should be disbanded as was the Rincon Valley Citizens Advisory Committee.
Ig Vella did make a well received statement that all to often 'staffers' are making decisions without public input and proper review. The comments from LandPLan Co. representing SMI were generally dismissive of prior public testimony with statements to the effect that public comments were 'based on emotion' and 'lacking in technical knowledge'. Really? Many of the public speakers spent many hours hunting down information on the project and many of those were well equipped and qualified to
comment on a wide variety of technical and legal issues at hand on this project.
What was especially entertaining and sad at the same time was the LandPlan Co. explanation that only one individual could reserve a room(room actually being two sleeping areas) with a capacity for four but with 'only one door'. The 'only one door' should of course make us feel much better, even though the suites are large enough to hold two families+. So, it's really two hundred rooms, not 100 with much higher associated resource requirements and massive, crushing negative environmental
impacts.
Also, it was noted that 29 trees are to be removed, 9 of which are quite large. It was not mentioned what types of trees they are (probably only have one door...) but you can bet that some or all are valley oaks (quercus lobata) which are endangered. Some of these trees probably date back to the times of the early inhabitants of the area - the miwok Indians. We are sure that when pressed on the issue of loss of trees that we will be assured that it's not significant since they only have one trunk.
Dick Fogg mentioned that Supervisor Tim Smith has been 'assigned' the matter since Mike Cale, our 1st District Supervisor has been asked to recuse himself from voting on any matters related to the project due to conflict of interest(s). Did Mike Cale also recuse himself from voting on all prior matters dealing with SMI? Does there need to be a special investigation into past votes on SMI projects such as the SMI expansion on HWY 12? So now we have a part-time Supervisor along with a SVCAC which is nothing more than a sounding board. Dissolve the SVCAC and let's get a full time 1st District Supervisor.
e-mails for members of the SVCAC include: Sonomafogg@aol.com,ashford@pacbell.net, mjb9@pge.com, aldenb@vom.com, VALBROWN@aol.com, CookeCM@aol.com, sagekase@vom.com, GrantFlet@cs.com, ngilroy@vom.com, Lhohorst@aol.com, PackMazz@aol.com, dana@vellacheese.com. Dick Fogg,Chair SVCAC, mail be sent e-mail at:Sonomafogg@aol.com The SVCAC mailing address is:
Mr. Dick Fogg, Chairperson, Sonoma Valley Citizens Advisory Commission, 201 First Street West,Sonoma, CA. 95476
SAD has requested on three separate occasions that the SVCAC 1/24/01 meeting on the SMI Arnold Drive Hotel be delayed until PRMD has ruled on the request of SAD to extend the Effect Agency Comment period on the Project. PRMD has now extended the response period for Effect Agencies possibly through February, 2001 at the request of SAD. As of January 22, 2001 no local project description references are available for public review - e.g. nothing at the Reference desk at Sonoma Library! Click here for a copy of our last request to SVCAC for a delay on the SMI Arnold Drive Hotel Matter To date SVCAC has refused to delay the matter as requested - evidently they are part of the group intending to rush the project through...
Non Development Agreement To Be Abandoned by Sonoma County?...
Critical Water Shortage To Be Ignored?...
The Cumulative Negative Environmental Effects
The Crescent Real Estate Equities Company also intend to take a campground they own in Big Sur which is adjacent to one of their other hotels (The Ventana) and make it into "something the Ventana clientele would like to use better".
Sonoma Mission Inn(SMI)/Sonoma Club - The Bottom Line...
Save Arnold Drive has been working to preserve the unique Arnold Drive Corridor Environment since 1988. Donations which help defray expenses such as web site maintenance, public awareness advertising and related costs may be sent to:
Save Arnold Drive Donations are not tax deductible.
Last Updated: November 5, 2009
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| Contacts | For information on Save Arnold Drive you may e-mail comments and questions to savearnolddrive@earthlink.net. The mailing address of S.A.D. is Save Arnold Drive & West Sonoma Valley Conservation League, P.O. Box 98, El Verano, California 95433-0098. |
