Santa Rosa must spend millions to achieve local and state mandated greenhouse gas emissions targets, but if managed properly the cost savings from lower energy use should create long-term savings for City Hall.

Directors of the Healdsburg Animal Shelter announced Monday that after more than 50 years of operation, the facility will be closing its doors by the end of the month.

Petaluma has paid the state $8.75 million after losing a lawsuit over redevelopment tax proceeds that were supposed to go toward the construction of two major Highway 101 interchange projects.

In the heart of Wine Country, where harvest time produces pungent scents of fermenting grapes, the conversation these days is about another odor — that of skunk-like budding marijuana plants.

The harvest is still months away, but wine-centric Healdsburg is wrestling with guidelines for medical marijuana cultivation and whether to confine it indoors.

The intent behind keeping cultivation indoors is not only to suppress the smell, but to discourage burglaries and even violence.

A section of Santa Rosa’s Prince Memorial Greenway, closed at night since May 28, has reopened after completion of work to clean up contaminated soils.

Santa Rosa is hiring a consultant to help it decide whether to join the launch of the Sonoma Clean Power Authority, virtually assuring a down-to-the-wire decision on the controversial issue.

Santa Rosa has hired a new parks and recreation director from El Paso, Texas, to replace Marc Richardson, who resigned in December. Nanette Smejkal was selected following a nationwide search because of the experience she gained over a 25-year career managing parks and recreations departments with a diverse array of programs and facilities, City Manager Kathy Millison said.

Situated about 50 miles from Drakes Estero in Marin County, the landlocked city of Sonoma would seem an unlikely place to take a stand in an oyster company’s fight for survival. But colorful signs supporting the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. have popped up all over town, and the Sonoma City Council on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution calling on state and federal legislators to intervene on the company’s behalf.

Twenty units of affordable housing will be built in the largest subdivision under construction in Santa Rosa — they just won’t be as affordable as the city hoped.

The first and only one-way street in Healdsburg proved to be so unpopular that the City Council has decided to change it back to two-way.