The Horicon Elementary School District is a rural, one-school district located in the northwest corner of Sonoma County. The district includes the coastal community of The Sea Ranch and Stewarts Point to the west and the unincorporated community of Annapolis near the school site. Horicon is a Transitional Kindergarten through 8th-grade school with a very small pupil-to-teacher ratio. The school is located along Annapolis Road, which is a winding, two-lane road off of Skaggs Springs Road, reaching from farther inland to the Pacific Coast. The territory of the Horicon Elementary School District also completely surrounds the Kashia School District, another single-school district that serves the Native American population who live within or near the Stewarts Point Rancheria, whose boundaries are roughly coterminous with the Kashia School District.
Because of the isolation of the school site, and because of the expense and limited housing stock in this part of Sonoma County, the District has been exploring the development of workforce housing for District staff. This will help increase teacher and staff recruitment and retention, and provide housing for those who work for the District.
There are four options the District is considering for locating this housing. The first is on land owned by the District adjacent to or in the vicinity of the school site along Annapolis Road in Annapolis. The second is on land which could be purchased and developed in the greater Annapolis area. The third is the District’s potential purchase of one or multiple undeveloped lots or receipt of the donated development in The Sea Ranch near the coast. Finally, the District could purchase existing housing stock, in either Annapolis, Sea Ranch or the remainder of the District, and redevelop it to make it suitable for staff housing.
Request for Proposals
Feasibility Study: Workforce Housing for Horicon School District
The Horicon School District is requesting proposals to provide services to identify the best location for a workforce housing project, evaluating such factors as environmental conditions, infrastructure, difficulty or ease of access, construction expenses unique to a particular location. A report by Steve Smith from Sea Ranch is provided with background research and information.
The candidate will have expertise in the fields of planning, architecture, engineering, environmental analysis, residential development, or related fields, or staff with a combination of those skills and training in order to evaluate the criteria set forth in the Scope of Services and make a recommendation about the most appropriate location for the project, based on a weighing of the various factors listed.
The deadline for inquiries is January 10, 2025, and proposals are due no later than January 24, 2025.
The complete RFP is posted on the Horicon School website: https://www.horiconsd.org/page/go-bond