County plans for historic districts

The county Landmarks Commission has released its plans for the historic small towns of Bodega, Occidental, Freestone and Duncans Mills. A hearing before the Planning Commission on June 7 at 1:45 p.m. in the hearing room of the Permit and Resource Management Department (PRMD) at 2550 Ventura Ave. in Santa Rosa.

In 2009 the Landmarks Commission decided there was insufficient information in the documents that designated the four towns as “historic”. The Board of Supervisors decided to utilize money from the Trasient Occupancy Tax (bed tax) advertising fund to hire the consultant firm of Garcia and Associates to come up with design guidelines for Freestone and Occidental. In 2010 that same method was used to design guidelines for Bodega and Duncans Mills.

The result is a two inch thick packet of documents that describes what makes each of these towns historic, which buildings express that period of history and which do not and should be removed from historic designation. The recommendations by the county staff call for eight buildings to be removed from Bodega’s historic listings, four from Duncans Mills, and two to be added to Duncans Mills.

The documents are available for perusal at the PRMD offices. After the hearing before the Planning Commission there will be a hearing before the Board of Supervisors to accept the proposals in the future