Article in the Press Democrat

The Cloverdale City Council approved the Esmeralda proposal on a 4-0 vote Wednesday night.

“This process has been two years of discussion, negotiations, recommendations. Agonizing years,” Vice Mayor Todd Lands said moments before the vote, which came around 11 p.m.

He referenced dozens of meetings and hundreds of questions passed along by residents, and noted concessions made by the Esmeralda Land Company on water tanks, evacuation, playing fields and other points of contention.

“I think those that didn’t want this project were hoping (Esmeralda) would quit and tell us where to go with this project,” Lands said. “But they stuck it out, because they truly know this is what is best for Cloverdale. And I agree.”

“The unanimous 4-0 vote is a vindication of all the hard work we’ve all done — years of outreach, analysis, and planning, including dozens of public meetings,” Zuegel wrote. “… A unanimous approval is a vote of confidence, and that brings a real sense of responsibility. Now it’s time for us to follow through.”

Esmeralda’s design team says it would deliver more than $4 million a year to a city of 9,000 people that has struggled economically since construction of a Hwy. 101 bypass diverted traffic away from its downtown core in 1994.

Esmeralda Land Company had agreed at a Nov. 4 council meeting to perform a sitewide human health risk assessment, framed as an additional safeguard of human health.