Residents urge Sonoma council to fund public art and broaden Sebastiani property uses beyond a hotel

Speakers during the public-comment period urged the council to support public art and to broaden the example uses noted in the draft general-plan materials for the Sebastiani property.

Jan Erickson, a 53-year resident and former teacher, described long experience with local arts programs and asked the council to include funding for public art. “The arts help generate revenue. They give our residents a sense of pride and togetherness,” Erickson said, and she urged the council to “include funding for public art here in Sonoma to keep us going.”

Melissa Bingham, executive director of Music in Place, said free concerts and public art have helped build community and asked the council to pursue sustainable funding and permanent plaza lighting to support year-round programming. “Please fund this initiative to bring more public art to Sonoma,” Bingham said, adding that outreach and infrastructure improvements made recent holiday programming possible.

A resident who addressed the Sebastiani property told councilors the staff report should remove a hotel example and instead consider retirement-community or senior-living uses that would add housing options without the traffic, noise and incompatibility a large resort hotel might bring. The same speaker said a boutique hotel of roughly 19–25 rooms could be compatible if carefully scaled and sited.

Caitlin Cornwall, representing Sonoma Valley Collaborative, urged the council to prioritize housing affordability and noted the local workforce shortage: “For every 5 jobs that are in the city of Sonoma, only 1 of those job holders actually lives here,” she said, and asked council members to consider a diversity of housing types on larger sites.

The council closed the public-comment period after multiple speakers and then proceeded with the regular agenda.