The Springs Specific Plan was initiated and mapped in July 2012, but even to the present (March 2021) the County has never provided any formal notice to the hundreds of parcel owners in the Donald St. neighborhood who would be most directly impacted by the proposed up-zoning.  The covert inclusion of the Donald St. neighborhood into the Spring Specific Plan did not appear in any newspaper until Aug. 2018.  The effective annexation into the Plan was arbitrary, opportunistic, and contrary to its stated goals and objectives. The Sonoma County Grand Jury agreed with our position in a ruling published last August.

A similar “dark of night” annexation occurred in December 2019 when a 3 acre portion of the Donald St. neighborhood was offered to and accepted by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission as a Priority Development Area in which 224 new homes were recommended.

If the Donald St. neighborhood were rezoned as presently recommended, the number of houses and the local population would grow by over 5 times, from 114 homes to 630 homes and from 260 residents to 1500 residents!  No new sidewalks, no new parks, no new parking areas, no added drinking and firefighting water supplies.  Just more congestion.

We will be challenging the county’s procedural transparency, legality, methodology, as well as health and safety issues, in the inclusion of the Donald St. neighborhood into the SSP.

263 property owners, tenants, and property rights supporters signed a petition supporting the removal of the Donald St. from the SSP.

We will be publishing newsletters and documents on this web site in the coming months.

We encourage you to learn more, participate, and donate to support the efforts of The Friends of North Sonoma.