In terms of development, Sonoma County chose the road less travelled. How did that happen?
"Saying no" shaped Sonoma County's first General Plan in 1978
In Part 1 of the two-part series, Rollie Atkinson profiled environmental planner, Richard Retecki, who was part of a small team that wrote the first-ever General Plan for Sonoma County. In Part 2, this article looks back to the late 1970s, when a small crew of environmentally minded planners and politicians began opposing development in an effort to preserve Sonoma County’s rural character. One of those “saying no” to development was Eric Koenigshofer, a Sonoma State grad and one-term County supervisor.
It was 50 years ago that the fate and future shape of Sonoma County encountered a historic fork in the road that came with plenty of sharp ‘S’ curves and even a few aborted ‘U’ turns and political roadblocks.
In the end, the drivers of the county’s destiny, all those decades ago, chose a “road less traveled by” that has led to a region of open farmlands, world-renowned wineries, preserved redwood forests and an unspoiled coastline — all with a collection of self-defined cities full of local history and bright futures.
In the late 1960s and the 1970s, Sonoma County found itself part of a California and a Bay Area that was undergoing tremendous residential growth and urban expansion.
All of the Los Angeles basin far to the south was filled in with endless housing developments and new cities, joined by a maze of multi-lane highways. In the Bay Area, Daly City doubled in size over just 12 years, adding almost 20,000 houses along the ridge tops of the San Francisco Peninsula. The fertile orchards and farmland surrounding San Jose in the South Bay was developed into what is today’s concrete, aluminum and steel Silicon Valley high tech mecca. The same suburban sprawl also took over the gentle rolling hills around Walnut Creek, Pleasanton and other parts of the East Bay. Marin County, slivered between the Golden Gate Bridge and Sonoma County just to the north, ran out of buildable land between the flanks of Mt. Tamalpais and the San Francisco Bay during the same decade.
“Grow North”
As the Bay Area filled up, developers turned their eyes northward to the flat plains and open hills and valleys of Sonoma County, which had recently welcomed a new U.S. 101 dual-highway. Sonoma’s entire coastline was slated for a series of high-rise developments. All the cities along the new Highway 101 corridor, from Petaluma to Healdsburg were being plotted out for “Grow North” housing developments and new commercial centers and industrial hubs. A new lake behind a Warm Springs Dam on the upper Dry Creek (Lake Sonoma) was going to provide an unending water supply. One population projection foresaw 1.3 million people living in the county by the year 2030.
Not so fast
None of that came to be because a new generation of county leaders, activist citizens and preservation-minded farmers steered the county in the opposite direction.
In the late 1960s, an alliance of local environmental activists, deep-rooted ranchers, fishermen and others had banded together to stop the construction by PG&E of a nuclear power plant at Bodega Bay. That self-empowering victory led several of the anti-development leaders to take on new challenges to stop other growth plans around the county.
Two of environmentally minded men, Bill Kortum and Chuck Hinkle, got elected in 1972 to the county’s Board of Supervisors. They immediately started pushing for actions and policies to save more of the Sonoma Coast and to protect open farmlands from planned development.
The two men were the subject of what many called an “ugly” recall campaign in June 1976, and both were booted out of office. A new “pro-development” majority gained control of the board with the election of Sebastopol’s Bob Theiller and Wayne Bass of Santa Rosa.
Then, five months later, a majority of voters made an electoral ‘U’ turn and voted in a new pro-environmental majority in November, consisting of Brian Kahn, Helen Rudee and Eric Koenigshofer. This new majority reversed several recent actions by the previous board that was taking the county in a “pro-growth” direction.
Slow Growth, not Pro-Growth
In 1978, the new supervisors approved the county’s first-ever General Plan, which featured preservation measures for timberland, ranches and farms; defined “community separators” combined with a call for city-centered growth; and a massive amount of down-zoning (i.e., changing a property’s zoning classification to a more restrictive use).
“We effectively downzoned 800,000 acres in one afternoon,” Koenigshofer recently reminisced with the Sebastopol Times. “It had been a very tough series of campaigns. It was basically ‘fix bayonets!’”
In 1971, California’s state legislature had mandated that all 58 counties adopt General Plans to control and shape the ongoing pressures of population growth and development demands on the Golden State. Some counties, such as Lake and Mendocino, filed lawsuits to resist drafting a general plan. But, in Sonoma County, a new — and much younger — team of planners, elected officials and activist citizens dove into the long-range planning studies, public hearings and final drafting with enthusiasm and bold visions.
“What we did, as far as I could ever tell, had never been done anywhere else,” said Richard Retecki, one of the young planners hired by the county in the mid-1970s to work on the plan.
County General Plans must be updated at least every 10 years. “The plans must include nine elements that cover land use, transportation, natural resources, public safety and such,” said Retecki. “But we did 15 elements with our plan that gave us a more detailed vision of the county’s future and told about what was so diverse and unique about it.”
Instead of a future population projection of 1.3 million people, the 1978 General Plan laid out land use patterns and policies that were designed to accommodate 430,000 people by the year 2000. (The actual county population in 2000 was 458,600, according to the U.S. Census. Today’s county population is closing in on 500,000.)
“There were lots of us seeing the same vision for a beautiful and protected place.”
— Eric Koenigshofer
Eric Koenigshofer’s excellent adventure
Koenigshofer was a Los Angeles native drawn to Sonoma County by a new Sonoma State College. While there, he met many classmates following similar paths and who went on to make big impacts in the region’s future. After a summer job at the county government offices, a 24-year-old Koenigshofer got bit by the political activist bug.
“There were lots of us seeing the same vision for a beautiful and protected place,” said the former supervisor, now a member of the county’s Planning Commission citizen’s panel.
“Remember, the landscape was changing rapidly everywhere back then. We had Earth Day, and all the anti-establishment sentiments after Nixon’s Watergate. A nuclear-trained Naval Academy graduate and southern peanut farmer (Jimmy Carter) got elected president. The county was awash in citizen activism that wanted something different.”
Koenigshofer, the county’s youngest-ever elected supervisor, told the Sebastopol Times during a recent interview, “My election and success was almost happenstance.”
Now a semi-retired attorney, Koenigshofer remembers the moment he decided to run for supervisor. “I was sitting in a car in Cotati during a music break at a concert. I remember taking a big puff on a joint and exhaling, ‘I think I’m going to run for supervisor.’ I handed the joint to my friend Mitch who took a hit and then he said, ‘Good. I’ll be your campaign manager,’” and passed the marijuana cigarette back to Eric.
In a bitter campaign with lots of developer money, harsh local newspaper coverage and a sense that a major historical shift was on the line, the young Koenigshofer upset the very conservative Theiller for the Fifth District (i.e., west county) seat.
“I remember one of the highlights from my campaign was a fundraising concert we held at Analy High School,” Koenigshofer offered. “Kate Wolf, the great folk singer, played for us.”
Koenigshofer went on to serve just a single term as supervisor and made way for his politically like-minded friend Ernie Carpenter, who got elected to the West County supervisor seat and served for four terms.
“I like to say I was the Marines that stormed the beach and Ernie was the Navy that took over full command later,” says Koenigshofer.
Koenigshofer’s short term proved very eventful. In the aftermath of the fight over the Bodega Bay nuclear plant, California voters approved Prop. 20 that created the California Coastal Commission. This led to the political fight that added public access trails and a new county park at the 10-mile-long Sea Ranch planned development being built by Oceanic of Hawaii at the northern tip of Sonoma County.
Similar sparks flew at many public hearings over the massive art installation, Christo’s Running Fence, now being celebrated for its 50th anniversary. Also in the same decade, there had been a pivotal U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled a progressive growth-control ordinance surrounding Petaluma was legal and constitutional.
“What we were doing was very aspirational,” said Koenigshofer. “You can see that in the 1978 General Plan. There was a section in the plan that read: ‘The board of supervisors should consider establishing a separate funding source, such as a special trust fund or bond issue dedicated to financing the acquisition of the title or rights to open space lands.’
The former supervisor also pointed out the General Plan additionally called for a future trails system, an open space management program and lots of historical preservation.
In 1990, the voters of Sonoma County approved the formation of the Agricultural Preservation & Open Space Authority. The program is supported by a countywide sales tax and has preserved almost 300,000 acres of open space and productive agricultural lands.
“Saying no” still works
This Sebastopol Times interview with Eric Koenigshofer was conducted in downtown Forestville, at the site of the future Forestville Downtown Park and a trailhead for the West County Trail that connects with the Joe Rodota Trail. Toward the end of the interview, the conversation was joined by Lucy Hardcastle, a community volunteer and leading advocate for the future park. She was in the park sweeping up cigarette butts and other trash around the 12 picnic tables.
Koenigshofer and Hardcastle shared stories about how the location was once proposed for a residential and commercial development and a possible golf course by the former property owners, the Crinella family. But in 2013, the oak-studded 4.2 acres and large dirt parking lot that has served for decades as the site of the annual Forestville Holiday Tree lighting was purchased by the Forestville Planning Association, with local donations and money from Ag & Open Space. Plans for an amphitheater and a youth skate park are now in the works.
“It’s funny what you can sometimes get just by saying no,” Koenigshofer told Hardcastle.
Saying “no” 50 years ago to sprawl and plans for 1.3 million people is a great one-word summary to what happened in Sonoma County when its first-ever General Plan was adopted in 1978.
A new General Plan is in the works
Work continues on General Plan Sonoma, the comprehensive update to Sonoma County's General Plan. An informational Board of Supervisors workshop is scheduled for September 15, 2026, and will include the Draft Community Engagement Framework, Draft Vision and Guiding Principles, and the Existing Conditions and Trends Report. Community workshops and engagement opportunities will pick back up this fall as staff seeks public input on these documents and project next steps.Subscribe to General Plan Updates here.
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Such a great series, and, as many have commented, a great recitation of the past heroes who have shaped this beautiful place. It reminds me of the extremely contentious battle for Measure H, prior to Sebastopol's own General Plan update in the early 1990's. The measure, written by Juliana Doms and me, called for the restriction of major development while the General Plan was being updated. At the time, Sebastopol was literally ringed with development proposals: Saddlebur in the Laguna, Canada Vista along Atascadero Creek, and northward. We were slammed by the local paper, under John Burns, and endured backlash and anger from people furious that "newcomers" might try to tell them what to do. The measure went down in flames, but the General Plan update contained enough of the goals and language we to which we aspired, to feel like the long game had been moved forward.
Thank you Rollie for recounting the great ambition and achievements of Richard, Bill Kortum, Eric, Ernie, and so many others who led the efforts to develop Sonoma County to be the wonderful place it is today. I am grateful for their vision and commitment to our home in Sonoma County. Lots of people joined these leaders to support their visions for a livable community. This work is ongoing, never done. But, with all that’s being undone by the gerontocracy in Washington these days, there will be plenty of opportunity to see what we might do to make our families, neighborhoods, cities, counties, and state an even better place to live. A great local newspaper has important work to do in these efforts.. And you’re doing it. Thank you.