At long last, Petaluma's Helen Putnam Regional Park set to add most of Scott Ranch

A bitter, arduous two decade development struggle over a large ranch on Petaluma's western edge moved much closer to an amicable resolution this week.

That's when Sonoma County's Board of Supervisors officially agreed to pony up $1.8 million dollars to help seal the deal.

The money unlocks matching funds from the City of Petaluma, along with private donations and will help finalize a deal that will append much of the historic Scott Ranch onto Helen Putnam Regional Park. That's while 28 large single family homes rise on the balance.

Jared Emerson-Johnson is director of the Kelly Creek Protection Project at Earth Island Institute. The group will restore the area and build trails,

Emerson-Johnson said it's been a lengthy saga.

Initially, 90 houses were to be built within the 58-acre site after the ranch was deeded to the University of the Pacific and sold to Davidon Homes.

"As you might expect there was a lot of public opposition to this, it would be kind of covering this beautiful, natural landscape that's right up next to the regional park with all these homes."

More than a decade later, a second, less ambitious plan, calling for 66 houses, prompted talks.

Ultimately, Davidon scaled back it's proposal to 28 homes on 11 acres and agreed to sell the rest.

The land won't be opened to the public tomorrow, though.

"It's beautiful land, but it's basically been overgrazed and neglected land for basically a hundred years at this point. There's been cattle there, the area around the creek has been trampled, there's gullies," Emerson-Johnson said.

He added that there's a lot of erosion, which dumps silt into Kelly Creek---meaning much work lies ahead. In addition to filling in eroded tracts and placing straw wattles to trap sediment,

"It's replanting native grasslands, it's fencing areas of it to keep cattle out, but to allow wildlife to pass through, it is getting trees planted along the corridor and fencing out the cattle so that the area can naturally recover and we can have the sort of native undergrowth come back and support the banks of the creek," Emerson-Johnson said.

Emerson-Johnson said escrow on the property could close in the coming weeks. But that Earth Island is still awaiting approvals from fish and wildlife, along with conservation easements, planning permits and of course, more money.

"Once all of that is completed, Kelly Creek is going to be giving the land to the Sonoma County Regional Parks," Emerson-Johnson said, adding that he hopes the deed can be turned over to the county in mid summer of 2026 and opened to the public soon after.