Thursday morning, Aug. 20, an appeal was filed to the City of Healdsburg over the Aug. 10 decision to approve “The Hudson” luxury senior housing development by the Planning Commission.
Appeals are not unheard of, they are rare, and rarer still is when he Planning Commission is overturned. Two individuals submitted the joint appeal: artist Lewis Bengham of Mason Street, and Jon Eisenberg, a retired attorney who lives on Tucker Street. Both are in the immediate neighborhood of the proposed four-story development.
Both checked that the ruling was based on the claim that Building Code 113.2 was incorrectly interpreted and did not fully apply to the commission’s decision. Their argument is basically that the applicant, Gallaher Signature Living, was asking for permission to run a facility that includes medical care and memory care which puts it under definition of an RCFE, a “Residential Care Facility for the Elderly.”
The Harmon Street location they are targeting however is zoned only for “Residential Care, general,” meaning the facility they are applying for cannot be built without a variance. The appeal holds that the Planning Commission—if not the city staff or city attorney—should have denied the application on that basis.
There have been many discussions over the Aug. 10 Planning Commission approval, some recognizing that two members were not present (city council candidate Alec Wood and newcomer J.P. Gentry) which while it may not have affected the outcome, might have opened the discussion up to a broader degree. Phil Luks, the lion of the Planning Commission for 12 years, retired in June, further eroding the challenge of gaining commission approval.
But with all the hand-wringing and frustration that this project (77 units, possibly as many as 160 residents) is allowed to proceed, it’s important to note that delay begins with the Planning Commission, and their approval only advances an unpopular plan, legal or otherwise, toward unwanted construction. Some say it’s because of the limits of the Growth Management Ordinance (see the op-ed in last week’s paper, by architect Alan B. Cohen) others saying the only reason that’s true is because the GMO-amending Measure O was deeply flawed and could not gain public approval. We don’t see the argument going away anytime soon, certainly not before the Healdsburg City Council meeting on Sept. 21 when they are likely to hear the appeal.
Instant Replay
Another “inside baseball” factor was that the Gallaher project designer is Jeff Civian, a former chairman of the Healdsburg Planning Commissioner. Civian ran for city council in 2014 against Eric Ziedrich as well as Brigette Mansel and Tim Meinken. Although it was a close race, after the last vote were was tallied it was Mansell who ended up in second place, and on the council, behind the popular Ziedrich, beating Civian by only 40 votes.
Digging deeper, Civian, now 69, left Healdsburg following his controversial report to police in August, 2020, regarding two unknown teens on his front porch at night. He apparently responded by going out to meet the boys armed with a gun, and a few days later their families decided to bring charges against Civian. Two charges of felony assault with a firearm, as well as two charges of felony child endangerment, were filed. The case was resolved in Sonoma County Court without a trial.
