evacuation nightmares during the 2017 & 2020 wildfires…
Oakmont residents who lived here during those wildfires have horrifying stories to tell about gridlocked traffic on Highway 12 as the fire destroyed houses and approached their cars. A 2025 traffic study documents the bottlenecks and the long hours that it took for residents to evacuate safely from Oakmont Village and throughout the Valley of the Moon.
Read about Oakmont’s past evacuations here.
How will added traffic from 275 new houses impact already congested evacuation routes?
In 2025, the Valley of the Moon Alliance (VOTMA) commissioned the Sonoma Area Fire Evacuation (SAFE) traffic study by KLD Associates, to evaluate existing emergency evacuation routes. This study finds that Sonoma Valley's roads are not equipped to handle a mass evacuation in the event of wildfire. Find the SAFE study here.
The proposed development of the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) in Glen Ellen would add an additional 1000+ cars to this already overburdened evacuation route, while still another 300+ cars would be added from the proposed Elnoka development.
would the emergency vehicle access road planned thru elnoka solve oakmont’s evacuation problems?
During an emergency evacuation, the proposed EVA road may or may not help, depending on the direction of the next fire. It may not be usable at all during an evacuation, considering that the 2020 Glass fire incinerated much of the area where the EVA road is proposed to exit onto Melita Rd. Another potential problem is that the city of Santa Rosa could open the EVA road in either direction during an emergency. Depending on the direction of a future wildfire, new residents of the proposed Elnoka development could potentially use the EVA to exit through Oakmont, making congestion there even worse.
