Townhomes Slated for Historic Santa Rosa Site

A landmark in Santa Rosa is at the center of a housing debate as a Bay Area developer seeks to build residences on the site.

San Jose-based Swenson is once again pursuing plans for a new swath of townhouses on a nearly 14-acre property that includes the remains of the historic Carrillo Adobe, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Swenson purchased the property approximately two decades ago and at the time looked to build new housing, but left land around the adobe to be deeded to the city so people could see it from the street.

The newly proposed project, dubbed Creekside Village Townhomes, would consist of 162 three-story townhouses. Swenson’s preliminary plan calls for preserving the adobe on a 4-acre park and constructing buildings around it. The company presented its designs to the city at a public meeting last month and has yet to submit a formal proposal. Doing so would begin the evaluation process, which includes studies of the land’s historical resources and other environmental and traffic considerations.

Cutting down the size of the park area “slightly” compared to the blueprint nearly 20 years ago would help Swenson financially, Mark Pilarczyk, president of development at Swanson, said at the meeting, per the Chronicle.

The idea is already facing pushback, including from those with historical ties to the Carrillo Adobe. Larry Carrillo, a descendant of Maria Carrillo, the matriarch who first lived in the adobe in the 1840s, said Swenson “really poked the bear.”

Native American community leaders and historians are also speaking out against the project.

“Building houses on top of this land would be a continued erasure of our history and presence here,” Greg Sarris, chairman of the Graton Rancheria federation of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo, told the Chronicle, saying the city should protect all 14 acres surrounding the Adobe. The property has “layers of history” that ”makes it a compelling place, and you wouldn’t want to disrupt it or obliterate it or hide it for all time,” Eric Stanley, associate director and curator of history at the Museum of Sonoma County, added.

Roughly 20 years ago, the Diocese of Santa Rosa sold the property and the adobe to Swenson for $5.1 million. When Swenson first floated building on the site, it called for 140 market-rate condominiums and 25 low-income units and it was required to create a park for the adobe and grant it to the city. The 2008 financial crisis halted the plans, and 82-year-old Larry Carrillo has been personally removing weeds from the Sonoma County site ever since as there’s currently no government funding or entity to preserve it.

— Chris Malone Méndez