Sonoma County approves consultant contract to restart Sonoma Developmental Center EIR process

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on May 6 approved a contract to prepare a new environmental impact report (EIR) for the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) site, combining court-directed corrective work and review of a specific development proposal.

Permit Sonoma Director Dennis Wick told the board the county faces a "different situation here than we normally do going into environmental review" because the court has given specific direction on what must be corrected and a development proposal has been submitted that was not part of the original administrative record. "We have that framework," Wick said, explaining the new contract assembles subconsultants with local and technical expertise to address evacuation, cultural resources, biological assessment, historic architecture and traffic.

Why it matters: The SDC property is state-owned and has been the subject of a long, contentious process that produced a draft specific plan the court later found deficient. The board27s vote authorizes county staff to proceed with a project-level EIR that reviewers say is intended to correct the earlier record and evaluate a concrete development proposal so the county can make an informed decision on the site's future.

Board action and…