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COMMISSION APPROVES PIAZZA’S 4TH DOWNTOWN PROJECT
Healdsburg, California Healdsburg, California
December 7, 2023 Date, Date, 20202020
‘RESIDENCE HOTEL’ WILL HAVE 37 BEDS IN 16 UNITS By Christian Kallen
Photo by Will Bucquoy Photography
Piazza Hospitality’s fourth Healdsburg hotel project, troubled by what Planning Commission Chair Phil Luks called “procedural errors,” was finally approved by the commission at its Nov. 28 meeting. The “residence hotel” at 400 Healdsburg Ave., dubbed H4 for the time being, would join Healdsburg Hotel, H2 Hotel and the Harmon Guest House at other locations in the two blocks south on Healdsburg Avenue. Paolo Petrone, one of Piazza’s principals, said the hotel would be designed to attract family groups for extended stays of a week or more. “We don’t have this product in our other three hotels” in town, he told the commission. The vote was 4-2, with Chair Luks and Commissioner Vesna Breznikar continuing to express disenchantment with Piazza’s design, social responsiveness and operational planning. But the positives of the project—including the promise of a 100% “blackwater” filtration system that would create a closed water cycle even more wastewater-neutral than greywater—offset the objections, and Commissioners Stephen Barber, Tom Gerlach, Alex Wood and Vice Chair Conor McKay outvoted the pair. That opens the door for Piazza to begin submitting specific plans to the city’s Building Department for final sign-off. “Now that the project has been approved we will start on working drawings and then plan check, working towards an eventual building permit,” said
LIGHTS UP Santa Tim Oxford and his elf, Jingles, help Cleo Wentzel, 6, throw the switch to turn on the tree lights at Merry Healdsburg! in the Plaza on Dec. 1.
Healdsburg Special Events Get a Makeover REVISED POLICY UPDATES RULES & EXPECTATIONS OF CITY EVENTS By Christian Kallen
On a cool and damp first December night, Santa Claus came to town. But the steady soft rain that fell Friday in the Plaza did little to deter hundreds of spectators from enjoying the Christmas spirit, the perky carols of the Sugarplums and the variety of choice at the Farmers’ Market. Added bonus: Santa Tim showed up with his favorite elf, Jingles, and selected a local girl—6year-old Cleo Wentzel, first in line to have her photo taken with the Big Guy— to throw the switch that turned on the tree lights. A roar and a cheer (Merry Healdsburg!) went up from the crowd as the 47-foot white fir erupted in reds, golds, silver and
white. “Oh what a night!” enthused Mayor Ariel Kelley. “Merry Healdsburg! was a hit again this year.” This is only the third official year for Merry Healdsburg!, although the tree-lighting celebration goes back some time. As such, this event joins a select but growing list of official city events, most of them taking place in the historic Plaza at the heart of town. These include regular events such as the 14-week Tuesdays in the Plaza and the much shorter (and quieter) Sundays music series, special events such as Healdsburg Crush and the Healdsburg Arts Festival, and holiday-oriented celebrations such as Fourth of July, Dia de Muertos and the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and many others. These all take city resources in staff time and road closures, sanitation and other park
maintenance, police management and often road closures in the Plaza area. That creates plenty of work, if not headaches, for city staff.
Policy Presentation
Three days after the Merry Healdsburg! celebration, Recreation Supervisor Matt Milde came before the city council. He wasn’t there to bask in the glow, but to present a set of revisions to the city’s Special Events Policy. The Policy currently on the books dates from 2014. It “serves as a guide for obtaining permits and utilizing City parks, recreation facilities, or public right-of-way for special events,” according to Milde’s report. But since the policy was developed almost 10 years ago, some of its guidelines have been shown to present “challenges for staff management and the need for striking an optimal
balance between public use and special event use of these facilities.” In the intervening years of its use, too, related inconsistencies with the Municipal Code were also discovered. A review process has been underway since 2019. As Milde noted, however, “Progress was delayed due to a flood, Kincade Fire, and COVID pandemic. Staff reconvened in late 2021, building on the 2019 progress.” When the city council heard a report on progress of the effort in May of this year, it directed Milde to incorporate a Master Calendar of Events into the special-event permit review. A month ago, on Nov. 8, the Parks and Recreation Committee reviewed the staff ’s work and forwarded it on to the city council for action. The council’s discussion on Monday was to review this revised Policy
➝ Downtown Hotel, 2
for Special Events and City Partnerships, and the revisions to the Healdsburg Municipal Code it entailed.
Categories
The new Special Events Policy’s main innovation is to split the city events into three categories: City of Healdsburg Events – Events produced and managed by the city, including the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Tuesdays in the Plaza, Merry Healdsburg! and more. Partnership Events – Events that receive city support through fee waivers, in-kind equipment or services, and donated staff time. These Partnership events themselves have three levels, with the city’s partnership level depending on the degree of its involvement: Sponsor: Limited to events with minimal equipment needs which require confirmation for the use of city property; ➝ Special Events, 2
LOCAL AT-RISK WOMAN FOUND DECEASED MICHELE PAUL LOCATED IN BOONVILLE DEC. 4 Staff Report
Photo Courtesy Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office
SILVER ALERT The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office posted
this image and description of Michele Paul, and the vehicle she was thought to be driving, on Nov. 29.
A weeks-long search for missing Geyserville resident Michele Paul, an 81-year-old woman with “cognitive issues,” ended tragically Monday afternoon when she was found dead in Boonville, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff ’s Office. Her car was found nearby, “several miles down a dirt road on a large rural property,” a sheriff ’s press release said. Deputies found Paul after responding to “a call for service regarding a suspicious vehicle”
on Mountain View Road, with help from a searchand-rescue team, the press release said. “No obvious indicators of foul play were discovered.” The Healdsburg Police Department and California Highway Patrol originally issued a Silver Alert for Paul last Tuesday, Nov. 28, after loved ones reported her missing on Nov. 27, Police Chief Matt Jenkins said. By the next day, local police had handed off the case to the sheriff. Sonoma County residents reported a few sightings of Paul in the weeks since she was last seen at her Geyserville home on Nov. 14. First, an employee at a Healdsburg business said they spotted Paul come
into the store a few times. Soon after, on the afternoon of Nov. 25, someone in the lower Russian River area thought they saw her “wearing sweats and driving a black 2019 Volkswagen Jetta” westbound on Highway 116, according to the sheriff ’s office. And that same day, others claimed on social media that they saw her Jetta driving erratically along the coast. In Facebook posts and comments, Healdsburg neighbo r s remembered Paul as a former mainstay of Parkpoint Health Club in town and a regular at Shelton’s Natural Foods Market, calling her a “wonderful woman” and a “lovely lady” who had been having some mental issues later in life.