What’s your favorite part of natural
California? Is it the Pacific edge? The redwood forests?
The high Sierra? Growing up as I did on the north
coast, I am most fond of the oak savannah, those meadows and hills with their
magnificent old trees. When I return from a trip out of state, it is the
familiar forms of the Valley and Coast Live Oaks that tell me, wordlessly, “You
are home.” And there are places where the combination of oak, stream, meadow,
and hill are so lovely, places so increasingly rare, that you couldn’t imagine how
our elected representatives would let them to be destroyed by development.
There is such a place in Petaluma,
and its fate will soon be decided by the City Council. It’s a 58 acre remnant of
the old Scott Ranch at the corner of D Street and Windsor, on the southwest edge
of town. If you’ve been around a while, chances are good you’ve driven by it,
and taken note of its beauty. Kelly Creek, one of the few west Petaluma
tributaries of the Petaluma River, starts in Putnam Park and flows through the
length of the property, passing under D Street at the old red barn. The creek
has cut a deep, meandering, grassy banked channel, lined with towering old
oaks, California bays, and an occasional California buckeye. A broad meadow
separates the riparian woodland from a grassy slope, which is dotted with
smaller oaks. At the top, from where you can see the entire Sonoma Mountain
crest, live some patriarch trees, one as thick as a quartet of Holstein cows,
sprawling over an area the size of a three car garage (see photos at www.bruce-hagen.co/kellycreek.html)
You may have heard it called the Davidon property, after the East Bay developer who proposes
to pack 93 luxury homes into the property. The creek-side trees, with a new
multi-use path, would be sandwiched in a “strip-park” between and below the
massive houses. Most of the oaks on the hill would be saved as specimen trees
for private lots. Extensive earth-moving would be required to allow
construction far up the slope. The ancient trees, protected by the
City-mandated urban separator, would become part of a second strip park,
accessible by a path running between houses.
The Davidon
project does more than destroy a unique and precious landscape. It adds
significant traffic to the D Street corridor. It puts houses on grades that
have been notoriously susceptible to landslides in the Victoria development
next door. It grossly exceeds the remaining allocation of 340 maximum units
along Windsor Drive set by the City Council in 1986. It increases the runoff
into Kelly Creek, which flows in a narrow channel through densely populated
west Petaluma.
It doesn’t have to. The City is
finalizing its new General Plan, and is considering what designation to give the
Kelly Creek land. The old General Plan called for a park on the property. But what kind of park? When I was on the City Parks
Commission, reviewing Davidon’s plans, I remember
Commissioners favoring a larger park than Davidon
proposed, which in addition to the creek corridor, included preserving the red
barn, and creation of playing fields in the flat area near the barn.
What truly changes the picture is
the overwhelming voter approval of Measure F last November, which extends the
life of the Sonoma County Open Space District for twenty years. If there is
political will, there is public money to acquire for parkland all the land from
an expanded riparian corridor west to the urban separator, allowing development
clustered around Windsor Drive. We’d get a new D Street gateway to Petaluma and
Putnam Park, new west side ball fields, and a historic barn remodeled for
dances and public gatherings.
Go take a look for yourself (bring
binoculars for a good look at the trees.) They aren’t making places like this
anymore, and all the money in the world couldn’t buy another one if we lose it.
Contact the City Council, and attend the public hearing on March 19th,
7PM, City Hall. For more info see http://petrp.home.comcast.net, or call (707)
769-0622.