Lower Russian River Municipal Advisory Council

The Lower Russian River Municipal Advisory Council (River MAC) is established to advise the Board of Supervisors and other County decision-makers on local planning and management decisions relating to the Lower Russian River region; to provide a regular forum for citizen participation in the formation of advisory recommendations on those decisions; and to provide a bridge for communication between the County and residents, businesses, and the general public on local government decisions affecting the Lower Russian River.

View the Lower Russian River MAC Map (PDF: 2.6 MB)
Look up your address on an interactive GIS map to see which area you live in.
Get regular updates from Supervisor Hopkins by subscribing to the District 5 Newsletter.
Find information about Vacation Rental permitting
Watch recordings from past meetings on the District 5 YouTube Channel
Stay up to date and communicate with other Lower Russian River residents in the Lower Russian River Municipal Advisory Council Facebook Group.
You are always welcome to reach out to your MAC representatives or the team at District 5. You can reach our office at district5@sonoma-county.org and phone 707-565-2241. MAC representative emails are on the representatives page of this website.

Join the River MAC!

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The Forestville, Hacienda, Guerneville areas of the River MAC will have openings for two-year terms from January 2024 - December 2025. Check your address on the map here to see if you live in one of these areas.
Applications are due by August 31 and can be completed here.
For more information, contact the Office of Supervisor Hopkins at district5@sonoma-county.org

Lower Russian River Governance Study

The Lower Russian River Governance Study is in full gear! We convened Community Workshop 1 on February 4, 2023 and Community Workshop 2 on July 15, 2023. Your participation is a vital part of the process of creating an effective, responsive plan!

download slides from Workshop 2 here

If you were unable to attend the Community Workshop on July 15, please do take a few moments to complete this survey to help our consultants shape their recommendations.

The Governance Study will seek to improve government services in the Lower Russian River region. The Study will take 6 – 9 months (Dec '22 – Sept '23) and result in recommendations for improving local, "city-level" services throughout the Lower Russian River region. Recommendations will be based on an analysis of funding and governance strategies matched with community input on service gaps and needs.

Through public workshops, stakeholder meetings, and online tools, the community will be asked to identify unmet needs, gaps in existing services, and potential new services. And, the community will have a chance to review current revenue spending and governance tools to understand such questions as "where are ToT revenues spent?"

The Office of Supervisor Lynda Hopkins District 5 is managing the Study with technical and outreach support from Blue Sky Consulting Group based in Oakland, California.

For more information, contact the Office of Supervisor Hopkins at district5@sonoma-county.org

The FY 2023-24 Tourist Impact Fund (TIF) Grant Application Process will open soon.

The Sonoma County Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) is a tax on accommodations at lodging and camping facilities in the unincorporated areas of the county. From this fund, each Supervisorial District in the county receives a percentage for discretionary projects within each District from the Tourism Impact Fund (TIF).

These funds are then awarded in small grants to not for profit organizations to create improvement projects in their community. Awards are based upon the TIF funding area and criteria as listed in below. For geographical areas covered by Municipal Advisory Councils (MAC), the TIF policy has been determined by the MAC with input from the community. For those geographical areas not covered by a MAC, the application will go to District 5 staff and similar policy and procedures will be followed.

General Funding Criteria (No preferential order)

*Applicants must be a not-for-profit organization.

Extra points will be given to those projects that can demonstrate the following, although all good projects fitting the funding priority areas will be considered.