Like the mysterious train from the far side of the mountain, whose nocturnal horn blasts even when no train is running, SMART came to Healdsburg on Monday night uninvited and, as it turned out, unwelcome.
SMART’s 11th-hour attempt to change the location of its Healdsburg platform from the city-endorsed historic Depot site on Hudson Street to the SMART-favored “downtown,” or Vine Street, location went nowhere during the City Council meeting. Although a three-person team from the transit agency put its best foot forward with Executive Director Eddy Cumins, Lead Engineer Bill Gamlen and Planning Manager Zoe Unruh, their presentation proved less than overwhelming to the overflow crowd of 100-plus. Of those who attended the meeting, almost half weighed in during the 90-minute public comments session, with roughly three-quarters of them speaking in support of the historic Depot location on Hudson Street.
SMART’s eager reconsideration of the Vine Street location was prompted by a several factors: increasing ridership numbers, the overwhelming passage of Measure B in the last election to continue the quarter-cent sales tax countywide and a headful of steam from the successful overture to Geyserville residents to include that rural, nonincorporated location in SMART’s northward push to Cloverdale.
Cumins said that the landscape has shifted fundamentally since early 2024, justifying a “fresh look” at the station site. But that only confused the residents in attendance, and the council itself, who felt the Depot location was decided upon in February 2024—and indeed at several other points over the past 30 or more years.
“Healdsburg has looked at moving this train station before, and it keeps landing on the same answer,” Mark McMullen commented, echoing a letter he sent to the council over the weekend. “In 1997, five years before SMART existed, four sites were studied and the Depot was chosen. In 2015, Sonoma County funded parking and pathway improvements at the Depot, explicitly ‘to facilitate future use by SMART.’ Around 2020, a move to 3 North St. didn’t go anywhere, and that site is now the Community Pavilion instead. In 2023-24, Vine Street got a full review, and the council still chose Hudson. Four rounds, 30 years, different people each time, same answer.”
Many of the public comments criticized the SMART presentation as “slanted” or “disingenuous,” with some going so far as to urge the transit agency to offer an apology to the City of Healdsburg for bringing the issue back again. “I think you guys wanted feedback, and you got it,” said one.
SMART plans further community outreach, including meetings and a survey, from now until the end of the year, with a final meeting with the City Council in December to solicit its approval. Cumins said that the final decision rests not with him but with the SMART Board of Directors, currently headed by Sonoma County Supervisor Chris Coursey. Letters to the board, sent to bo***@**************in.org, might be the most effective way to communicate individual sentiment.
