Even though funding shortfalls have made it uncertain when commuter trains will reach Healdsburg, Windsor and Cloverdale, SMART is planning express bus service to link those communities with the train in Santa Rosa. One board member predicted the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit agency would start construction north of Santa Rosa in two to three years.

The six-month effort to force an election to repeal the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit sales tax officially ended in failure Monday, clearing the way for the district to accelerate plans to build its two-county rail line.

Windsor’s train station doesn’t have passenger rail service yet, but it’s already dictating how the town will grow over the next 20 to 25 years. Town planners have come up with a blueprint for development in a half-mile radius around the station, which is considered integral to a transit-oriented future in which people live and work within walking distance of trains and buses.

Sonoma County’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously endorsed an $84 million project to expand Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport to enable more daily commercial flights.

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District on Thursday revealed that its initial 37-mile route will be extended 1½ miles north to a station on Guerneville Road in northwest Santa Rosa, as well as a station in Novato. Meanwhile, SMART said that critics must gather 39,000 signatures to place a measure on the ballot to overturn its funding – a threshold that RepealSMART organizers say will be difficult to clear.

With the deadline six weeks away, organizers of an initiative to repeal the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit sales tax have about half the signatures they believe are needed to put a measure on the ballot. Clay Mitchell of Windsor, co-chairman of Repeal SMART, said about 100 volunteers have returned petitions, containing 7,500 signatures.

The Windsor Town Council is on the verge of becoming the first government body in Sonoma County to go with paperless agendas, forsaking the bulky printed reports that have been an accessory for elected officials for decades. By equipping its top officials with Apple iPads, Windsor expects to save the reams of paper and hours of staff time required to produce the thick agenda packets council members rely upon for their meetings.

Debora Fudge made history this week, becoming the first five-time mayor on the Windsor Town Council. Fudge, who has been on the council 15 years, has a number of priorities going into the new year. They include making Windsor a “cohesive transit-oriented community” and completing Windsor’s Station Area Plan, a vision for future downtown development that ties into the SMART train.

Windsor’s Town Council on Wednesday unanimously approved Bell Village, one of the biggest developments proposed in Windsor in years. The mixed-use project, just east of the Town Green, includes 387 rental apartments and townhomes and 80,000 square feet of commercial space anchored by Oliver’s Market.

Big crowds for summer night concerts on Windsor’s Town Green haven’t translated to more customers for adjacent restaurants, and the Town Council wants to help. Council members on Wednesday discussed ways to increase patronage for surrounding business, including possibly closing another street to cars to allow local restaurants to set up food booths.