Stable Relocation Approval Causing Neighborhood Dismay

was a largely pro forma affair, with consent calendar items approved without changes for both the City Council and Successor Agency. But a decades-old city easement came under scrutiny when two east city residents appealed the city planning staff approval of a plan to move a horse stable on neighboring property closer to their fence.

The property under discussion at 19725 Seventh Street East is itself outside city limits, according to planning director David Goodison, but the city has easement rights over it dating back to a 1984 development agreement.

"The owner at that time applied to annex half of it to the city for development of a 16-unit subdivision," said Goodison, a development now known as Laurel Wood. "Through review the development was approved, but among the conditions on the remainder of the property was that it was not annexed, that it would remain in the county, and an easement was recorded on it to prevent its subdivision or further development. The easement was dedicated to the city because the city was the lead agency for the project."

That's not quite how the neighbors remember it. "When all of us purchased our homes," said Bernadette Calhoun, who with her husband brought an appeal before the City Council, "everybody who has ever lived in these homes was told by the city as well as the developer as well as the real estate agents (and my real estate owner was told by the owner of the property we back up to) that we backed  up to an open space easement… We all had the understanding that that would remain open and the words that were used was 'would remain open in perpetuity'."

Unfortunately that wording, which Calhoun said was used in City Council minutes from 1981-82 and the EIR filed at the time, never appeared in the Deed of Easement itself signed by owners Dr. Robert and Mrs. Carol Dowd, and then-Sonoma mayor Jeanne Markson in 1985.  

So in February of this year, 2012, when the new owner of the Seventh Street East property, Selma Blanusa, came to the city to request permission to move a stable from one part of the lot to another, Goodison and his staff evaluated the proposal against the easement, and decided that the proposed construction was allowable because neither structure (including a garage/exercise building closer to the main house that was not contested) because they were not residences and fell "well outside of the 10-foot wide drainage easement" on the western boundary of the property, the Laurel Wood side. Planning director Goodison signed the Feb. 24 letter.

The Calhouns appealed that interpretation, saying that the stable could not be relocated by the terms of the easement. In his documentation their counsel, Richard Hicks, pointed to numerous examples in public records from the early 1980s referring to the open space understanding, a 150-foot scenic easement, and other conditions.

"We had every homeowner there [at the council meeting] except the ones that keep their home as a vacation home," said Calhoun later this week. "Every owner there, every previous owner wrote a letter or an email that they sent to the city. The understanding by everybody was that it was open space."

Blanusa plans to move the stable 100 yards west from its current location, close to her home, to 60 feet away from the Calhouns' back fence. In the process the stable will be substantially rebuilt, and come to house sheep, horses and chickens. See accompanying images drawn from the council meeting's supporting documents.

"I'm still trying to figure out why I will get to enjoy her animals more than she will," said Calhoun, a mathematics teacher at Cardinal Newman. "That's the big sticking issue. I really do feel like they're going to be very far away from her home, and when it comes to lighting, smells, dust, things like that, we'll be the people who suffer."

It's not just the sights and smells of the stable that concern Calhoun. "It's been open forever, so there's a huge coyote population here. I'm hoping I don't wake up to a bloodbath, frankly. I'm not sure she understands the nature of the area very well yet.  Deer wander through there, we've had foxes…"

The council meeting was well-attended by the Calhouns, Lori and Mike Maggioncalda and other neighbors in the Laurel Wood and city-county line area, as well as Blanusa, her architecht and attorney. Lengthy discussion and presentation took place on during the hearing, but in the end, the council approved Goodison's recommendation to allow the stable to be relocated, by a 4 - 0 vote. Mayor Joanne Sanders was not in attendance; voting were Ken Brown, Steve Barbose, Laurie Gallian and Tom Rouse.

"I think the hardest part for all of us as neighbors is that we kind of hoped that living in a small town , at least there might be an intervention on the part of the people who supposedly represent us to try to mediate a more neighborly solution," said Calhoun.

In the letter from Hicks to the city council it was proposed to split the difference. "We would add that Mr. and Ms. Calhoun have no objection to the proposed new horse stable provided it is located at least 150 feet from the eastern boundary of the Subdivision including their property. We suggest that would constitute a reasonable resolution of this matter," reads the letter.

"That didn't even happen," said a clearly drained Calhoun. "That's where the biggest disappointment for us comes in... But I think what we didn't get is that,  we live in the city, our representative  couldn't at least say, 'You know this isn't very neighborly, would you consider moving it back a little bit? We understand why these neighbors are upset.' But that didn't happen."

In a follow-up question about the possibility of a compromise, Goodison pointed out that the city council could not determine the location of the barn, only the applicability of the easement to the case.  "Either the easement allows the relocation, or it doesn’t."  

In a brief online correspondence with Selma Blanusa, she wrote  "I will say that it is a bittersweet victory," and promised to have more to say soon. We will update this article when that time comes.

"I have to tell you this fight has been gut-wrenching and expensive," Calhoun said. "There's some part of me that's just… tired."

When asked if she and her family were thinking of moving, now that their living room view would be a stable 60 feet away instead of a semi-wild open space, she said they were. She was also considering talking to the county supervisor, but was uncertain if she and her neighbors could muster the funds for continued appeal.

"It's been a hard couple of days [since the meeting]," she added. "My husband and I have volunteered hundreds if not thousands of hours to this community, coaching, tutoring --  and I feel in some ways that I was abandoned… I do feel that my representatives were not my representatives."