Sonia E. Taylor
306 Lomitas Lane
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
707-579-8875
[email protected]
16 December 2025
Mayor Mark Stapp
And the Santa Rosa City Council
Via email
Re: Item 16.3, December 16, 2025 Agenda
Water Supply Assessment for the Woodlands at Chanate
Dear Mayor Stapp and Members of the Santa Rosa City Council:
Apologies for this late communication, but I only learned of the existence of the Chanate project Water Supply Assessment yesterday.
Following are my comments to the Water Supply Assessment (WSA):
1. It appears that the Chanate property applicant has changed their mind after their original application, and is now requesting different densities on the property in their (presumed) revised application for a General Plan Amendment and Rezoning. At least, that is what this WSA indicates.
2. This WSA is just a snapshot in time, and unfortunately is reaching conclusions about water availability for the presumed future Chanate property development project based on the Santa Rosa 2020 Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP), which will be revised next year, in 2026. Clearly the 2020 UWMP is no longer a reliable source of information.
As a result of this situation, the within WSA uses drought year calculations from 1987- 1991, which are well over 30 years old. The fact is that we had historic drought years during 2020-2022 -- the within WSA describes them as the second driest two year period on record.
Of course, the 2020 UWMP on which the within WSA is based couldn’t have considered drought years occurring after it was prepared. Presumably those historic drought years during the 20’s will be used instead in the 2026 UWMP, with due consideration for any COVID related results.
There is no question that our climate has undergone significant changes since the late 1980’s, which calls into question the validity of the within WSA’s evaluation of water usage and of water availability during consecutive drought years.
3. This WSA further is based on the 2023 WSA prepared for the Santa Rosa General Plan, and does not consider the water usage of projects that were not covered or considered in our current General Plan and/or its WSA, including but not limited to, the proposed County Administration Redevelopment Plan, which is going to contain up to 1500 residential units, 250,000 square feet of office space, a 7000 to 13,000 square foot Emergency Operations Center, and up to 20,000 square feet of retail/commercial uses, all of which will use significantly more Santa Rosa water than the existing office uses on that property.
Again, the within WSA is just a snapshot in time, and I’m certain there are multiple other water using developments in addition to the County Administration Center project that were not covered in the current General Plan or the 2023 WSA thereto.
As a result of the above, the conclusions reached in the within Chanate project WSA about water availability for the Chanate project are likely inaccurate – the only question is by how much.
Will we have enough water to serve the Chanate project as currently proposed? There’s no way of telling without doing a current evaluation and water supply assessment.
Thank you for your consideration of this letter. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would like additional information.
Very truly yours,
Sonia E. Taylor
Cc: Kristinae Toomians, Senior Planner
Claire Nordlie, Senior Water Resources Planner