Fresh off a decisive ballot-box win securing the future of Wine Country’s premier commuter rail service, the next stop for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit is reigniting debate over the location of a Healdsburg station.

The long-preferred site is near a historic depot on Hudson Street, about a half-mile from the city’s central plaza near a quiet neighborhood of single family bungalows where the last rail passengers disembarked nearly 70 years ago.

But SMART could instead build its station at another site on Vine Street closer to Healdsburg Plaza, a bustling town square where town kids splash in the fountain and out-of-town visitors stroll in flowing dresses and dapper linens on the way to dinner.

The choice, which SMART anticipates making in December, will determine where Healdsburg could see significant change in the coming years from the added foot traffic and the potential for new development, aided by state laws promoting dense housing projects near train stations. SMART aims to bring passengers to Healdsburg in 2028.

“It’s going to serve as the gateway to the city for those coming into Healdsburg, whether they’re workers, customers, students or visitors,” said Zoe Unruh, SMART’s planning manager. “What is the right place for all of that to happen?”

SMART owns the right-of-ways to construct a station at either location, and is launching an effort to collect feedback from city leaders, residents and workers. SMART’s board of directors will consider the feedback and make the final decision, which is expected at its December meeting.

The Vine Street location — between North and Matheson streets — would bring passengers, from hospitality workers to visitors, just steps from the bustling heart of Sonoma County’s most renowned destination city.

But many in Healdsburg have long preferred the Hudson Street depot site, though SMART would not plan to rehabilitate the old buildings (its stations are designed as raised platforms built alongside the tracks).

Healdsburg Mayor Chris Herrod said that although preferences for the depot site had a tinge of nostalgia, it was also rooted in the belief that downtown Healdsburg is broader than the area immediately around the plaza. Pedestrians leaving a Hudson Street station could pass ample tasting rooms, restaurants, antique shops, music venues while walking toward the city’s core, he said.

“To have them come up now and ask to rethink at this fairly late time in the game is flabbergasting,” Herrod said. “I’m going to be open minded, but honestly I doubt there’s anything there that’s going to shift us.”

Herrod said he once timed the walk to the plaza from both potential station sites and the difference was minimal: five minutes from the Vine Street site and seven minutes from the Hudson Street location.

The city council last reaffirmed Hudson Street as its preferred site in 2024. A city report produced that year estimated that a downtown station could require reducing parking spaces in a nearby lot from about 350 to 300 and could potentially require removing trees and realigning a portion of a trail.

But the decision was not unanimous.

Ariel Kelley, a Healdsburg city councilmember who serves on SMART’s board of directors, has remained the lone voice urging the council to opt for the Vine Street site. Kelley said that SMART has progressed significantly in the last two years, creating a new excitement in Healdsburg about train service arriving and that the location deserves reconsideration.

“The fact that it’s coming to town is such a game changer,” Kelley said. “And people in town are so excited.”

Last year, SMART opened a station near the Windsor town green, which has similar characteristics to downtown Healdsburg. And earlier this year, SMART began courting other Wine Country destinations as potential additional stops.

SMART has also begun seeing improvements in ridership, which has risen to more than 5,600 weekday riders, compared to 2,772 in 2024. The train system has also since secured the $269 million needed to get to Healdsburg, and is making plans to expand north to Cloverdale.

Unruh said a station on Vine Street would likely generate more passenger traffic because of its easy proximity to businesses for workers and visitors alike, although SMART expects any Healdsburg stop to be popular given the city’s draw.

Kelley said the community may have a different mindset today compared to 2024, before the Healdsburg extension was fully funded and it seemed like a distant possibility. A SMART survey in 2024 drew limited response: just 12 responses, out of 11,000 residents.

A new California law passed in 2025 loosened zoning around qualifying train stations in order to permit multifamily buildings of up to nine stories within a half-mile of those stations to encourage transit-oriented development.

“What does this look like in 30 years, and is the community comfortable with that,” Kelley said.

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