City council nixes plan to build a mini-soccer field next to the laguna, and Hotel Sebastopol is still on hold

A recap of the April 7 meeting of the Sebastopol City Council

The city council heard updates from Piazza Hospitality, which reported that Hotel Sebastopol was still on hold due to financing issues. It also heard from the Building the Commons Ad Hoc Committee, which is humming along. The council approved a $400 fee waiver to the Kiwanis Club for the April 4th Easter Egg Hunt and approved the Memorandum of Understanding with SEIU, the union for city’s public works and administrative workers. In their final action of the evening, the council also put the kibosh on a plan to build a mini soccer field behind the Youth Annex but left open the possibility of temporarily putting it downtown in the empty lot that one day may (or may not) be the Hotel Sebastopol.

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Vice Mayor Sandra Maurer, Councilmember Phill Carter, Councilmember Neysa Hinton, and Councilmember Stephen Zollman were present in chambers for the April 7 Sebastopol City Council meeting. Mayor Jill McLewis attended via Zoom.

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Quick look at the Consent Calendar

The consent calendar consists of items that are routine in nature or don’t require additional discussion, often because they’ve been discussed extensively at a previous council meeting.

In addition to approving the minutes of earlier meetings, the council unanimously approved the following:

• Mario Landeros, contract interim city engineer from GHD, Inc., is retiring from his role, and John Moe, P.E., will be taking his place.

• The council approved an emergency leave-sharing plan that allows employees to donate their accrued vacation, compensatory time-off, or administrative leave to colleagues who’ve exhausted their paid leave after experiencing a medical emergency.

• The council authorized the opening of a recruitment process to fill the upcoming, four-year term for Sebastopol’s representative on the Sonoma County Library Commission. See a full description of this item, including requirements, here.

• The council also approved a Notice of Completion for the emergency sewer repair on South High Street.

Presentations and Informational Items

Quarterly report on Building the Commons

The Sebastopol Commons is envisioned as a shared civic space and multi-use community hub that could house, potentially, Sebastopol City Hall, the Sebastopol Library, the Sebastopol Senior Center, and an array of local nonprofits and private businesses.

The City Council Ad Hoc Committee to Build the Commons was created by the council in July 2025 and was tasked with guiding early conceptual development of The Commons, assessing community needs and exploring funding strategies.

The Ad Hoc committee has been working hard since last fall and, in their second quarterly report, councilmembers Zollman and Carter reported that they were making good progress.

The committee has explored and created a SWOT analysis on six potential properties: railroad property (behind The Feed Store), the towing company site (next to the city parking lot behind the chamber of commerce), the Calder Creek Corridor, the Rite Aid building, the current library site and the O’Reilly buildings at the north end of town. The committee has also started sending out surveys and interviewing potential partners for the venture.

We will be posting a full article on these efforts this afternoon.

Bad news from Piazza Hospitality

Piazza Hospitality, which hopes to build Hotel Sebastopol across from the downtown plaza, gave its annual report to the council. Sadly, it was basically a repetition of previous years’ reports—namely, that the company hasn’t been able to pull together the financing for the project.

Piazza’s Vice President of Development Daniele Petrone delivered the bad news, pointing to “an extraordinary succession of external events that have happened since we were approved in 2017: from the fires to the pandemic to the current global crisis,” all of which have made lenders jumpy about financing an $85 million hotel in an unproven area like Sebastopol. By “unproven,” he meant that Sebastopol doesn’t have a history of high-end tourism the way a town like Healdsburg does. Sometimes, however, even having a proven environment isn’t enough. Petrone noted that Piazza has a proposed hotel in Healdsburg which is also hung up from lack of financing.

The company’s development agreement with Sebastopol ends in June 2027.

“The choice in June, I think, for us, would be, ‘Is there a financing package out there that allows the project to pencil and should we break ground, or is the project dead?’”

That got the council’s attention. Councilmember Maurer asked, “Did you just say, ‘If the project is dead?’”

“Speaking in terms of reality, anything is possible,” Petrone said. He reconfirmed the company’s commitment to Sebastopol, but also said, well, bad things happen.

“I said this nine months ago—failure of this project would be fairly catastrophic for us as a mom-and-pop development company, given how much we’ve invested to date. But you know, we’re not naive. Development is such that failure happens, and companies suffer the consequences.”

Mayor McLewis asked if there was anything the city could do to help in terms of making the town more attractive to financial investors. Petrone said he appreciated everything Sebastopol had done thus far for the project, but Circe Sher, one of the owners of the Piazza, was blunt. “We need more capital,” she said. “That’s the essence of it. Find us a capital partner. That’s how you can help us.”

Mayor McLewis said rather tartly “I mean, obviously, as a council, we’re not finding your money for you, but if there’s anything that we can do in the city to make the town more appealing, I think it would be good for us to understand that.”

Regular Agenda

$400 City Fee Waiver for the Kiwanis Easter Egg Hunt

Normally, the city council grants fee waivers before an event happens. This time, although the Kiwanis applied in plenty of time, its request for the waiver of the city’s Special Event Permit fees of $400 got delayed by a new rule that all expenditures not included in the budget must first go before the Budget Committee. This meant the request for a waiver couldn’t be scheduled for a council agenda until after the event.

Organizers Bruce Nachtigall and Philena Chantha spoke in favor of the waiver, but what really sealed the deal was the heartfelt endorsement of the event by downtown business owner Bronwyn Shears, owner of the Cookie Company, which donates cookie coupons for the Easter Egg Hunt.

“So not only is the event free for children and families, but after the event, the families come downtown and they have breakfast. They come and get their Easter cookie. They are so full of joy and happiness, and so many people come into my business talking about what a fantastic town this is that has this type of event for families and for kids. It’s not just exclusive to Ives Park; it really does bring people into downtown from all over West County. So I fully support waving our fee.”

The council unanimously approved the waiver. Councilmember Hinton said she didn’t think small items like this should have to go before the Budget Committee before coming to council. At the end of the council meeting, she requested that a policy to that effect should be added to the agenda of the next council meeting.

Council approves 3.5-year SEIU contract

The council unanimously approved a three-and-a-half-year contract with SEIU, which represents the city’s public works and administrative employees. The contract runs from January 1, 2026, to June 30, 2029, and includes the following:

• 3% annual wage increases for 2026, 2027, and 2028;

• a one-time, off-salary-schedule cash payment of $3,000;

• a $260-a-month bilingual stipend for two employees (one in City Hall and one in Public Works)

• reimbursement for annual Sonoma County Regional Parks passes for the city’s SEIU members.

Responding to ongoing concerns about the city’s use of contract employees, the new contract includes a provision that, according to the staff report, “The city shall give the Union no less than a 45-day written notice before issuing a request for proposals, request for quotes, or renewing or extending an existing contract to perform services that are within the scope of work of the job classifications represented by the union.”

Public commenter Kyle Falbo pointed out that getting to yes on this contract involved extremely long negotiations and a threatened strike.

SEIU strike in front of the Sebastopol City Hall on March 9.

Council reverses Adam Kanzler’s automatic removal from the planning commission

This was a strange, somewhat embarrassing procedural snafu. Sebastopol Municipal Code, Section 2.24.030, states that if any member of the Planning Commission fails to attend three consecutive meetings, they’re automatically removed from the commission unless they can prove to the city council that they had good cause for those absences.

Brand new Planning Commissioner Alex Kanzler, who travels for his family’s wine business, missed the Feb. 10, Feb. 24, and March 10 planning commission meetings this year, and those absences triggered the automatic removal provision.

Here’s the problem: no one told him about this provision, and Interim Planning Director Jane Riley didn’t see this coming until it was too late.

Kanzler said he tried to do his due diligence during his absences by sending Riley detailed notes and questions about items on the agenda for two of the meetings—and asked that she share those with other members of the commission. The third absence was for his 10th wedding anniversary.

Councilmembers commiserated with him on the difficulty of keeping on top of all the rules and regulations, but Councilmembers Zollman and Maurer also pressed him on whether or not he had the time to commit to being a planning commissioner.

Kanzler said that while he had to prioritize his work, he would be happy to participate via Zoom if he had to miss meetings because of business travel in the future.

Planning Commission Chair Evert Fernandez spoke in his defense.

“To be fair, I don’t believe that Alex had been properly instructed and given correct information,” Fernandez said, adding that he and Mary Gourley were developing a handbook for commissioners, containing “all the processes and all the rules and the training and so forth.”

In addition, Fernandez said of Kanzler, “He’s been a good addition to the commission. I appreciate his viewpoints. He’s been very diligent in his response and research and so forth. So, I personally would appreciate having him on.”

In the end, the council voted unanimously to re-appoint Kanzler to the Planning Commission.

Council rejects proposal to put a mini-pitch soccer field next to the laguna

The next agenda item for the evening was a proposal by WESCO Soccer to build a mini-pitch soccer field behind the Sebastopol Youth Annex. A mini-pitch field is smaller than a regular soccer field—about 85 to 90 feet in length and 40 to 45 feet in width. The two proposed mini-pitch soccer fields would be a bit larger than two tennis courts and would include lights for night games.

The item was placed on the agenda by Councilmember Phill Carter, who is on the board of WESCO.

The proposal was introduced by WESCO treasurer Steve Yob. “We have a 51-year history here in Sebastopol,” Yob said. “We have about 1,300 members currently and growing. We’ve been growing really exponentially since the pandemic…We host over 750 soccer games a year, 500 of which are actually with clubs outside of the area of Sebastopol, so including Santa Rosa, Napa County, Marin County, and Mendocino County.”

Yob presented two proposals—a permanent field utilizing artificial turf behind the Sebastopol Youth Annex and a temporary field on the site of Piazza’s future Hotel Sebastopol, in what is currently the empty lot across the street from the downtown plaza.

Mockup of the proposed permanent fields behind the Youth Annex on Morris Street. (Image from the WESCO presentation to the Sebastopol City Council)

Mockup of the temporary fields on the empty lot that may one day become the Hotel Sebastopol. (Image from the WESCO presentation to the Sebastopol City Council)

Since Councilmember Carter is on the board of WESCO, the question of conflict of interest arose early in the discussion. Carter said he had consulted with City Attorney Alex Mog and had been informed that since there was no financial compensation involved in his board position with WESCO, Carter didn’t have to recuse himself from voting on the issue.

The staff report raised a number of issues regarding the placement of a soccer field behind the youth of annex, but three councilmembers—Mayor McLewis, Zollman and Maurer—seemed immediately aghast at the idea. Maurer and McLewis mentioned the problem of microplastics, especially in a flood-prone area and the necessity of removing several trees. Zollman and several public commenters mentioned the issue of light pollution from field lights at night next to the Laguna. He predicted that a number of local environmental organizations would come down on this plan like a ton of bricks.

“I don’t want to bring us into another scuffle with a whole bunch of groups,” he said. “We have a lot of things to do, no staff, and no money.”

Public comment was divided between soccer fans and people with environmental concerns of various sorts.

Councilmember Carter argued that there were artificial turf solutions that didn’t involve microplastics and touted the economic benefits of bringing hundreds, perhaps thousands of people to town, who, in addition to attending their kids’ soccer games, would also eat at local restaurants and shop in local stores.

Oddly, the discussion of the merits of the soccer field proposal—where to put it, what it should be made of—took second place to the fact that city staff had spent 20-plus hours researching the issue, something McLewis and Zollman returned to again and again. McLewis asked in a lengthy statement who was responsible for OK-ing this expenditure of staff time.

Interim City Manager Mary Gourley said, “I will take the hit for this,” but McLewis pressed the issue. “We also have department heads who are responsible for keeping track, right?” she said. “So, is there a policy or process for that? Or is this something that needs to be assessed?” (At the end of the evening, McLewis requested to add an item to the agenda of the next council meeting, limiting the ability of a single council member to commandeer a substantial amount of staff time.)

During council comment, McLewis and Zollman also both took issue with what they saw as Carter’s conflict of interest as a board member of WESCO. Regarding Mog’s finding that this was not a conflict of interest, Zollman said, “This is not the same advice that our prior legal counsel said, who prohibited me from ever sitting on a nonprofit board that could come before this council.” He added, “I too am concerned about the check and balances and how it went through all the different city staff.” McLewis noted that “We as councilmembers are held to a higher standard.”

Carter was taken aback by their critique. “I had no idea I was getting into 20 hours’ worth of work, just asking to see if we could even do this. I’m reaching out on behalf of the soccer club that’s desperate to get a place for all the kids to play. We need a place to play so badly. And I’ve been looking around for three to five years, and some other coaches brought this idea to me. Then I brought it up to Daniele [of Piazza Hospitality], just trying to activate the downtown, just trying to make things exciting and make it cool to be downtown…I just really naively did not think that this was a bad thing at all. I thought it was an extreme win-win, and that’s why I brought it up.”

Though there was no official vote on this item, the city council directed staff to ignore the proposal for a field behind the Youth Annex. Instead, it directed staff to investigate whether a temporary field could be built on the Piazza site downtown without rezoning the property. This investigation would be contingent on WESCO’s willingness to pay for city staff time.

Additions to the City Council Policies and Procedures Handbook

In its final item, the council reviewed some updates to the City Council Policies and Procedures Handbook, regarding councilmember travel, participation in regional bodies, and other administrative items. Most significant was the addition, per SB 827, that all local agency officials complete at least two hours of fiscal and financial training every two years. The city council unanimously approved these additions.

Watch the video of the April 7 city council meeting. See the documentation for the April 7 meeting here.

The next city council meeting is tonight, April 21, 6 pm, at the Sebastopol Youth Annex, 425 Morris St., Sebastopol. See the agenda and documentation for tonight’s meeting here.

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