Sonoma County supervisors advance work on new county campus concept

Nearly 10 months after scrapping plans to build new government offices in downtown Santa Rosa, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has tentatively endorsed a concept that outlines phased construction of new offices on the existing campus in northern Santa Rosa.

The board has not committed to a specific building plan or projected cost, but rather authorized staff to move forward with further design development and analysis, including an environmental study and payment plan.

On Tuesday, county staff outlined two ideas: constructing an emergency coordination center and either one headquarters building or two on Administrative Drive to accommodate about 1,700 employees, assuming that 1,450 employees would remain in leased office space and about half of the county’s 4,000-plus-member workforce would work remotely.

The one-building option could cost $682 million and two buildings would cost $721 million, staff estimated.

“We went through a long detailed process before and this is less money that we’re talking about and it’s still a shit load of money,” said Supervisor Chris Coursey, board chair. He was referring to the county’s abandoned plan to build a complex in downtown Santa Rosa, once pegged to cost anywhere from $35.7 million to $55.4 million annually over 30 years, in addition to a $21 million site purchase.

Cost has proven a significant obstacle for the board as it wrestled with replacing the county’s aging complex of buildings, which dates back to the 1950s on the 83-acre campus north of Steele Lane.

The plans presented Tuesday did not include a specific payment plan, but the county is likely still looking at a 30-year payment, said Peter Bruland, a deputy Sonoma County administrator who serves as the county’s budget chief.

The county has $14.8 million in u front capital from deferred maintenance that could cover construction. An additional $1 million also from deferred maintenance could be used to support local government service centers, called for by supervisors Lynda Hopkins and Susan Gorin for over a year.

Frustrated that staff did not have a detailed plan on project costs, building maintenance and how to pay for it, Coursey said “it needs more work.”

“We can’t obligate a future board to do any of this so what we’re really talking about is one building now and who knows what’s happening in the future,” Coursey said.

County Administrator Sheryl Bratton said she understood the frustration but noted that staff were “sent back to the drawing board” when the downtown site failed. She added that staff will be able to provide more details as they move forward with analysis.

“It’s a little bit of apples to oranges compared to where we were last year,” Bratton said.

Other elements on the table include exploring commercial and housing development on other parts of the county campus, including along Mendocino Avenue.

Johannes Hoevertsz, the county’s public infrastructure director, said some developers had expressed interest in building a hotel, a few lawyers were interested in office space and other community members had voiced support for a grocery store or restaurant.

“For now it’s just an idea that we can build housing, that we can bring commercial and some industrial,” Hoevertsz said, stressing the need for more study.

Under the proposed concept, the project would involve demolition of existing buildings, including the permitting and planning office, human services building, fiscal building and administration building.

Supervisor David Rabbitt, a licensed architect, encouraged county staff to broaden the evaluation beyond the immediate space needed to build new offices and consider how options like housing, commercial space and walking paths could fit together on the entire campus.

“Parking should be a convertible space because you don’t know what the future holds,” Rabbitt said.

In an interview after the meeting, Hoevertsz said he does not expect to bring those detailed options back to the board until the end of the year or beginning of 2024.

“We’re super happy that we can move forward and bring options to the board,” Hoevertsz said.

You can reach Staff Writer Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or emma.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MurphReports.