Page 27 - Sonoma County Gazette MARCH 2020
P. 27

The Coalition Opposing New Gasoline Stations (CONGAS) is BORN
By Woody Hastings
For several years residents in Petaluma have been struggling to halt the
construction of a new Safeway gas station in the Washington Square Shopping Center in Petaluma. That case is in litigation in the Sonoma County Superior Court.
Until February 2019, the Petaluma case was the only new gas station case anyone was paying much attention to. That all changed when a small group
of vigilant environmentalists became aware of a proposed 24-hour, 7-days per week, 365 days per year mega-station with a 16-pump gas station, car wash, and mini-mart, proposed at Highway 116 & Stony Point Road, an unincorporated area of Sonoma County west of Cotati, only a mile or two from several existing gas stations and car washes. It would have wiped Cali-Kind tie-dye and the Pond & Garden center off the map. Word quickly spread and when a public meeting was held on June 25, the community turned out in force to vigorously oppose the project. Less than two weeks later, on July 8, the developers withdrew their application. Sometimes we win.
Before we had celebrated our win, we heard about another proposal, and then another. This led to the birth of a new group, the Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations (CONGAS). The group has ballooned to over 1000 names
on petitions in opposition to new gas stations, 100 people on the organizational listserv, and about 15 organizations having submitted letters of opposition. At its January 29 meeting, CONGAS adopted its mission: “to stop the construction of new gas stations in Sonoma County and its nine cities.”
There are many reasons why CONGAS members
oppose gas stations:
• traffic congestion
• leaking underground storage tanks • surface water contamination public • health hazards
• urbanization, and more.
But all CONGAS members share
the understanding that in 2020, in the midst of a global climate crisis that threatens all of humanity, it is insane to be constructing new gas stations. For the County or the City of Santa Rosa
to be permitting new gas stations now flies in the face of their stated policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including recently approved Climate Emergency Resolutions.
CONGAS calls on these local governments to revise their permitting rules that apply to gasoline/diesel stations as a common sense first step in taking their own recently adopted climate emergency resolutions seriously.
Woody Hastings is the co-coordinator of CONGAS along with fellow co-coordinator Jenny Blaker, who first brought the gas station issue to Woody’s attention in an April 2019 Gazette article about the Stony Point & Highway 116 gas station proposal.
For information on any of the above proposals, contact CONGAS who are currently focusing most of its efforts on the 43 Middle Rincon Road site due to the fact that a family and small business are facing eviction for the gas station, thus exacerbating the housing crisis and the climate crisis on one site in one go. For this effort we are collaborating with North Bay Organizing Project’s Housing Task Force and the Sonoma County Tenants’ Union.
 The Coalition Opposing New Gasoline Stations (CONGAS) is now engaged in opposing four gas station proposals. All of these proposals include a gas station, car wash, and mini-mart, and all have over five operating gas stations within a five mile radius. For more information, contact CONGAS at 707-238-2298 or congas-contact@gmail.com
• 5300 Sebastopol Road (Hwy 12 & Llano Road). This proposal is in unincorporated Sonoma County. It is expected to be heard on April 23rd at the County’s Board of Zoning Adjustments. Send your email in opposition to the County’s planning consultant Daniel Hoffman: dhoffman@migcom.com
• 874 N. Wright Road, Santa Rosa. (Wright Rd between Hwy 12 & Sebastopol Rd.) CONGAS members attended a Santa Rosa Planning
Commission subcommittee meeting on December 12 to oppose the project. After approval by the committee, CONGAS filed its first formal appeal. That appeal is expected to be heard at the full Planning Commission sometime in the coming months. Email City Planner Adam Ross: aross@srcity.org
• 43 Middle Rincon Road, Santa Rosa (Hwy 12 & Middle Rincon Rd.) There is a gas station right across the street, an elementary school less than 1,000 feet away, and a family and small business are under threat of eviction. Email City Planner Adam Ross: aross@srcity.org
• Safeway Petaluma, (Maria Dr. & S. McDowell Blvd.), Petaluma. This case is in the Sonoma County Superior Court. For information, contact No Gas Here at: nogashere.org
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