Tam and I left early in the morning. We were headed to the airport. As we pulled out of our driveway and headed down Gordon Valley Road, suddenly, right in front of us, was a most amazing sight! Just ahead and a bit to the right of our vehicle, was a Bald Eagle! He was engaged in aerial combat with two big ravens over Mike and Janis Germans vineyard. He was huge, beautiful, and appeared healthy and strong. With a few powerful strokes of his wings, he rapidly climbed, then suddenly dove, turning and angling towards us, with the ravens in hot pursuit. Within a moment he was just a few feet above our vehicle, screaming towards my walnut orchard. And then he was gone. Wow! What a sight! Right here in our valley, this majestic predator resides. It makes me think….is he nesting nearby? Will he call Suisun Valley home for a while? This was a rare and exciting event.
This is just one more reminder of what a special place we live in. For me, this region consisting of the watershed for both Suisun and Ledgewood Creeks, is country living at its finest. A thriving ag-based local economy set within a beautiful natural valley. Wonderful friends and neighbors, including many established multi-generational families. Yet, quick and easy access to all Northern California has to offer. I have called Suisun Valley home for nearly thirty years now. This has been an incredibly great place to raise my two boys, and I count myself very fortunate to live here.
If you are like me, you probably have noticed the changes in our valley, which seem to have really accelerated since the pandemic paid us all a visit. I remember when Manka’s Steakhouse was Mary’s place. Kind of a scruffy little coffee shop, where the food was not that great, but the people were local and friendly. Mike German, Chick Lanza, Charlie Lum, George Yee, and others could be found having a cup of coffee and maybe some eggs and toast usually about 5:30 am. Once in a while, you’d find a horse tied up on the front porch. In the summer, overloaded tomato trucks were headed to the Germans’ dry yard. Some would dump a few of their juicy red calling cards onto the asphalt as loads shifted when airbrakes were applied coming into the Manka’s Corner stop sign.
Things have sure changed since then. And the rate of change has really ramped up since folks discovered our little gem of a valley during the pandemic lockdown. During those dark days, we were one of the few places where you could enjoy some human company in the outdoor venues that began popping up. Wendy launched the Filling Station, with some music and her infectious smile. Many of us found a great place to renew our friendships after having lost touch, once our kids grew up. Others discovered neighbors they never knew they had. Kyle and Mike brought new energy and quality to the Manka’s Grill, and I think we all appreciate having such a great place to grab lunch or dinner right in our backyard. And then Caymus came to town. Thanks to Chuck Wagner’s wine industry genius, people now want Suisun wine, instead of just Suisun grapes. And so now we are fast becoming found by those from parts afar who just used to drive by on Interstate 80. Tourism is coming to our Valley. Like it or not, others have discovered what we knew long ago…this place is really special…and much easier to access than our “wine country” cousins over the hill in Napa and Sonoma. And so, it seems that Suisun is bound to “blow up”.
I for one, decided to have a hand in this change. My reasons for this are varied. Part of me feels a responsibility. I have had a career in real estate development, including what some might call community building. I am well versed in what works, what doesn’t, and what to watch out for. I don’t want to see the valley screwed up. I live here. I love this place. And I want to make sure the inevitable change that is coming is established upon the right foundations. I want to contribute to change that is an enhancement, not a degradation. I don’t want to see Fairfield subdivisions come spilling into the valley. I don’t want to see use changes or public infrastructure spending that result in eventually killing the valley’s ag-based economy and beauty. Negative changes tend to get cloaked in terms of art to make you think that what makes Suisun Valley great will always be preserved. But in actuality, local government infrastructure investments can often amount to a guarantee that urbanization occurs tomorrow, when the people who pushed the changes are long gone, and our kids and grandkids must live with the consequences.
This is not to say that changes should not be made. There are certain things about today’s land use regulatory framework in Suisun Valley that truly give me heartache. Do we really want to see 30 “casita” or Airbnb-type residential units, a winery, a tasting room, a retail sales store, all the parking and roadways that this level of development would imply, and an owner’s house, barn, and affiliated structures on every single parcel of 20 acres or more in the valley??? This is what local zoning presently allows! I think there have got to be at least 300 potential 20-acre parcels in the valley. If all that got “built out”, that would change the valley forever in a way that I for one, think would be a negative…it’s just too much. Is 20 acres the right threshold number for that type of development? Do we want to focus and concentrate the Ag tourism areas into distinct nodes? Or do we want it to be a “free for all” where this can happen essentially anywhere there is the requisite acreage. I for one advocate having tight little nodes of tourism-oriented commercial zones, in a few strategic locations, designed to preserve a country feel, surrounded by large expanses of economically farmed agricultural lands.
These are important questions. Do we want just “planners” driving these answers? Or do we want a more balanced dialogue, of farmers, residents, and elected policymakers, to jointly have a hand in these answers?
It is in this context that Tam and I decided to make an investment and acquire the Easterly portion of Manka’s Corner, when it became available for sale late last year. I want to say that I am very grateful that Meredith Russell Carter and her late sister April, made the decision to sell to us. They are direct descendants of the valley’s famed Wolfskill Family. They know the value of Suisun Valley. I feel both an opportunity and a duty to carry on the stewardship role of this important corner and I feel a kinship with Meredith, as a very distant cousin, as both of our pre-Bear Flag revolt families are connected through marriage. I believe she agrees with my view of the level of care we must consider for future generations when working to improve our homelands as our forefathers did. I am sure some of you reading this also know that Chuck Wagner agreed to sell Tam and me the 15 acres fronting the north side of Manka’s Corner. This property stretches from where the bridge crosses Ledgewood Creek on Manka’s Corner Road to the bridge crossing Ledgewood Creek on Gordon Valley Road. This property includes the old 1885 JC Wolfskill homestead, and the ranch house across the street from the Vezer tasting room and garden. I am also very grateful to Chuck for agreeing to this sale. He could have placed the property on the open market and sold the property to the highest bidder. Instead, he decided to sell this key parcel to us in a private off-market transaction. He entrusted us to provide the leadership and vision to polish up the entire 16-plus acre holding as an integrated property enhancement opportunity at Manka’s Corner, which is the very heart of Suisun Valley. I believe that Chuck wanted to ensure that what happens on these properties, in particular, will be undertaken from the perspective of a long-term resident.
But as I said, my reasons are varied. It’s not just that 40 years of diverse real estate development expertise gives me some wisdom I feel responsible to deploy. Yes, I need to start becoming more active, I want to make sure we avoid poor choices. But I also know that what we have here in Suisun Valley are the ingredients to enhance the local human experience in an iconic and inspiring manner. To make a positive contribution to our life experience, and those of our children and grandchildren to come.
So it is from this perspective that we have been developing our long-term plans for these key holdings at Manka’s Corner. In order to communicate more effectively with our friends and neighbors, and to hopefully neutralize any counter-productive “rumor mills” from getting any momentum, we have decided to create a website that will track our progress, and report on project news and information. I admit that part of the reason for creating this is that I do get a little tired of people asking me all the time what we are going to do, and when we are going to do it. I can tell when some are disappointed, or even upset, that I do not share more with them. It is as if they presume that I have it all figured out already and I am purposely being opaque. But I can tell you that after forty years in the real estate development business, that is not how I roll. The truth of the matter is that conceptualizing a project vision, land planning, design, and engineering, is all a process. No doubt, some developers have very specific plans, even before they buy a property. I’m not one of them. I have learned that every day I wake up, I have a new thought…a new perspective…a tweak, or even sometimes a massive re-think resulting in a major re-work of all of my prior thoughts and plans. It is a process of polishing, and refinement, and a sort of sculpting one’s views and plans on what, when, where, and how.
I hate to be too specific about anything until I feel more confident in filling in the numerous gaps that still exist in determining what is possible, from a regulatory, market, design, and technological perspective. Any new information in any one of these areas can have a major impact on our overall plan and result in a total redesign. And we get new information almost every day during the early days of project visioning. Spewing off brainstormed visions too early results in people getting things set in their minds prematurely, for better or worse. Opinions can form, without the context of a full accounting of all factors. This is usually not a good thing. Folks can get disappointed or feel surprised when the project turns out not what they thought they understood. The bottom line is, that it is not a good idea to count your chickens before the eggs hatch, and the best way that I know how to combat that tendency that most people have is to keep the eggs under the hen for a while.
Furthermore, there is another consideration in avoiding jumping to conclusions too quickly. For those of you who know me a little better, you know my home on Gordon Valley Road has basically been under construction for nearly thirty years now. I still feel like I have a long way to go. Some of my neighbors have thought I am just slow. There is some truth in that. But I’m a big believer that good things take time, and frankly, I’m not in a rush. Decades ago, I went and visited Thomas Jeffersons’ Monticello, and George Washingtons’ Mount Vernon. Do you know how long it took those two founders of our Republic to complete their personal homes? 26 and 24 years respectively…and I suspect that if they were here today, they would argue that they were not done yet when they passed. One of the things that I have seen people misunderstand, is that often, development is not just built and done. Instead, it is an evolving and continual process…this is particularly the case in what I have some experience in, which I would describe more as “community building”. Little commercial nodes like Manka’s Corner, can take on attributes of a living organism. They grow and change and morph over time. Have you seen old photos of Manka’s Corner from 170 years ago? Quite a bit different. So, what we do in the present, can echo into the future in profound ways. It is important to take our time in the conceptualization process. It is important to realize that the standards we set, and the principles of land planning that we follow, are all going to have an impact way after Tam, and I are long passed away. So, first off, we want to first get some basic principles established in our thinking. These can be our road maps, our guides, to influence what comes next in the polishing process.
I should make clear that the details of these “Basic Principles” are just our own. They are not anything set by government policy or code. They are just what Tam and I have agreed are important to us personally, as private property owners, and individuals. They reflect our own values. You can agree with them or not, but they will constitute a sort of foundation, upon which our future designs for our portion of Manka’s Corner, rest upon. They are provided to give you context as to why we may be proposing to County authorities various potential design applications, as the project moves along.
I will share with you what some of our basic personal principles are that we will be using as a road map as we work on our concept planning for Manka’s Corner,
About Traffic:
Traffic on Manka’s Corner Road has increased significantly over the last couple of decades. I don’t have the exact numbers, and I don’t know if they even exist, but it appears that the expansion of Suisun Valley Elementary School, and commute traffic over the hill to Napa is the main culprit. Suisun Valley Elementary imports out-of-area students, whose parents drive them and pick them up every school day, and this is a major morning and afternoon contributor to traffic through Manka’s Corner. It is interesting to note that traffic to Lake Berryessa has declined very significantly. There are just not as many people boating and vacationing at Lake Berryessa as there used to be, and public access facilities to the lake have been reduced in scale. This has eased traffic through Manka’s Corner a bit, particularly on summer weekends. In general, head-in parking along Manka’s Corner Road, particularly within the intersection itself, can create conflicts and slowdowns as people attempt to back out of their parking stalls and into the traffic lanes. Street frontage parking, such as this, can contribute to convenience for customers and is a part of the “Village” feel for the Corner, but the negative aspect is the conflict with the traffic lanes.
Our view is that having traffic slow down through Manka’s Corner is a good thing. We would not want to make it easier for vehicles to get through the Manka’s Corner crossroads faster. We definitely would not want the County to install a traffic light at the intersection, designed to improve vehicular traffic flow. Manka’s Corner is the center of our community. It is very pedestrian in nature. The corner is a community gathering spot. A point of connection. Its uniqueness is in its pedestrian character. It should not be considered first and foremost as an automobile traffic corridor. Instead, it should be thought of as a gathering area for friends and neighbors who are often on foot. Having some slow traffic at this corner, while maybe an inconvenience for a driver, is just fine, as far as we are concerned. The trade-off for having a more pedestrian-friendly corner is worth it. If traffic through the intersection needs to be regulated, then the traffic lights, or additional stop signs, should be placed away from the primary intersection at Gordon Valley Road and Manka’s Corner Road. Slowing traffic down, and letting it through in chunks, can be accomplished with control point stops outside of the “Corner”.
Access points into the traffic lanes from any existing or future parking lots should be encouraged to occur primarily from access points a bit away from the heart of the intersection itself. A few years back, the County installed the little identity signs in the middle of the street as you come into Manka’s Corner. In general, we think this is a good idea. It helps with traffic calming and slowing down the vehicles before they approach the stop signs. However, we think that they are not in very thoughtful locations, from a side access point of view. Our plans may end up proposing that these traffic-calming islands be relocated. And perhaps, that additional traffic calming measures be undertaken to ensure a safe and pedestrian-friendly “village” feel is enhanced.
About Parking:
Mark Twain is often credited for the old saying “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.” Sometimes, I think a contemporary analogy could be something along the lines of “Roads are for driving, parking stalls are for fighting over.”
When it comes to parking at Manka’s Corner, there are certain existing conditions that are simply out of whack. Anyone can see that Manka’s Grill, and adjoining commercial buildings are totally under-parked. The privately owned commercial property along the inner southwest orientation of Manka’s Corner provides little to no parking for the parking demand that it creates. The County has tried to solve this problem by allowing parking in the public right of way, but also on private property which the County has questionable rights to. This is an issue in need of a solution.
Our property, across the street, currently has about twenty-five parking stalls. These parking stalls are located wholly within our property. These parking stalls are often used by people going into the Steakhouse. On days when Wendy has live music, it can be insufficient to handle parking demand. Although not accomplished yet, our intention is to ask John’s Hauling to find another location and move on, when his current lease expires.
This will allow us, at least in the near term, to open up John’s junk yard storage area and allow for more parking.
The County has some very odd enforcement policies presently at work. They allow parking up and down Manka’s Corner Road, where roadway traffic is often very busy, and where the shoulder of the road is very narrow. Yet, they have recently placed No Parking signs along Johns Hauling frontage up Clayton Road adjacent to our property, where roadway traffic is light and much safer. This makes absolutely no sense at all. Letters have been written to County officials requesting an explanation for this backward policy, and no response has been provided. An obvious solution to the Manka’s Corner parking problem is to create a parking lot somewhere very nearby. There are really only two suitable locations. One would be on the Lum homestead property, on the south side of Manka’s Corner Road. The other would be located on the Caymus property, just north of the intersection, which we are purchasing from Caymus. Our prospective property is arguably in a better location, as it is much closer to the action on the corner. However, a major motivation of mine in acquiring this property from Caymus, is to ensure that we do not lose the rural feeling of Manka’s Corner. The key portion of the property, that I am adamant that we preserve and enhance, is the field just north of the Filling Station, which runs along Clayton Road to the Manka’s Corner intersection and then north along Gordon Valley Road to the Ledgewood Creek bridge. We do not want a parking lot on this land. This pasture is what we affectionately call “Manka’s Meadow”, although it was previously a peach orchard that Ray Erickson farmed, and it is conceivable that we could return it to orchards or row crops.
Finding a solution to the parking problem at Manka’s Corner is going to be important. This is a pressure point that will require some creative thinking. There are many issues to consider. These issues include accounting for the value of the land provided for parking, the cost of providing the parking and access to the parking, the environmental impacts that will need to be mitigated, the usage policy of the parking lot itself, and how costs are allocated among private property and commercial interests, and with the County. Will it be open to the public? Or a private parking lot only? Will it be paid parking, or free? Also, what is the County enforcement policy going to be going forward in the public right of way? Is it appropriate for the County to expand public use of private property which they have not acquired either through fee purchase or easement, to more than just roadways, but to also include parking? We for one, do not believe that “prescriptive easement rights” extend to anything other than roadway access. We believe the Counties’ actions to try and expand across private property to create public parking, as has recently been done, is overreaching. To create public parking on other people’s private property for the benefit of those property owners who have been allowed to expand by the County, without meeting County requirements for providing parking, is an injustice. How is the County going to create fair and equitable policies for all parties affiliated with this issue?
If a parking lot is provided, it would be best if it could be accomplished on a no-charge basis for its users. Ideally, “its users” would be the general public. However, it is unfair to think that a single property owner will solve a neighborhood problem for parking demand which is created by the commercial activities generating parking demand which is at least partly emanating from other non-affiliated properties. Further, the County needs consistent and sensible policies, unlike what is presently occurring, to work in tandem with creating incentives among the general public and private property owners, to behave in a way that is in harmony with the dynamics of a final solution that is crafted. Discussions with our neighbors and the County will need to take these issues into account.
About Utility Infrastructure:
We have heard rumors of various interests, including residential subdivision builders, who are advocating for major public utility infrastructure investment in Suisun Valley. We have heard this entails public water and sewer service. Frankly, we are alarmed by this information. We have not yet had direct discussions with staff or elected officials about what might be in process, but we generally feel this is a very bad idea. This is the type of thing that induces sprawling development to occur. This infrastructure is very expensive. Typically, the only way it gets paid for is by development fees, or bond issues that hit all of our property taxes. We know that there are much more advanced, sustainable, and cutting-edge technologies that exist, which enable a decentralization of sourcing water and organic waste treatment, and do not require public utilities and local governments to begin converting our farmlands and open spaces to subdivisions in order to pay for the utility infrastructure that they install. We would encourage all residents of Suisun Valley to strongly resist any efforts by the local government to force upon us traditional-style public infrastructure. There are often powerful forces behind the scenes. They are often contributing to local officials’ campaign funds. They want to influence zoning changes, and utility infrastructure, to allow conventionally constructed urbanization to proceed. I know this in a very personal way…it is literally the world I come from, and I have often witnessed this in action.
We can enhance and improve Manka’s Corner without running a new sewer line from Fairfield City limits to Manka’s Corner. We can do this safely and in an environmentally sensitive manner.
Our biggest pet peeve, to be blunt, is the power and telecom lines. We have never understood how these utility companies can string lines all over our view corridors, without compensation for the taking and degradation of our natural experience. Instead, we live with a tangle of wires over our heads all the time. We butcher our beautiful street trees to allow this to occur and then cry in our beer, when these very same power lines spark in the wind and cause wildfires. Then after the wildfires impact the fire insurance markets, we find that property and casualty insurance is either extremely costly, or not available at all, which makes real estate mortgages on our property unattainable. Then the lack of a liquid lending market for our properties ends up eventually collapsing our property values…all because we allow these utility companies to string their wires overhead, instead of them being required to underground their lines. We have allowed these utility companies to go cheap and save a few bucks. But in their pursuit of saving a few bucks, we all end up paying a huge price. Our utility companies and our local government regulators often seem to place very little to no value on simple beauty. Our policy makers often fail to think about the consequences of allowing public utilities to escape the costs on others of their impacts. Our position is that we want to see all the ugly power and telecom overhead lines underground throughout the Manka’s Corner area.
Frankly, we would support any reasonable plan to do this throughout the valley. It is unfortunate that we have gotten used to the ugliness around us, and don’t think about it very much. It is amazing how much more scenic and beautiful the landscape becomes when we eliminate the power lines.
Well, this is enough discussion for one blog…probably too much. Look for more messaging in the future, as our plans become more refined.
This is a useful post for finding broken links within the website, what about links pointing outwards that are broken? I can use a free web service but wondered if this was possible.
Great tool! I am using a redirect plugin to send all my 404’s to my home page but I think it’s slacking sometimes.