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…