Almost a year later the devastating North Bay fires, the community’s long-term recovery and redevelopment efforts are just beginning. With entire neighborhoods destroyed, Sonoma County has been left to rebuild its shops, homes, and public buildings.

In one of the hardest hit Sonoma communities, the Santa Rosa School District is working to rebuild the Santa Rosa High School Farm at Alba Lane, a central piece of the district’s robust agricultural program. The loss included a barn, a caretaker residence, vehicles, livestock trailers, tools, and the farm’s irrigation system and water pump.

Looking forward, Santa Rosa City Schools envisions rebuilding the Alba Lane Farm into a multi-use agricultural education center for instruction, training, storage, livestock, and a variety of farming uses. While a majority of the funding for the project has been identified by the district through state channels, there still remains a gap for which the district is actively working to raise funds from the surrounding community.

This is where ULI San Francisco’s YLG saw an opportunity to tie one of its most popular annual events, Venture in the Vineyards, to a good cause. At this year’s Venture in the Vineyards event, ULI San Francisco’s YLG committed to donating 10% of event ticket sales to the Alba Lane Farm project. Moreover, the Venture in the Vineyards subcommittee leveraged this donation to raise over $10,000 from the land use and real estate business community.

Thank you to the following companies for providing a matching donation to fund the rebuilding of the Santa Rosa High School Farm at Alba Lane:

• Cushman & Wakefield
• CBRE
• DCI Engineers
• Ground Matrix
• Kilroy Realty
• Lafferty Communities
• Polaris Pacific
• Sares Regis Education & Community Foundation
• Tricon Capital
• Trumark Urban