Editing Rohnert Park, California (section)

==History==
[[Image:Photo-CA-rohnertpark.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Rohnert Park Expressway]]
Originally home of the [[Coast Miwok]] native people,<ref>Access Genealogy</ref> the [[Mexican government]] granted [[Rancho Cotate]] to Captain Juan Castaneda in July 1844 for his military services in the region. The grant encompassed present-day [[Penngrove, California|Penngrove]], [[Cotati, California|Cotati]] and Rohnert Park. "Cotate Rancho is a part of the Vallejo Township which is the plain between Sonoma Mountain and Petaluma Creek [[San Pablo Bay]], and an east and west line dividing the tract from [[Santa Rosa, California|Santa Rosa]] Township."<ref name="DeClercq">DeClercq, 1977.</ref><ref name="Harris">Harris, 1980.</ref> In 1849, Dr. Thomas S. Page, of Cotati, bought Rancho Cotate. Over time, the property was broken up and sold off piecemeal to incoming settlers.<ref name="DeClercq" />

The town of Rohnert Park was named after the Rohnert family, which owned the Rohnert Seed Farm. In 1929, a successful businessman, Waldo Emerson Rohnert (1869–1933), a native of [[Detroit|Detroit, Michigan]], purchased a large ranch in the area and minimized flooding in the fields with a crude drainage system. He died shortly thereafter. His son, Fred Rohnert, a graduate of [[Stanford Law School]], took over the ranch and developed a seed growing business, the Rohnert Seed Farm, which became a major horticultural success for the county.<ref name="DeClercq" />

In 1956, only four adults resided within the district boundaries. In 1956 and 1957, with the [[U.S. Route 101 in California|U.S. Route 101 Freeway]] recently completed at the Cotati bypass, Rohnert Park began to be laid out and built as a [[planned city]]. In a summer election in 1962, Rohnert Park was [[municipal corporation|incorporated]], comprising {{convert|1325|acre|km2}}, housing an estimated 2,775 persons. It was the first town to incorporate in Sonoma County since 1905. The neighboring town of [[Cotati, California]], voted to incorporate the following year.<ref name="DeClercq" />

===21st-century development===
[[Sonoma Mountain Village Rohnert Park]] is a {{convert|200|acre|km2|adj=on}}, solar-powered, zero-waste community currently under development.<ref>{{cite news|first=Adele|last=Peters|title=Sonoma Mountain Village: Is Green Suburbia Possible?|url=http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009448.html|newspaper=worldchanging|date=February 19, 2009|access-date=February 19, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090222205339/http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009448.html|archive-date=February 22, 2009}}</ref>

The [[Graton Resort & Casino]] opened on November 5, 2013.