The General Plan land use designation for the site has been Destination Commercial since 2009, which is intended to promote recreation and tourist-commercial uses, serving as a distinctive entry to Cloverdale, with primary uses including hotels, motels, and destination resorts, parklands and recreation, and compatible retail uses. Secondary uses include residential uses, commercial uses, community centers, and schools. The project site lies entirely within the Alexander Valley Resort (AVR) Specific Plan and is currently zoned as SP-1, which effectuates the AVR Specific Plan.
A project called the Alexander Valley Resort Project (the AVR Project) was analyzed in a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) completed in 2004. The original AVR Project DEIR was published in 2004 and covered all 266.38 acres of the project site. It included a 150-room hotel, a spa, an 18-hole golf course and practice facility, 70 "resort residential" units, up to 140 detached single-family units, 25 single family estate units, and 152,200 square feet of commercial uses.
A Recirculated DEIR published in 2008 evaluated the removal of a 12.3-acre parcel from the site, a reduced number of residential units, the spa and the proposed commercial uses. After a public review and comment period, the AVR Project Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) was certified by the City of Cloverdale in 2009.
In 2016, the City of Cloverdale approved a 1st Addendum to the 2009 FEIR, which evaluated a series of changes to the AVR Specific Plan. Among these changes, the golf course became optional rather than mandatory and the Asti Road Parcel was added back into the project area.
In 2018, the City of Cloverdale approved a 2nd Addendum to the 2009 FEIR, which evaluated several additional changes to the AVR Specific Plan, including increasing site areas dedicated to resort and single-family residential uses.
The site once contained a large timber sawmill and wood processing plant that operated from the 1950s until its closure and demolition in the early 1990s. Over the past 20 years, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board has supervised the clean-up of soil and groundwater contamination related to the former timber operations in portions at the site. An approximate 15-acre portion of the project site in the northeast was previously used for viticulture until the parcel was sold in 2002.
Today, the site is mostly vacant. The terrain consists of low, rolling hills in the southern and western portions and relatively flat areas in the central, eastern, and northern areas. The site is accessed from Asti Road, which runs north-south along its western edge, or from Santana Drive and Commercial Street in the north. Kelly Road, an unpaved gravel road, bisects the site in an east-west direction and provides access to other internal unpaved gravel roadways, including a levee-roadway that parallels the Russian River. Mostly covered by non-native annual grasslands, scattered stands of shrubs and riparian woodland are concentrated in the southern portions of the site. Most of the existing riparian woodland stands are situated along natural and man-made drainages. The central and northern portions of the project site contain non-native annual grasslands and unpaved gravel surfaces.
The former Northwestern Pacific Railroad and an associated underground fiber optic line bisect the project site in a north-south direction. The former rail right-of-way is now owned by the SMART commuter rail line and is expected to be used for SMART's extension to a planned terminus in Cloverdale, pending future funding. A one-story former truck repair facility and associated enclosed storage and parking area is located south of Santana Drive in the far northwest corner of the site.