Vacation rental moratorium
EDITOR: Can you believe I just received a mailing from the Sonoma County Permit and Resource Management Department informing me that another home in my Guerneville neighborhood has been approved as a vacation rental?
It didn’t even give the neighbors an opportunity to object, just said, “Hey, it’s a done deal. Call if the vacation renters violate any rules, like letting their dog bark incessantly when they go out to dinner.”
Our county is facing a severe housing crisis. Many working people, especially those who lost their homes or jobs in the recent fires, are thinking about moving away. Several homes in my once-upon-a-time residential neighborhood have been converted to vacation rentals, and others sit empty part of the year waiting for their out-of-town owners to show up for a vacation weekend.
Isn’t it time to enforce a county moratorium on turning former family homes into vacation rentals?
Lois Pearlman
Guerneville
Beaten on the board
EDITOR: It’s almost funny how bad dreams and problems keep popping up. As we learned last week online, Palm Drive is faced with another illustration as to why the basic building is falling apart: first mold, now water and a power failure. And it’s not even raining yet.
Then last Friday, I got a letter from the Sonoma West Medical Foundation dated November 21 and inviting me to a special event held four days earlier. I called the number on the letter but it’s been disconnected, which seems like an almost perfect metaphor.
I appreciate and acknowledge all the work that has been done to try to keep Palm Drive afloat. I also acknowledge all the money that could have gone to more successful nonprofits that has been spent. I recognize and remember the pre-bankruptcy employees who still have not been paid. And I wonder when this effort will end. If we were playing poker we’d say Palm Drive is beaten on the board. It’s time to fold and move on. The hospital site would be much better site for housing, than it has turned out to be for a hospital.
Richard Power
Sebastopol
Tasting rooms moratorium
EDITOR: Kudos to the Sonoma City Council for taking Healdsburg’s lead and pulling the plug on more tasting rooms around their plaza, in light of the current 26 existing establishments with five more approved. Besides insuring more retail diversity around the Sonoma square, the moratorium is also smart business.
As the founder of the Silicon Valley Bank Wine Division, Rob McMillan warned the Sonoma County wine industry: “The greatest obstacle to tasting room profitability is more and more competition from more and more tasting rooms.”
We must all protect and support existing wine and hospitality businesses, especially since the downturn caused by the recent fires. To continue to build and develop more competition will only hurt those who have already invested in our community. It’s just bad business.
Padi Selwyn, co-founder
Neighbors to Preserve Rural Sonoma County
Sebastopol
