Alexander Valley Healthcare (AVH) is one step closer to developing the corner lot of the City of Cloverdale’s South Cloverdale Boulevard Thyme Square property.
A sixth amendment to the purchase and sale agreement for the project, which bumps up the close on the purchase of the 2.8-acre property before a development agreement is reached, was originally listed on the consent calendar of the Cloverdale City Council’s Sept. 8 council meeting.
AVH requested the early closing of their purchase of Lot B of Thyme Square so that it could pursue grant funding that requires them to already own the property.
The item was pulled for discussion by Councilmember Melanie Bagby, who disagreed with having the northernmost corner parcel of Thyme Square set aside for Alexander Valley Healthcare’s planned medical center. The item was ultimately approved by the council in a 3-1-1 vote, with Bagby dissenting and Mayor Marta Cruz recusing herself.
“Having seen some of the preliminary designs and having been in the room to talk about the plans for Alexander Valley Healthcare, I’m not convinced that they’re going to be able to meet our requirements for a downtown area plan and for our general plan,” Bagby said.
Specifically addressing her concerns that the designs for the health care center might not meet requirements for the city’s downtown area plan or its general plan, Bagby said that preliminary ideas she’s seen do not look like they have a small-scale building frontage “that’s going to be vital to encourage a pedestrian-friendly environment, walkable neighborhoods and being well-integrated to … the character of our downtown.”
“I think Thyme Square is the right place for them, but I would prefer to see them on a different parcel,” she said.
Councilmember Gus Wolter said that while he is in support of having the development on the corner parcel it’s planned on, he’s concerned about whether the property will comes back to the city should the project fail to move forward. The agreement passed by the council Wednesday night stipulates that the grant deed has a right of reverter to the seller should AVH either not enter into a development agreement within 180 days of closing, or if it doesn’t apply for a building permit for the project within 300 days of closing.
“It’s still going to have to go through the review of design,” Wolter said. “I share my fear of having a three-story monster right there — but with the landscaping, with the design review, we’ll be OK.”
Councilmember Joe Palla, who’s seen the project through its various stages, voiced full support for the approval of the agreement amendment, emphasizing that Cloverdale needs its own state-of-the-art medical center.
“We have a retirement community where we have people traveling outside of our city to get medical services or they’re in cramped quarters,” Palla said. “We have the opportunity to bring mental health up here, we have the opportunity to bring county services up here, all part of this new design. I really think we’ve had this thing on the backburner where consultants and a lot of money have been spent, and it hasn’t moved forward in many years.”
The initial purchase and sale agreement was passed by the Cloverdale City Council in March 2019. In an interview shortly after, AVH Chief Executive Officer Debbie Howell said that she had hoped to have a clearer timeline and a “coming soon” sign up on the property by summer 2019.
In a February 2021 update to SoCoNews, Howell said that AVH was in the last leg of negotiating the development agreement for the project but that she anticipated the sale of the property to close within the month and for AVH to begin marketing and promoting the purchase by summer.
“The bottom line is we have to own the property before we can apply for any grants, federal grants, USDA loans or anything like that — so that’s what we’re in the process of,” Howell said in February.
The amendment passed by the council Wednesday night will allow AVH to start that process sooner, since it will hold the property deed before having a development agreement in place. Once AVH is able to go out and obtain funding, there should be a clearer timeline of when the design process — and building — can get underway.
