Williams-Sonoma may face roadblock returning to its original home

Williams-Sonoma, the cookware giant founded more than five decades ago in now-historic downtown Sonoma in northern California, may face trouble going home again.

In a bid to return to its roots, the retailer is facing controversy with the small city tucked in the wine county of Sonoma County over a desire to limit chain stores downtown, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

The company hopes to open a small location at the site of its original store that opened in 1956 and offered a selection of cookware from France. Two years later, the gourmet cooking emporium moved to downtown San Francisco, where its headquarters remains.

Started by 96-year-old Chuck Williams, the chain has grown into a $3-billion corporation that also includes Williams-Somona.com and the Pottery Barn chain.

The original location on Broadway later housed a frame shop and is marked with a plaque commemorating the first Williams-Sonoma. The chain has told city officials it hopes to build a store about one-third the size of its typical ones.

On Wednesday, the Sonoma City Council will consider whether to enact a moratorium on new chain stores in its downtown area while it consider how to regulate the growth of chains in the downtown area.

[Updated, 3:30 p.m. Jan. 17: Sonoma mayor and city council member Joanne Sanders said Tuesday she opposed a moratorium and a limit on chain stores. She called it “anti-business” and a bad move during a down economy. She said she expects it will fail to get four of five votes on the city council necessary to approve a moratorium.

The city of Sonoma and local tourism has “done nothing but benefit from our ties to Williams-Somona,” she said. The company started in Sonoma and has grown to “become a household name, and it’s carried us along with it.”]

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