Goals include improving connectivity, working on climate change and exploring the possibility of cannabis sales
The appointment of a new mayor doesn’t only bring in a fresh perspective and a change in who sits where on the dais, it brings in a whole new set of goals for the new year.
Newly selected Healdsburg Mayor Leah Gold has set her sights on several goals and projects for the new year, including tackling cannabis, working on improving connectivity around town and addressing climate change.
Gold recently sat down with The Healdsburg Tribune to discuss these goals and more, and ongoing challenges like natural disaster.
New measures
“2020 is going to be an election year so there’s some important issues that we’ll be working on,” Gold said. “We’ve put Measure H on the ballot, which is sort of an extension of Measure P. Measure P allowed for a certain number of units of multi-family housing to be built as as they received GMO (growth management ordinance) allocations.”
The multi-family housing units would have to be income and rental restricted.
“Measure H just takes those same numbers of units and can also be offered for sale and the reason behind it is to just make it more likely the developers will actually choose to include multi-family housing in their proposals, so we are looking forward to that and hopefully being successful in November,” Gold explained.
She said the city is also interested in getting the Measure V half-cent sales tax renewed since it is an important funding source for public safety, police and fire, and road projects.
Voters first approved the measure in 2012 to stabilize city finances and offset the loss of redeveloping funding according to the city.
The city started receiving sales tax revenue from the measure in April 2013 and since then, $1,653,536 has gone toward maintenance of city facilities, including upgrades to the senior center.
$2,351,264 has gone towards public safety to fund for additional firefighters and portable radios; $3,962,306 went toward street maintenance and repair; and $793,383 went towards economic development.
“We hope that will be successful,” Gold said of the Measure V renewal.
Connectivity
The need for more connectivity from various neighborhoods around Healdsburg to parks and green space has been brought up several times during strategic planning and sustainable design assessment team sessions.
Consequently, the completion of the Foss Creek pathway and improvements to river access are two items that Gold is eager to work on.
“I am excited about the connectivity plan that we are working on, because that is going to deal with improvements to Badger Park, increasing river access, improvements to Fitch Mountain and connectivity to Fitch Mountain hese ideas that have been floating around we are going to see a plan and I hope that we see progress,” Gold said.
In terms of the pathway Gold said, “I’m really hoping that the Foss Creek bicycle pathway will get completed this year, because that was planned back in 2004, so it would really please me to have it finally completed … The segments that we have completed have been very successful, so completing that would really help people, especially in the north end of town and parkland farms really have a safe route into town.”
Climate change
In an effort to be more green and take on climate change, Gold said the city hopes to soon complete the solar panel project at the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
“I think our council is very united about fighting climate change so I hope this year we will see completion of phase one if our solar panels on the wastewater treatment plant,” she said.
The panels are floating solar panels and when the project is complete it will be able to completely power the wastewater treatment plant.
“The wastewater plant is not an insignificant energy consumer, it is a very large percentage in the amount of electricity that the city of Healdsburg uses,” Gold said.
Gold continued, “We are also going to keep trying to increase our percentage of renewably sourced electricity and I would like to take this opportunity to remind people living in the city limits of Healdsburg that they can choose the Green Rate and all of their personal electricity is 100% renewable and will help us get closer to that goal.”
She said the rate of people signing up for it is very low.
Also in regard to climate change Gold said that the city is looking to have a new policy where any decision the city council makes city staff would present information on the environmental impact of the decision and how the decision would affect energy consumption.
Cannabis
Gold also aims to address cannabis sales in Healdsburg.
“I am going to direct staff that we work on lifting the prohibition on cannabis sales in Healdsburg and work out the taxation and zoning issues that we want to deal with … I think it is important that we get ahead of this topic because it is very likely that the state is going to come up with a law that will compel us to, in which case we will be in ‘Hurry up mode’ and I would rather that we use more foresight and did it in our own way in our own pace and just get it done,” Gold said.
Gold had suggested broaching the subject at the last two goal setting sessions, however, she said she didn’t receive council support.
“Hopefully the climate has changed and they’ve seen enough about how other cities have handled it and maybe they will feel more receptive to doing it this year,” Gold said. “It is a robust source of tax revenue, it is a convenience to our residents and it also promotes economic diversity.”
City development
The Montage Resort will be coming online this year and the Mill District will be coming forth with more specific plans for their development, Gold said.
In the near future the city will also discuss the 3 North Street site.
“That is a very prime location, city owned property, and there are several ideas floating around and the community is going to soon get the opportunity to hear about these ideas and weigh in on it,” Gold said.
Concerns and challenges
When asked what some concerns and potential challenges could be in the new year, Gold mentioned affordable housing and homelessness.
“I’ve been participating in these homeless summit meetings that James Gore has initiated. We’ve been hosting them, there have been three so far and it involves all of the various county and local agencies that work with homeless people and with representatives of the cities of Windsor, Healdsburg and Cloverdale in addition to Supervisor Gore,” Gold said. “What we are trying to do is to take a regional approach to this issue as opposed to everybody having to replicate services.”
She said she hopes the city can make some progress in that area.
As far as affordable housing, Gold said she is interested in pursuing other sources of money for affordable housing.
“We are also looking at requiring hotels to include affordable housing … They’ll either have to put in in-lieu funds or actually build housing the way Hotel Trio did,” she said.
Another challenge Gold mentioned is the ability to cope with change while maintaining Healdsburg’s special small town character and community feel.
Labor of love
When asked if there was a passion project Gold would like to work on as mayor, she said while her particular idea isn’t a city idea, it is a concept that she is nonetheless passionate about: developing bicycle paths.
“I think it is dead obvious that we should have them. There is all this conflict between cyclists and motorists on the road … We have so much scenic beauty and such beautiful weather and people want to get out and enjoy it, but those narrow roads are dangerous. It just seems like it wouldn’t be that difficult to do separate bike paths off the road, that would be a great asset to residents,” Gold said.
