Wayne said that the city’s normal mode re annexation is to respond to requests. When one large area in the SW was up for annexation and development in recent years, though, LAFCO, the Local Agency Formation Commission, told Santa Rosa that they would no longer tolerate the piecemeal annexations that had occurred in that quadrant of the city. At that point, the city and county commenced a series of 24 meetings meant to resolve the impasse. County government had long assumed the area would be annexed, and didn’t invest in infrastructure that citizens began to feel was only right. City government didn’t want to take on financially unsupportable service delivery costs.

A consultant was hired by both parties to assess costs associated with services to the area, as a basis for negotiation. The result was disagreement on basic costs, with the county estimate lower due to use of the Sheriff’s Department for public safety. Santa Rosa Police cover certain areas like traffic control and gang prevention services that the county doesn’t, or at least not to the same extent. The costs discussed related only to services – not, importantly, to bringing infrastructure up to date.

The impasse remains. With 50% of the city’s affordable housing sited in the SW, local citizens are unhappy with the continued emphasis on sending almost all affordable projects there. A large part of that decision is based on land values, which are lower there than other city areas, and the usual builders of such housing are non-profits trying to stretch their dollars.

The Roseland shopping area proper has had planning documents created with considerable community input. What remains is for the heirs to the property to make plans to develop or sell the property to someone who will.

When Beth Martinez asked what CCSR might do to help the situation, Wayne replied: 1) Find 60 to 70 million dollars; and 2) pull off a trick like Helen Putnam did years ago in Petaluma by influencing the county to bring county lands up to city codes before the city annexed them.