FAQs & Town Hall Recap
February 19, 2026 · Devon & the Esmeralda team
Thanks to everyone who came to the Esmeralda Town Hall on Feb 5! It was great to see so many familiar faces and many new ones as well.
Special thanks to the City Council for collecting questions beforehand, which we used as the backbone of our presentation at the Town Hall. For an even deeper dive, you can find written answers to these questions on our website:
Q: Is there enough water?
Yes, Cloverdale has more than enough water supply for the Revised Plan, including during extended droughts. This analysis took the planned decommissioning of the Potter Valley Project into account.
Esmeralda will actually bolster Cloverdale's water resiliency, in part by adding water storage tanks. The Council officially adopted the Water Supply Assessment (WSA) in December 2025 after its own independent consultants peer-reviewed the draft study.
Q: What is the current status?
Long before Esmeralda Land Company (ELC) got involved, the site was previously approved with an Existing Plan allowing for retail, office, homes, a hotel, a private golf course, and light industrial uses.
ELC is proposing to update & improve the Existing Plan. Our Revised Plan would use less water, provide more public access and housing, and better align with Cloverdale's mission and values.
Q: What environmental review is the proposal undergoing?
The Revised Plan is subject to CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) and is undergoing a detailed environmental review process, which must be completed before the City can approve anything.
Q: Is the land contaminated?
The site is not pristine habitat: some areas that were once occupied by a sawmill and wood processing plant experienced some pollution. As a result, the site has been subject to extensive soil and water monitoring, remediation, and regulatory oversight over the past 50 years by state and regional agencies, including the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (the Water Board).
In January, the Water Board closed the last open environmental case and determined that “current site conditions pose little risk to human health or the environment.” All monitoring results are public.
That said, just because the Water Board closed the last open case doesn't mean that there are no use restrictions or no more regulatory oversight. There is an environmental covenant on a small portion of the site (22.85 acres) which prohibits residential uses. The Revised Plan does not propose homes in that restricted area.
The riverfront park ELC proposes gifting to Cloverdale is in a different part of the site from those 22.85 acres. State agencies specifically intended its soil be used for reuse — in fact, its formal name in regulatory documents is the Reusable Fill Area. That said, Cloverdale is of course free to turn down the gift if it does not want the park.
The entire site will be subject to a Health & Safety Plan (HSP) per Cal/OSHA standards to ensure that any future construction or grading activities protect worker health. ELC will also prepare a Construction Hazardous Materials Management Plan (CHMMP) to govern the disposal of any unexpected hazardous materials encountered during earthwork. ELC also plans on adopting a Soil & Groundwater Management Plan (SGMP) which provides a testing protocol and “decision-tree” if any unexpected soil or groundwater contamination is discovered.
This is just a small sampling of the far more detailed FAQs on our website: esmeralda.org/faq. Don't hesitate to dive in if you have any other questions!
— Devon & the Esmeralda team