Mobilize Sonoma brings together a group of local citizens who are concerned about the future of the Sonoma Valley.  Founded initially upon several successful citizen campaigns in the Sonoma Valley,  Mobilize Sonoma is built upon the efforts of  the many dedicated volunteers who worked initially on the “Yellow Flag” and “Cows not Casinos” campaigns, and later in opposition to the proposal in 2015 to turn the Sonoma Raceway into a rock concert venue.

Mobilize Sonoma provides a framework through which to focus on new issues as they emerge, and to develop alliances with other organizations working in the Valley and in the rest of Sonoma County. Small teams of volunteers are formed as they are needed to focus on specific projects, and experts are called in as necessary to deal with individual challenges.

In the period since 2015, members of the group have worked effectively to find negotiated solutions to several land-use proposals that could have had long term effects in the Sonoma Valley.

One, completed in April of 2018 with the approval of the Board of Supervisors, reduced the size and impacts of the proposed expansion of the Wing and Barrel Hunt Club located at a prominent location in the midst of the sensitive Baylands wildlife area on Highway 37 at the southern end of the Sonoma Valley.

Another, coming up soon, is the very large “Tolay Springs” development that has been proposed by a wealthy Chinese investor for the acreage formerly owned by the Roche family at the entrance to the valley near the Raceway and adjacent to Tolay Creek County Park.

And soon it will also be time to make the voice of the people of the Sonoma Valley heard as the updates come on line for the General Plans for both the County of Sonoma and the City of Sonoma,  and, in parallel, as the voters make their decision on whether to extend the present Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) in the City of Sonoma for a few more years.

Most recently, Mobilize Sonoma has turned its attention to the dangers presented by the recent expansion of the hazardous materials rail-storage yard in Schellville. The railroad’s plan to concentrate as much as 5 million gallons of highly explosive LPG at that location is a disaster waiting to happen. As testimony to that concern, a petition circulated by hand for a few weeks at the farmers markets and selected stores in the area has already collected more than 350 signatures demanding “tankers out”. More action on that project is soon to come, and several pages of this web site are dedicated to that campaign.

With so much activity to attend to, our previously informal group of volunteers is working to formalize itself under the name of “Mobilize Sonoma”, and to obtain state and federal tax-exempt status so that funds can be raised in support of our land use campaigns as they occur. Email messages and funding support can be sent to the organization at mobilizesonoma@vom.com.