High atop the hill looking over downtown Sonora, the historic Sonora Dome building has been a feature of the city’s skyline since it was erected in 1909.
Once home to Sonora Elementary School, the building was vacated in 1967 when it was deemed unsafe to house students under new California state mandates for earthquake preparedness, and has since fallen into disrepair.
In the 55 years since, the Sonora Union High School District has struggled to find a solution, finally listing the property as surplus to be sold or donated in January 2018. Last year, an advisory committee recommended that the property, including the dome, two classroom buildings and Lions Park, be designated as surplus property to be sold or donated.
“When it became surplus property about four years ago, that’s when we really started to become active,” said Allan Zimmerly, the president of the HDPG. “We became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation because it was surplus property. We thought, ‘now we can move.’ ”
But since then, Zimmerly said, no real progress has been made, despite the best efforts of community members.
“It’s not been a priority for them,” he said of the district. “We have provided them with several different outlines for the board of trustees to start the discussion. We have provided them with different configurations. It has not been on the agenda for four years.”
The HDPG’s plan would turn the dome into a museum and art gallery, which would serve as a cultural center for Sonora, Zimmerly said. The group would rely on grants and community donations to fundraise for renovation and upgrades to the building, and would seek to become financially sustainable by leasing out former classrooms as office space for local arts organizations and businesses to help offset costs.
“An arts and culture center would be an additional attraction to the county,” Zimmerly said. “It displays to the rest of California, to the rest of the Bay Area, that we’re not just some little town that’s drying up because the timber industry is going downhill, that we have reason to move here, to live here.”
Over the past few weeks, the HDPG has undertaken a media campaign to apply renewed pressure to school board officials and bring the dome preservation issue back into the public eye.
According to Sonora Union High School District Superintendent Ed Pelfrey, there has been a renewed focus on the dome by trustees. Recently, Pelfrey led members of the county Board of Supervisors on a tour of the dome, including District 1 Supervisor David Goldemberg, who represents the City of Sonora.
Goldemberg’s office looks out at the dome, he said, so the building and the stagnation in renovating it are often on his mind.
“Every day, I look at the dome and go, ‘Man, it’s just sitting there,’ ” Goldemberg said.
While Goldemberg said he appreciates the passion Zimmerly and the HDPG have poured into the process, he doesn’t believe the group has the capability of handling a project as big as this one looks to be.
“I’m not looking to exclude them — they’ve put a lot into it. But, by my estimation, it’s not going to move forward unless we get a bit more formal,” Goldemberg said. “I think that we really need to get a broader range of people involved.”
Zimmerly said the HDPG is prepared at any time to start its fundraising process if the district expresses an interest in selling the property, but doesn’t want to begin until that is clear.
“I know what you’re going to ask me, ‘How much money do we have?’ ” Zimmerly said. “We don’t have any money. Literally. But there is no point in going out for donations or applying for grants when there is nothing to buy.”
While the HDPG doesn’t have the funds necessary to purchase the building now, Zimmerly said he is confident in the organization’s fundraising infrastructure should it become apparent that the district is willing to sell them the building.
“The support for renovating the dome is real high — nobody wants to see the dome demolished,” he said. “I think it would be relatively easy to raise a couple hundred thousand (dollars) fairly quickly in this community for the initial acquisition and insurance and getting the roof repaired.
“Apparently, the money is there. And I’m beginning to believe — I have to believe — that it can be tapped.”
The group Goldemberg suggests could include Sonora City Council members and staff, members of the county Board of Supervisors, the Sonora Area Foundation, the Sonora Chamber of Commerce, Visit Tuolumne County and members of the Sonora business community, he said.
“I’m not a big proponent of always forming another committee — I’m a member of many,” Goldemberg said. “But, on the other hand, I think we need to essentially get the people of the community’s support and certainly, within their small group they have that. But I think we need a more broad base.”
The school district had its most recent Board of Trustees meeting July 12, during which Zimmerly said Pelfrey updated the board on the current status of the dome.
Pelfrey said he plans to add the dome to the agenda at the next trustee meeting on Aug. 9, which will clarify information about what exactly is for sale on the total parcel of land.
“There will be an action item going to the board of trustees at our next meeting,” Pelfrey said, “determining what will be surplus and offering the surplus property for sale.”
While the district’s board has struggled in past efforts to find a suitable buyer for the dome, which has left the building in limbo, Pelfrey said that is not indicative of its level of focus on finding a solution.
“I think the board is interested in getting that resource into the hands of an organization who can use it for the betterment of the community, and also maintain it as a historical building of great value to the community,” Pelfrey said.
Pelfrey declined to comment explicitly on whether he thinks the HDPG is the best-suited organization to take ownership of the dome moving forward.
“I know there is a lot of interest in preserving the dome and using it as a resource for our community, and I know there are a lot of people interested in that at this time,” he said. “I appreciate the intent and the efforts of Mr. Zimmerly and the dome preservation group. The work with the group has helped me see what the stumbling blocks were in the past.”
One specific challenge that Pelfrey said HDPG’s work has helped him understand is parking around the dome building, and the efficacy of a shared-use agreement with other entities which share the space.
Pelfrey said the school board will look into shared-use agreements for parking to open up more possibilities for finding new ownership.
“We have worked with both our district counsel and JPA to make sure that we can do some shared parking agreements with anyone that is interested in the property,” he said.
Goldemberg, who is also involved in the arts community within Tuolumne County, said he is supportive of the idea of the dome being converted into a space which would serve the arts in the region.
“I believe the arts are a really positive factor that can change communities and make them more desirable,” Goldemberg said. “There are distinctive economic benefits to having a more vibrant, cultural community.
“When you’re looking at economic development, when you have more culture in a community, it tends to strongly lend itself to very positive results, and those can be parlayed into attraction on the economic side.”
Goldemberg said he has spoken with City Administrator Melissa Eads, who also supports finding a resolution for the dome.
In Goldemberg’s view, the next step is for city officials and administrators to also take a tour of the building to get a better understanding of what is at stake and what the building needs.
“It’s really important to have your eyes looking at it and you’re walking through it and you get so much of a bigger feel for what’s going on,” he said.
Goldemberg said he thinks the new group ought to spend a limited amount of funds to find a path forward from a qualified consultant. One contractor estimated $15,000 to give the city a path to take.
“Before we apply for any funding, we want to have our eyes open if there are any ‘gotchas’ that are out there,” he said. “Once we were there, we could then be able to make some decisions on how to move forward. Their board has to approve any direction that we go in, and I would hope that they would do so.”
No matter who takes ownership, Zimmerly said the building will require seismic retrofitting, as well as alterations to adhere to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements, which could be solved by an exterior elevator that would go to each floor.
No matter who ends up owning the building and overseeing its renovation, Zimmerly said, change needs to come for the Sonora Dome.
“The building itself is just a venerable icon, this graceful old building that just cannot be torn down, both physically and emotionally,” Zimmerly said. “People would be lining up to chain themselves to those columns on the front of the building if there were bulldozers parked out here.
“You can’t take a landmark like this, an icon like this, and demolish it or let it rot until it caves in.”
Contact Dominic Massimino at dmassimino@uniondemocrat.com or (209) 588-4526.
Read the article on the Union Democrat at: https://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/article_b238185c-07a0-11ed-9ea3-ef1ce82f607b.html
