MCS Housing Community: Sonoma County

Weather:

The Weather Channel Sebastopol
Weather Underground: Sebastopol, California Forecast
Climate Information (World-Wide)
Guerneville Rainfall
Guerneville & Surrounding Areas
Santa Rosa/Sebastopol & Surrounding Areas
Mediterranean Skies Above California -- General information about California's Mediterranean climate
UC Fruit & Nut Research and Information Center Department of Pomology -- Gives Chilling Unit Accumulations, but only starting Nov 1st
Northern California Climate Summaries -- The closest to Guerneville I can find is: Graton, California (043578) (just north of Sebastopol) There is tons of info here

If you know Sunset Western Garden zones, Guerneville is in zone 15. For point of reference, Santa Rosa and the whole of wine country are in zone 14. Zone 14 is more inland, gets colder winters and hotter summers than zone 15. The super-fog belt is zone 17 (includes San Francisco, most of Berkeley, and much of Oakland). My home in Oakland is zone 16, just inland enough to avoid being zone 17. Zone 15 has slightly more extreme temps than zone 16, but not by too much.

Guerneville summer temps are most definitely not in the 60's like right on the coast. The end of June through the middle of Sept, the average highs over many years are in the low to mid 80's. Average highs in Dec and Jan (the coldest months) are in the 50's. Average lows year round range from the low 30's to 50.

Sports and Activities:

Russian River Women's Weekends
Russian River Bike Rides
Sonoma County Wine Country Activities
Armstrong Woods Pack Station (horse rentals)
Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve (2-3 miles from downtown Guerneville)
Austin Creek State Recreation Area (next to Armstrong)
Parks and Recreation in Sonoma County & Regional Parks Department (annual dayuse pass for all the parks is $40, $15 for senior and disabled)

Local Information & Events:

Sebastopol.net
Local Events with links
Sonoma County Web Site
The community-supported web site for Sebastopol
Sebastopol Community Center
Sebastopol Center for the Arts

Chamber of Commerce/Businesses:

Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce
Sebastopol Business Directory

Russian River Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center
Directory of Chamber Members
Monte Rio Chamber of Commerce
Cloverdale City Information
Cloverdale Businesses
Sterba Sonoma County -- Yellow pages type search
Unclewebster Somoma County -- Business, movies, news, weather
Sonoma County Web Directory

Movies:

Sebastopol -- Sebastopol Cinema 9. 707-829-3456 6868 McKinley St. Mainstream movies

Monte Rio Movie Theater
Clover Cinema (Cloverdale)
Sonoma County's Movie Page
Listing of all Sonoma County Movies
Cinema West Theaters (Cloverdale, Sebastopol, Sonoma)

Transportation:

Sonoma County Transit
Sonoma County Transit (Bay Area Transit site)
Sonoma County Transit System Map
Buses:

Route 26 Sebastopol-Rohnert Park-Sonoma State University
Goes around downtown Sebastopol to transfer with lots of other buses, down (east) 116, past our house, to 101 at Cotati, then Sonoma State.
Takes just over half an hour; runs rush hour week days only.

Route 24 Sebastopol Area Local Service
Goes down 116, I think past our house in the south loop. Makes two loops around town, north and south.
North loop takes 20-25 minutes; South loop 20 minutes.
Runs Monday-Saturday every 30-60 minutes from about 9am to 4pm.

Route 22 Downtown Sebastopol-Downtown Santa Rosa Express
Takes 20-25 minutes; runs rush hour and a couple more times week days only.

Route 20 Occidental-Monte Rio-Santa Rosa
Makes a U from Occidental up to Monte Rio, across to Guerneville and Forestville, then down to Graton then Sebastopol, and east to Santa Rosa (big loop including Coddingtown Mall and downtown).
Entire trip is just under 2 hours. Sebastopol to Santa Rosa is 40 minutes, Sebastopol to Guerneville is 40 minutes; runs throughout day, but not often, weekdays and weekends.

Sonoma County Paratransit

Monthly bus passes for the entire Sonoma County system are $44 for adults and $22 for disabled riders and seniors (60+).

Sonoma County Airport Express

San Francisco International Airport and Petaluma, Rohnert Park, and Santa Rosa. Also goes to the Oakland airport.
To SFO from Santa Rosa is 2:15, from Petaluma 1:45.
Runs nearly around the clock, once an hour. $20 each way.
To OAK from Santa Rosa is 2:15, from Petaluma 1:45.
Runs nearly around the clock, every 2 hours. $20 each way.

Sonoma County Airport

San Francisco Bay Area Traffic (Caltrans)

Employment:

Craigslist -- For job listings. You can subscribe and only get job listings in certain categories for the north bay. It's that specific. It also has tons of free ads for everything from activity partners to personals to for sale to childcare
Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Food (also see Services):

Concierge Northbay: Dining Listings
Whole Foods Northern California Listings
Trader Joe's Northern California Listings

Media:

Newspapers:

The Press Democrat
Sonoma West Times & News
Sonoma County Independant
Pacific Sun
Marin Independent Journal
San Francisco Chronicle

Television:

KRON 4
KPIX 5
KGO 7

Zoning:

The Bodega Avenue Property is zoned Agriculture and Residential.

Agriculture and Residential Rules

AR is very similar to RR except that AR is more in favor of agricultural.
This property is in a 1.5 acre density zone which means only one home is allowed (2.55 acres).
Additional zones are:

SD Scenic Design Combining District
SR Scenic Resources Combining District

The Snow Road Property is zoned Rural Residential.

Rural Residential Rules

Livestock Allowed: Raising, feeding, maintaining and breeding of not more than one (1) of the following per twenty thousand (20,000) square feet of area. We have 53000+ sf so that makes 2 units, maybe almost 3 if they aren't rounding down.

(1) Five (5) hogs or pigs,
(2) One (1) horse, mule, cow or steer,
(3) Five (5) goats, sheep, or similar animals,
(4) Fifty (50) chickens or similar fowl,
(5) Fifty (50) ducks or geese or one hundred (100) rabbits or similar animals.

Yard Requirements:

(1) Front Yard. Not less than twenty feet (20) provided, however, that no structure shall be located closer than forty-five feet (45) to the centerline of any public road, street or highway.
(2) Side Yard. Minimum five feet (5).
(3) Rear yard. Twenty feet (20) minimum.

Accessory buildings may be constructed within the required yards on the rear half of the lot; provided, that such buildings shall not occupy more than thirty percent (30%) of the width of any rear yard. Such accessory buildings shall not be located closer than ten feet (10') to the main buildings on adjacent lots. Notwithstanding the foregoing, swimming pools may occupy more than thirty percent (30%) of the width of any rear yard. A minimum of three feet (3') shall be maintained between the wall of a pool and the rear and side property lines, and from the main building on the same lot. Conventional pool accessory equipment (pump, filters, etc.) shall be exempt from setback restrictions.

Sonoma County Permit and Resource Management

Fee Schedules