First News
Sonoma County First News for August 15, 2024
Clear skies above. Lots of low sixties out the door. Today will be sunny with highs near 88. I'm Mark Prell. Good morning from the KRCB Sonoma County Newsroom. Here's your first news for Thursday, August 15th, 2024. The largest housing bond in California history has been yanked off the November ballot. The Bay Area Housing Finance Authority unanimously voted to pull the measure yesterday. The $20 billion bond promised to provide funding for up to 90,000 units throughout nine Bay Area counties, including Sonoma County. That was if voters approved it in the November election. The measure would have been funded by additional annual property taxes, amounting to an average of just less than $19 per $100,000 in appraised value. In June, the Baja unanimously placed it on the ballot in what the authorities commissioner and Santa Rosa City Council member Victoria Fleming called the best vote she has ever taken in her six years in elected office. But since then, concerns about the electability of the bond measure emerged from some of its proponents. KRCB's Amore Alvarez has more. Even before the agency voted to place the measure on the ballot, Baja's polling showed that voters' interests in the proposal had stagnated as they remained concerned with inflation and high taxes. Its June polling showed that support for the bond was around 54 percent of voters, well below the two-thirds majority needed to pass the measure. Baja placed it on the ballot anyway, hoping that the measure could sneak through if California voters in November also passed Proposition 5. That's a proposal to lower the voting threshold for general bonds in the state to 55 percent. Concerns over if possible passage came to a head recently as a mathematical error had led Baja to misstate the amount of money the bond would require to be spent annually by hundreds of millions of dollars. And last week, a coalition of Bay Area residents soothed the board over the mistake, which could have led to a judge writing the language that would appear on the ballot next to the measure. That's Amore Alvarez reporting with material from Bay City News. Caltrans says that long-awaited construction in Guernville is set to get underway Monday, the $6.6 million project will add a host of improvements geared towards people on foot through the four blocks of the downtown core between where State Route 116 joins River Road at the Guernville Bridge and the Fife Creek Bridge. The work brings wider sidewalks, curb extensions, or bulbouts to reduce crossing distances at intersections, plus flashing pedestrian crossing beacons and ADA sidewalk ramps. Multiple private driveways will be reconfigured as part of the construction and traffic signals at both River Road and Armstrong Woods Road will be replaced. Caltrans says it intends to launch work at either end with work proceeding into the downtown once the peak tourism season winds down. The agency says it has set a year-long timeline to complete the Guernville Project, but the bulk should be completed before the rainy season hits. A big pile of money may have just ended an acrimonious battle over a vacant lot in Sebastopol. Governor Gavin Newsom this week announced a nearly $6.5 million infusion into on-again off-again plans for 21 permanent supportive apartments for people lacking homes. KRCB's Mark Albert has more. The site is a vacant lot along State Route 116 at the north edge of town. It was most recently Horizon Shine Village, a sort of RV park for people living out of their vehicles. The future Gavinstein Commons will also have an apartment for an on-site manager. The funding from the State's Home Key Initiative was supplied for by the City of Sebastopol and the local chapter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Last year, Sebastopol withdrew its support from the project on liability concerns, officials feared that should the project go awry, the city would be held financially responsible, leading city council members to revoke their support. The project is also set to receive $3 million from Sonoma County in total nine new Home Key Grants were announced Wednesday, totaling $130 million to deliver 533 new permanently supportive housing units for homeless people. Mark Albert, KRCB, Sonoma County News. Well, this week, the Winter Town Council is considering its official response to the coordination's proposal to build a multi-billion dollar resort and casino on the edge of town. A draft of a letter to the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs lays out a number of concerns in response to the tribal nation's draft environmental impact statement about the project. If approved, the casino resort would rise on a 68-acre parcel southeast of the intersection of Shiloh Road and Olrewin Highway. Among the concerns, impacts on the town's water supplies, potential stormwater flooding, and impacts on fossils and Native American artifacts that may be on the site. You're listening to Sonoma County First News. A bill would regulate the use of self-checkout machines at retail stores is making its way through California's legislature. Cap Radio's Laura Fitzgerald has more. More checks on self-checkout. That's what state Senator Lola Smallwood-Quivis says is needed to protect workers and prevent retail theft. They have to become places where customers want to shop, and it has to be a place where we address retail theft, and this bill does that. The bill would establish a staff ratio, one employee per two self-checkout machines. It would also limit the number of self-checkout items and require advanced notification of new technology and workplaces. A coalition of advocates for California's retail industry opposed the bill. Daniel Conway is with the California Grocers Association, and cited similar self-checkout restrictions during COVID. You have store employees being put in the position of having to enforce state law. It was problematic then during a global health crisis, but I think in the day-to-day operations of our stores, it's going to lead to a lot of tension and conflict. The bill is pending in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. In Sacramento, I'm Laura Fitzgerald. Following a recent dispute involving an RV being parked in a front yard, Cloverdale officials are considering new rules regarding RVs being parked on private property within the city. The proposal would add new restrictions, like recreational vehicles would have to be parked on a paved or gravel surface perpendicular to a home. No one may regularly live in the RV, yet it would require they be kept in operable condition, and the proposal would also ban having more than one RV on any residential lot. Now this. New from the Embedded Podcast. Female athletes have always needed grit and talent, but for decades, they've also needed a certificate. There was chit chat about, is that really a woman? And even now, they're still being checked and questioned. Their story is the newest series from CBC and NPR's Embedded. It's called Tested. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Sonoma County's Economic Development Department is now the economic development collaborative. The rebranding follows an outreach effort about a year and a half ago as the body worked on developing a new action plan. According to a report prepared for Tuesday's board a supervisors meeting where it was approved, the old name was considered confusing and did not resonate with some community members, particularly Spanish speakers. Staffers at the agency and a consulting firm began a process to develop the new names in April of last year. And I want to pass this along a reminder that in Santa Rosa today, the city's fire department says it'll be doing another training burn at the Santa Rosa Municipal Services Center on Stony Point Road. The training burns are slated for between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. today, weather permitting. And turning now to weather sunny with highs near 88 today, we'll see a clear skies tonight lows around 57 tomorrow sunny with highs near 87. Then upper 70s for the weekend under plenty of sunshine, more low 80s will take us into early next week with overnight lows in the 50s. At the coast today, sunny and breezy with northwesterly winds gusting 20 to 30 miles per hour, but Dega Bay, you're reaching for 69 later, Windsor, Forestville and Greaton will see 89 for a high Hillsburg and Sonoma share 88. So basketball 86, Grenville 84, Petaluma and Cloverdale will climb to 83 today 88 on the way for Santa Rosa. Well, thanks for starting your day with us. We are your local member supported public radio newsroom and you can become a member at krcb.org and that's where you'll find more local reporting plus any updates to the stories you just heard. And join us for morning edition and all things considered for more North Bay News coverage weekday mornings and afternoons on krcb 104.9. From Sonoma County's NPR station, I'm Mark Prell. Stay safe out there and have yourself a good day.