Danisi: Don't Tear Down Historic Building

There is a building at 435 Southwest Blvd. in Rohnert Park about to be demolished.

This building has stood there for almost 50 years and was built around the time the city was incorporated in 1962. After serving as the first City Hall and Public Safety building, then the Southwest Fire Station, the Boys and Girls Club and most recently, a free food distribution site for the needy, the Rohnert Park City Council voted in March to have the building reduced to a pile of rubble and carted away — taking with it the most historic public building the city has or will ever have.

The cleared plot would then sit empty for an unknown amount of time until the land is sold and housing units are built. That will probably be many years from now. 

Remember what happened to our stadium, where minor league baseball teams played while drawing thousands of fans or each home game? What is there now? We need to be more than a bedroom community or a shopping paradise. We need a broad range of amenities, cultural attractions and the desire to preserve some of our past for future generations.

Why are we doing this? Greed? Lack of foresight? Ignorance? Within weeks the Southwest Boulevard Building will be demolished. This will be a sad and historic, occasion on what was once wheat fields, a seed farm, part of the Laguna a naval air field, home to tiger salamanders and other plant and animal life.

Never did I imagine when I moved here in 1988 that I would be standing up for a building. The rats that discovered the free food in the building last year are gone. The interior has been damaged from neglect and misuse. But the structure is solid and can be recycled and preserved.

Why can’t the money our city will pay to have it torn down be used to fix it up and then rent, lease or sell the property with the condition that the old city hall be preserved?

If claims that it is cheaper to tear it down and sell the land are true, then let’s tear down and remove all the other old buildings throughout the country, no matter how historic they are. 

Do we have enough people to step up to prevent this? Is it too late for action? I sure hope not. As we lose our founding fathers and mothers, a few structures should remain as a testament to some of the things they built to create the city of Rohnert Park.

Editor's note: The old Southwest Fire Station demolition is being torn down by the Santa Rosa-based company DAMA Construction, according to Rick Pedroncelli, a senior engineering technician for the city. Currently crews are removing hazardous materials from the site, and then they'll start to tear it down. Pedroncelli said the demolition should begin in about a month. 

The city is paying $86,000 for the project. Interested in this story? .