"Even if we move a little, people think we're done." Bianca Castillo said that to the Press Democrat in September. She helps run Tamales Magos, her mother Maria's stand, which has been on Sebastopol Road for 23 years. She was talking about tamale customers. The line fits the newest piece of public space on the same road just as well.
On Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, officials cut the ribbon on Plaza Permanente, a one-acre park at the corner of Sebastopol Road and West Avenue. The park cost $4 million. It's the first finished public piece of Tierra de Rosas, a project the Press Democrat described as nearly two decades in the making. The plaza was built on the site of Mitote Food Park, which was moved to clear room for the project's first phase. So the corridor's newest gathering space replaced its best-known one. For now, the pieces that would bring a crowd back to this corner are still unscheduled.
The lawn was drawn for a market
The plaza's design plans for more activity than the plaza has right now. The September 2024 landscape plan labels the open lawn as suitable for markets and events, under a row of large shade trees. County grant documents list what was built:
- A grassy open play lawn
- Play structures
- Picnic tables and benches
- Trees, pathways and lighting
- A drinking fountain and bike racks
- A restroom
That's a solid kit for a weekday afternoon with kids. The county's own description goes further. It calls the plaza a place meant to support community events and cultural celebrations. The Sonoma County Community Development Commission is responsible for managing, operating and maintaining the site under the grant agreement. As of mid-October, the county hasn't published hours, a separate programmer or any dated events or markets.
The single largest contribution to building the park was $2 million from the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District. That's the same agency behind two other green spaces in this part of town. Both come up again below, because they show two other ways a neighborhood green space can turn out.
What stood here before, and what's supposed to come next
Mitote mattered to this corner because people came there to eat and to linger. In its September look at the neighborhood, the Press Democrat reported that locals want a more central gathering space since the food park moved. The paper also observed that the newly finished park "hasn't generated a huge amount of interest," with few people seen using it. The same article was careful to add that the fences had only recently come down. The new apartments next door weren't fully open yet either.
That timing matters. Next door, the four-story Casa Roseland building has 75 units, and residents have been moving in since July. As of the Oct. 9 ceremony, MidPen Housing reported 54 of the 74 rentable units occupied. A new park facing a building that's still filling up will look quiet for a while.
The real draw is supposed to come from the rest of Tierra de Rosas, and that's where the schedule goes vague. Here's where each remaining piece stood as of the Press Democrat's Oct. 9 coverage:
| Piece of the plan | Status reported in October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Outdoor mercado on the plaza | Planned, with no date given |
| Small commercial parcel | The county issued a request for proposals and got no response |
| Civic parcel just south of Casa Roseland | The county has a memorandum of understanding with the nonprofit Health Equity Rising |
| 100-unit market-rate apartment building to the east | No definitive timeline |
The commercial parcel is the piece most likely to put food back on this corner. The county's RFP described a conceptual food-market-hall use for that site, but no operator came forward. Michelle Whitman, executive director of the Community Development Commission, linked the slow pace of the market-rate housing to high construction costs, elevated interest rates and other market pressures. In practice, the lawn designed for a market has no market on the calendar.
Where Sebastopol Road gathers in the meantime
While the plaza waits for its mercado, the corridor's daily gathering happens at businesses that stayed put or moved only a short way. Listed by street number, these are the ones with 2025 or 2026 reporting behind them:
- Su Casa 2, 1667 Sebastopol Road. It opened July 27, 2026, in the former La Texanita restaurant space.
- La Texanita's food truck, 1410 Sebastopol Road. The taqueria closed its brick-and-mortar location in July and announced a soft opening for the truck on Aug. 18.
- Sam's For Play Cafe & Catering, 1024 Sebastopol Road. Open daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. It has been here since 1985. Co-founder Troy Anker told the Press Democrat the diner's shelves of vintage posters, cookbooks and figurines have barely changed, while a wall of baby pictures from longtime customers keeps growing. The menu runs to big plates of eggs and pancakes, hangtown fries, chilaquiles and a homemade salsa with a kick.
- Tamales Magos and Tamales Oaxaqueños. Tamales Magos is the 23-year Sebastopol Road stand. Tamales Oaxaqueños is a family offshoot that operates a few blocks away. The Press Democrat reported that neither takes a day off. The September coverage doesn't give exact street numbers for the stands, so the easiest way to find them is to drive the road in the morning.
- Mitote Food Park, 100 Sebastopol Road. The food park that used to occupy the plaza site soft-opened at this address in 2025. Current hours at the new site weren't confirmed in recent coverage, so it's worth checking before you go.
Anker summed up the appeal of a place like Sam's in one line to the paper: "Bringing people together is the base of hospitality." That's the job the plaza's planners hope a mercado will do on the lawn. For now, a diner, a few taquerias and two tamale stands are doing it.
The green space that already runs on a schedule
The Press Democrat called Bayer Farm "a nearby urban park," and it's another project Ag + Open Space helped fund. Unlike the plaza, it has posted hours and someone running it day to day. LandPaths describes it as a two-acre community farm with community plots, vegetable and fruit gardens, orchards, an herbal-medicine teaching garden, California native plants and free gardening workshops.
Drop-in gardening runs Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the third Saturday of the month from 9 a.m. to noon.
LandPaths also hosts a monthly volunteer workday and programs such as Farming for Health. It runs the farm in partnership with the City of Santa Rosa and Ag + Open Space, and it's the contact for anyone who wants a plot. The farm's biggest day of the year has already passed. The 2026 Harvest Festival was on Sept. 26 and featured cultural performances, a community-partner fair, garden and food activities and a children's area. Still, the drop-in hours keep going on an ordinary Wednesday. Bayer Farm already has the two things the plaza is missing: a named operator and a recurring calendar.
The largest park in the plan is mostly still in development
Roseland Creek Community Park is the third Ag + Open Space project the Press Democrat named on Oct. 9, and it's the biggest. The city's master plan concept covers a 19.49-acre site between McMinn and Burbank avenues. It calls for a community garden and outdoor classroom, a nature center, picnic and barbecue areas, a sports court, two playgrounds, fitness stations, creek bridges and loop trails. The City Council certified the project's environmental impact report and approved the master plan on Sept. 24, 2024. At the time, the Press Democrat reported that construction would happen as funding became available and that meaningful progress "could be years off."
The most recent public status comes from a Sept. 3, 2026 Ag + Open Space oversight packet. It lists Phase 1a, about 5.96 acres, as open and Phase 1b, about 10.92 acres, as in development. Phase 1c is still in legal-agreement negotiations. The packet doesn't say which entrances, trails or amenities the "open" label covers, and it gives no completion date for the rest.
Of the three green spaces Ag + Open Space has backed in this part of town, the community farm has a weekly rhythm, the creek park is still mostly a plan, and the plaza sits in between, finished but not yet in regular use. The county has a lawn, a restroom and shade trees in place. Until the mercado gets a date or the commercial parcel finds an operator, a weekday visit could start with breakfast at Sam's before 2 p.m., add a drop-in hour at Bayer Farm on a Wednesday or Friday, and end with the kids on the new play structures at Sebastopol Road and West Avenue.
If you live near Sebastopol Road and want to know how the next pieces of Tierra de Rosas could change your corner of Santa Rosa, Summer Olson Stubblefield is glad to talk it through, from a planned mercado to an open lot. Let's talk about your next move.
