Sonoma Development Hopes to Break California’s New Urbanist Drought
- Josh Stephens
- Aug 10
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 14
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In the 30-plus years since the adoption of the Charter of the New Urbanism, California has been a hotbed of New Urbanist thought. New Urbanist development, on the other hand, has been scarce--aside from frequently cited TOD projects such as Oakland’s Fruitvale Village and Pasadena’s Del Mar Station. In spite of the growing popularity of form-based code and other New Urbanist-ish regulations, California has no Seaside (Florida) or Culdesac (Arizona).
That may be changing, at least in Sonoma County.
The community of Esmeralda has been working its way through the planning process in Cloverdale, a city of around 8,600 residents just barely within the commute shed of the Bay Area. It is envisioned as a holistic community full of walkable streets, dense mixed-use structures, and an abiding sense of community that is both a world unto itself and also well integrated into Cloverdale’s existing urban fabric.
"One of the great tragedies of California is the hyper-regulation of land use. Everyone is micromanaging everyone else, and it has to stop," said Michael Yarne, a veteran Bay Area developer who serves as Director of Development of Esmeralda Land Co. “What matters is what it feels like being on the street: is it safe to cross the street, can you ride a bike, is the architecture interesting, are there places to sit and pause."
Esmeralda is the brainchild not of Andres Duany or Peter Calthorpe but, rather, of 32-year-old entrepreneur Devon Zuegel. In spite of, or perhaps because of, her relative inexperience in California, Zuegel devised the vision for Esmeralda -- based in part on childhood experiences in Chautauqua, NY -- and has pursued it enthusiastically, attempting to establish the state’s first large-scale New Urbanist development.
The proposal has been called "utopian." Zuegel says it's common sense.
"As I got older I started wondering why that isn't normal…. it's not rocket science: human-scale streets, more emphasis on public spaces," Zuegel said. "That led me to look for recently built neighborhoods, villages, and towns built on those principles. It's a short list in the United States, but I made a point of visiting as many as I could.”
The development will occupy about one-third of the 266-acre site adjacent to downtown Cloverdale. It envisions roughly 600 housing units, a hotel, retail, and public amenities including parks and a central piazza. Because Cloverdale has already met its state-mandated affordable housing targets, Esmeralda will not include deed-restricted affordable housing but rather aims to include “affordable-by-design” units.
"Part of why we wanted to build at the scale of a whole village rather than a single building or block is that a small pocket of walkability isn't worth the added risk — you get more risk without the benefit of real walkability," Zuegel said. "At a larger scale, the whole neighborhood becomes walkable — you can walk to a coffee shop, a restaurant, the park."
The property, on which the company has an option, used to house a lumber yard and several other industrial uses. Shortly after the Louisiana Pacific mill closed in the early 1990s, the city changed the zoning to residential. So, while Esmeralda will propose an extensive development agreement, including provisions for the company to build out infrastructure and amenities, it is not asking for anything like a zoning change or annexation.
"We're proposing a 25-year development agreement, an entirely new specific plan, specific plan zoning, objective design standards (ODS), and a master tentative map — those are the core elements, plus some ancillary agreements," Yarne said.
City staff were not permitted to speak for this article. Members of the Cloverdale City Council did not respond to requests for comment.
Jes Slavik, who is the master planner for the project, indicated that the topography of the site, which consists largely of rolling hills and shallow ravines, makes for an aesthetically compelling design. Over half the site will be preserved as open space, administered by Esmeralda.
"The site itself is spectacular — beautiful views, and topography is one of its primary features," said Slavik.
Less beautiful is the presence of potentially hazardous chemicals left over from the property’s lumber-mill days. Remediation of the site was completed gradually over 25 years following the lumber mill’s closure, in part through Superfund designation. Some Cloverdale residents are demanding that the project produce a full environmental impact report, rather than just an addendum to a previously published EIR, and have requested that the Regional Water Quality Control Board resume a program to monitor and test the property.
Yarne considers the hazards manageable and the concerns overblown.
"We'll continue to test and clean up any residual contamination — that's the whole point of brownfield development: to go in and fix it," Yarne said.
More importantly, the site’s existing zoning is what may enable Esmeralda to be the exception that proves the rule regarding New Urbanist development.
In the late 1990s, a city task force considered a range of potential new uses for the property. It arrived at a development centered on a golf course, including homes and commercial uses. The prospect of such a conventional, sprawling project, which could be developed by-right, may make Esmeralda’s design relatively more appealing to stakeholders.
“Those who don't want change don't want it, period,” said Hanchett. “But it's private property — a developer could come in and build subsidized housing… and the city would have no say. I don't think people understand it's privately owned, and the owners can sell it if they choose.”
Similarly challenging is the financial landscape. Zuegel said that conventional funders shy away from New Urbanism in large part because of its novelty. Her solution was to find novel funders. She solicited capital largely from her personal network, which is centered in San Francisco -- a city familiar with density and walkability.
"In the Bay Area there are people who take a longer view and are willing to back bolder, boundary-pushing projects," said Zuegel. "Our investors were primarily Bay Area families who wanted to see this kind of development happen, some of whom had never invested in real estate before — a different path than traditional institutional investors.”
Ultimately, the Esmeralda team will prepare the site, create the master plan, and build infrastructure and some communal facilities. Other developers will complete the build-out. The plan does not attempt to micro-manage the design.
"Cloverdale is open to an approach where we set large parameters on quality of urban spaces, circulation, and landscape, but the draft specific plan does not micromanage housing," Yarne said, adding that design elements like setbacks, articulation, and rooflines will be up to individual developers. "It gives extraordinary latitude to the future buildout."
"That's the value of a new urbanism plan — allowing different components to come together, and figuring out the interface between them, knowing they'll likely be built by different groups," Slavik said.
What matters equally to Slavik is the activity and connections that Esmeralda’s design is intended to foster.
"(We are) creating a network — for pedestrians, bikes, and cars — because connectivity drives engagement," said Slavik. "The other part is giving people places to engage. We're creating a community core, our 'piazza,' which brings together amenities and tenants."
One factor that has not impeded the project so far is the Cloverdale planning department and other city departments. Zuegel said she expected skepticism from the fire department, but the team praised the city’s collaboration.
"There's an inherent conservatism, especially in California, about narrow streets — we catastrophize and assume the worst. Anyone attempting this has to work hard to bring engineers and fire officials on board. California is obsessed with safetyism,” said Yarne.
Slavik hopes to satisfy their concerns for egress by, for instance, creating loops rather than dead-ends.
"Many of them had heard of the places that inspired us and thought it would be cool to have something similar in Cloverdale," Zuegel said, of local planners' reaction to the project. “They've been creative and open to trying new things.”
Something else for the city to appreciate is the potential to gain tax revenues and economic activity at minimal cost.
"Because we're not in the middle of downtown, if we sink or swim on our own, the city isn't responsible for a dollar of what we're doing," said Yarne. "We're getting creative with property tax, property assessments, and transient occupancy tax. One hundred percent of zero is zero — all the revenue we're harvesting is value we're generating with our investment."
The project’s opponents have gone so far as to refer to Zuegel and her team as a “weirdo cult,” presumably because of their connection to Chautauqua and claims that the project is “utopian.” Yarne rejects even that characterization, saying instead, "I'd call it innovative. I'd avoid the word 'utopian,' because the connotations are pretty negative.”
For Hanchett, a successful version of Esmeralda means something much more basic: survival of the city.
Sonoma County is an enviable place to live, but our kids can't afford to stay here without family help,” said Hanchett, who emphasized that neither she nor the chamber have formally endorsed the project. "Left alone, the town risks turning to dust — not just aging people, but aging infrastructure, plus state mandates that cost money to meet: streets, water, sewer.”
Arguably, Esmeralda is in a race with a much higher-profile, vastly larger development also backed by people from the technology industry and also inspired by new urbanism: California Forever, in nearby Solano County.
"More and more data shows people are desperate for urbanism: places that are walkable, compact, with mixed amenities,” said Yarne. "I love the audacity and the vision…. A new town or new city is appropriate, because California has an extraordinary housing shortage."
Esmeralda will likely win the permitting race. The team expects to present its proposal to the city this month, with approvals hoped for by November.
Contacts and Resources
Neena Hanchett, Director, Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce, neena@cloverdalechamber.com Jes Slavik, Slavik Design LLC, jes@slavikdesign.com Michael Yarne, Partner and Development Director, Esmeralda Land Company, michael@esmeralda.org Devon Zuegel Founder, Esmeralda Land Company devon@esmeralda.org
Images courtesy of Esmeralda Land Co.
