SCALE is a California unincorporated association formed to advocate for a balanced development plan for Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) lands. Together with its co-petitioner, Sonoma County Tomorrow, Inc. (SCT), on January 18, 2023, SCALE and SCT filed a legal challenge to the County of Sonoma’s December 19, 2022 Certification of the SDC Specific Plan Environmental Impact Report (EIR).
SCALE’s organizing partners are Sonoma Mountain Preservation, the Glen Ellen Historical Society, the Valley of the Moon Alliance, and Eldridge For All. SCALE and Sonoma County Tomorrow, Inc. (a 501c.3 nonprofit organization of citizens concerned about the future of countywide land use, water sustainability, species survival, and pollution sources) stand united in seeking judicial review of the adequacy of the SDC EIR for this project, which will have significant impacts on Sonoma Valley.
Climate change requires careful consideration of how we go about shaping our future and the environmental legacy we leave to our children and grandchildren. Lawsuit participants and supporters believe we can balance demands for housing, jobs, equity, and economic growth with protecting open spaces, preserving historic sites, addressing climate change, and honoring the health and well-being of our diverse communities. We must protect and preserve Sonoma County for future generations.
SCALE opposes the County's SDC Specific Plan, which is out of step with neighboring communities, the most acute housing needs in the area, and the need to enable mitigation of wildfire risk and retention of evacuation capacity from wildfires across an already limited, rural transportation system. SCALE supports affordable housing over market-rate, and at a density that does not disrupt the wildlife corridor or turn the rural site into a small city. This environmentally sensitive, historically important, and culturally significant landscape deserves better than business as usual.
First Peoples proverb
Rogal/Grupe project application for the SDC core campus is found lacking on numerous fronts.