Santa Rosa Southeast Greenway: Help Shape the Park’s Future

The 2.2-mile strip between Farmers Lane and Spring Lake Regional Park was bought to carry Highway 12 east. The highway was never built. This October, the ground once set aside for it comes with a survey link, a sign-up sheet for one Saturday walk, a run of Wednesday afternoon meetups at a single tree, and two November workshop nights. The Southeast Greenway won't be a finished park for years. The plan for it is being written now, and the window for public input is short and has dates on it.

A right-of-way that took six decades to become a plan

Caltrans began acquiring the 58-acre property in the 1950s to extend Highway 12 east. Neighbors living around the land, including Thea Hensel, formed the Southeast Greenway Campaign in 2009 to keep the narrow corridor as parkland. The extension was dropped in 2014. The partners signed an agreement with Caltrans in 2015, and state transportation officials approved the sale in May 2024.

Santa Rosa closed on 49 acres that October for $1.8 million. A $1 million grant from the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District covered part of the price. The state kept about 9 acres near Farmers Lane, which will be developed into housing.

Planning then stalled for more than a year while the parks department was reorganized. Transportation and Public Works went looking for a consultant in January. In June the city awarded a $2.67 million contract to CMG Landscape Architecture, the San Francisco firm that led planning for the Petaluma River Park and some of the waterfront near Oracle Park. CMG's team spent the summer reading site studies and earlier outreach records. Public input opened in late September.

"People have been waiting for this for a long time. It's so exciting to get to this point. Now the fun part is really starting." Thea Hensel, Southeast Greenway supporter, to The Press Democrat

What you can actually stand on this fall

The city owns the land, but it isn't a developed park. The project's own site says the only feature certain to be built is a continuous multi-use path. No official public access map or posted hours turned up in the sources behind this post. A 2024 city fact sheet, written before the purchase closed, said undeveloped land would be secured from vehicle access. That describes the property as it was then, not current rules for people on foot.

For now, the clearly advertised ways in are the scheduled events. Each has a published meeting point:

The Oct. 10 walk is the only event that covers real distance. When checked, the SignUpGenius sheet showed 19 of 20 places taken, so it may already be full. The campaign says it plans to keep hosting monthly walks, but its events page lists no Greenway walk after Oct. 10.

The three Sonoma Land Trust Wednesdays are a different kind of visit. Each week the group reads a chapter of the Land Trust's 50-year history and then takes turns sharing stories. The Oct. 14 session covers 1970s overdevelopment, which helped start the county's conservation movement. Bring a camp chair or blanket and a sun hat. These events are free because Sonoma County voters fund Ag + Open Space with a quarter-cent sales tax, and that agency protected the Greenway in 2024.

The ideas already in the file

Nobody is starting from a blank sheet at the workshops. Earlier rounds of public input asked for a mix of passive and active recreation. That could mean ball fields or courts, picnic areas and other park amenities on the flat land, with the easternmost end left largely as natural open space. Other ideas include play space for young children, a path that winds over several creeks and through a restored walnut grove, a community garden, and an area where students from nearby schools can learn about native habitat.

City environmental documents name the three creeks that cross the property as Matanzas Creek, Sierra Park Creek and Spring Creek. How the path crosses them is one of the open questions. So are a possible new Spring Lake entrance at the east end, better trailheads, and connections into the surrounding neighborhoods. The biggest idea links the Greenway into a longer route, with a walking and bike path that reaches west to the Prince Memorial Greenway and the SMART trail and east to Spring Lake and Trione-Annadel State Park.

All of these are proposals waiting for a decision, and none of them exists on the ground today. The master plan is the document that chooses among them. It also sets out how the park will be managed and maintained and what programming it could host.

Why the input window matters more than the opening date

Public input has a set order and an end date:

1. Now. The community survey is open in English and Spanish, with five randomly drawn $100 Visa gift cards for people who respond.
2. Nov. 4 and 5. In-person workshops at Montgomery High School. More feedback sessions are expected later in the fall and early winter.
3. Winter and spring. Consultants and city staff sort through the feedback and draft alternative designs, which go back to the community for review.
4. Summer 2027. A final draft master plan is expected and goes to the City Council for approval.
5. After adoption. The project moves into design.

The money explains why that order matters. The master plan has funding: $1.2 million in park impact fees paid by developers, a $750,000 Metropolitan Transportation Commission grant, and donations raised by the campaign and passed through Sonoma Land Trust. Design and construction don't yet have funding. The campaign plans to start raising money for them next. Hensel put it plainly: "It's a long haul. We are going after grants and we already have some people interested in donating … but this is not going to get built in a year."

So the decisions that are hard to undo come early, while building comes later. Where the ball fields go, how much of the east end stays natural, and which creek crossings and neighborhood access points make the plan will all be settled before a construction budget exists. Transportation and Public Works Director Dan Hennessey described the aim this way: "We're not delivering a park to deliver a park, we're delivering a park so that people can use it." Mayor Mark Stapp's District 2 includes the Greenway west of Summerfield Road. He called the site "a once-in-a-generation opportunity" and "our new central park."

The partners are also contacting property owners along the corridor, school officials and nonprofits directly. Hensel said the goal is to give "voices that typically don't get heard" a say. Updates and workshop details as they're released are at SoutheastGreenway.org and in the city's announcement.

After the walk ends on Franquette

A Saturday walk that wraps up at noon leaves time for lunch, and two of east Santa Rosa's newer kitchens fit that timing. Olives and Agave opened in Montgomery Village at 909 Village Court, in the former Cascabel space. It serves tapas and Mediterranean dishes inspired by Spain and the Middle East. The restaurant says lunch service started Sept. 23 and it is now open full hours every day.

Farther out Sonoma Highway, Dolce Rosa Café opened in July at 4910 Sonoma Highway, Suite B, serving brunch and pasta. Owners Josie Ortega and Martin Chaparro run it, and Chaparro runs the kitchen.

The Wednesday sessions at the Lone Tree end at 5 p.m. That leaves enough of the evening to make the drive to Hahman Drive on Nov. 4 or 5 feel like part of a routine already underway. The workshops are where the walnut grove, the three creek crossings and the east-end open space become lines in a plan the City Council will vote on next summer.

The principals at SagePoint Real Estate Company follow how projects like the Southeast Greenway move from master plan to design, because those decisions shape how the streets around them are used for years. If you'd like to talk through what a long-range public project near your property could mean, schedule a private consultation.