Cloverdale is facing the largest development proposal in its history.

Esmeralda is a massive project proposed on 266 acres on the south end of town. It includes hundreds of homes, senior living, a 200-room hotel, commercial space, event space, and a sweeping new entitlement package.

This is not a minor revision to an old plan. It is a major re-entitlement of one of the most sensitive sites in Cloverdale.

And yet, instead of requiring a new Environmental Impact Report, the City is advancing the project on the addendum track using a 2009 EIR prepared for a very different proposal on the same property.

That matters.

An addendum is not the same as a new EIR. It does not guarantee the same public review process, the same public comment period, or the same obligation to respond to environmental comments in writing. For a project of this size, on a site with this history, that is not a small procedural detail. It is the whole fight.

This land includes the former Masonite wood treatment site, a former California State Superfund site with a long history of contamination and state-managed cleanup oversight. Historic operations contaminated soil and groundwater with pentachlorophenol, or PCP. In 2013, a recorded land use covenant and deed restrictions confirmed that residual contamination remained, imposed groundwater and land use restrictions on portions of the site, and made those restrictions run with the land in perpetuity unless formally terminated. Nor is this concern merely historical: monitoring well data showed a three-year consecutive rise in PCP, reaching 130 times the remediation goal in 2024, yet the final sampling at that key well was allowed to be skipped before closure.

Under CEQA, the City is the lead agency. The City is supposed to exercise its own independent judgment and determine whether the legal triggers for a Subsequent EIR under CEQA Guidelines section 15162 are met. If there are substantial project changes, changed circumstances, or new information of substantial importance requiring major revisions to the prior EIR, then a new level of environmental review is required, which is a new EIR.

But instead of clearly showing the public the threshold analysis that put Esmeralda on the addendum path, the City has allowed the process to move forward as though that choice were already made.

That is the shortcut.

I am raising funds for legal assistance from a local land use attorney to help with CEQA strategy, letter writing, review of the administrative record, and public advocacy. Funds will go toward legal guidance on the City’s environmental review obligations, review and strengthening of letters and filings, strategic input on next steps, and careful analysis of public records and project documents.

This is about insisting on honesty, transparency, and the level of environmental review the law was designed to require when the stakes are this high.

Please consider donating or sharing this page. Every contribution will help support legal guidance and strategy to make sure this project is reviewed with the seriousness, independence, and public accountability it deserves.

Thank you for standing up for Cloverdale.