Anthem Winery Appeal at the BOS
on the web at: https://sodacanyonroad.org/forum.php?p=2175
Bill Hocker | Jan 24, 2021
NVR 1/28/21: Anthem winery wins Napa County approvals in winery growth battle
Another loss for rural residents in their battles against the pernicious impacts of the wealthy pursuing their dreams of being goodlife impresarios.
It is perhaps a coincidence that the article on Sup. Dillon's decision not to run for re-election, happened one day after the Anthem hearing in which she was the one supervisor to vote against its approval. "I have a suspicion that there will be [at least] three votes to approve this," she said near the beginning of her comments. There was a wearyiness as she enumerated her concerns about the project, the verifiable and obvious lack of water, the fire danger posed by such a substandard access route in an age of fire, and the use of exceptions to (i.e violations of) county ordinances to make the project feasable.
The two events are not directly related, of course, but one could easily imagine a link. She is the one member of the board that rose out of the battles to prevent agrictural land and open space from being developed. That battle is being lost with each new tourist attraction, warehouse, hotel, housing and deforestation project that the growth-centric board majority now supports. Those projects will induce more development and the cascade of urbanization -- unrestrained by the preservationist ideals that created and defended the Ag Preserve -- will eventually dominate the life and environment of the county. The slow demise of Napa's vineyards and woodlands will not be a pretty sight. To remain on the board with that inevitability, would be a wearying prospect, indeed. On the other hand, it is a better position from which to protect the ag legacy than from the sidelines.
The owner of Anthem is a member of Coalition Napa Valley, the small group of winery owners and developers who wish to abandon the limitations on winery visitation in county ordinances and general plan that hobble their ambitions. The group's (so far only) champion on the Board seems to be its current chair, Sup. Pedroza. It is a group so fervent in their tourism ambitions that even the wine industry 'stakeholders' who created the tourism carveouts in Napa's unique definition of agriculture are not yet on board. The group is led by Dario Sattui, developer and major-domo of Castello di Amorosa, Napa's biggest tourist attraction. It is possible that someone from the group, perhaps the aggressive Mr. Sattui himself, will run for Sup. Dillon's seat in 2022. That is also a wearysome prospect.
One other dissuasion from seeking re-election: having to listen to 3 minutes of truly ugly vitriol from James Hinton at each meeting.
Unfortunately, the Board majority's lack of concern about the fire dangers of Anthem's access constraints does not bode well for our own Soda Canyon goodlife dream project when it returns to the board for review sometime this year.
Update 1/24/21
The Anthem Winery appeal is coming up before the Board of Supervisors this Tues., Jan. 26, 2021.
After approval by the Planning Commission one year ago, the appeal of that decision by neighbors is being heard by the Board of Supervisors.
Appeal Documents
BOS 1/26/21 agenda
Staff letter for Appeal
Hearing Notice
Project Appeal Documents
Video of 2/5/20 PC Meeting
Agenda for 2/5/20 PC Meeting
One appellant has forwrded this list of specific issues on the Anthem project:
Some Areas of Concern
Water security. Almost every property surrounding Anthem has wells that have gone dry and now need to truck water or have low performing wells. Both Dry Creek Road and Redwood Road are designated by the County as “areas of interest”, meaning they have scarce groundwater. If you are one of these neighbors, please report on your water situation. I request the County delay the erosion control plan for new vines for three years until it is clear there is enough water to run the winery as well as to irrigate the vines they already have.
Driveway: The proposed driveway and bridge do not conform to Cal Fire Board of Forestry fire safety standards. The Board of Forestry requires that a driveway be a minimum of 20 feet wide so an exiting vehicle can pass a fire truck in the case of fire. The County has approved 1700 lineal feet of the driveway, which is 14 to 18 feet wide, a proposed one-way bridge with no required turnouts on either side, and there are further exceptions for the substandard 18 to 20% grades. The fire consulting engineering firm REAX , retained by appellants Jeff Atlas and Paul Rowe, has recommended that no more than 50 people be at any one event. The winery has been permitted for one 100 person event. They are also planning to build another 650 feet of driveway on a steep hillside in which they will need to cut about 60 trees and grade soils prone to landslide and erosion. Appellants are telling the County and Anthem: the driveway does not fit.
Oak savanna: Anthem decided to ignore and redefine the meaning of the legally recorded tree easement protecting ancient valley oaks by planting the savanna. They are also threatening the trees' survival by planting too close to the dripline and drilling wells within the savanna’s midst.
Caves: One of the largest caves in the County for a 30,000-gallon winery, the winery already permitted for far more wine than they can grow grapes on site. The plans for disposing of the tailings appear to be erroneous.
Please see the attached last page of the staff report for the September 1, 2020 meeting. The last paragraph says it all. "given the local context of the winery site, site constraints, water supply, the extent the site would need to be manipulated to provide adequate access and accommodate an expanded winery and visitation levels, and the requests and exceptions necessary to accommodate the expanded winery, this site may not be appropriate for a winery of the requested size and visitation level. "
Water security. Almost every property surrounding Anthem has wells that have gone dry and now need to truck water or have low performing wells. Both Dry Creek Road and Redwood Road are designated by the County as “areas of interest”, meaning they have scarce groundwater. If you are one of these neighbors, please report on your water situation. I request the County delay the erosion control plan for new vines for three years until it is clear there is enough water to run the winery as well as to irrigate the vines they already have.
Driveway: The proposed driveway and bridge do not conform to Cal Fire Board of Forestry fire safety standards. The Board of Forestry requires that a driveway be a minimum of 20 feet wide so an exiting vehicle can pass a fire truck in the case of fire. The County has approved 1700 lineal feet of the driveway, which is 14 to 18 feet wide, a proposed one-way bridge with no required turnouts on either side, and there are further exceptions for the substandard 18 to 20% grades. The fire consulting engineering firm REAX , retained by appellants Jeff Atlas and Paul Rowe, has recommended that no more than 50 people be at any one event. The winery has been permitted for one 100 person event. They are also planning to build another 650 feet of driveway on a steep hillside in which they will need to cut about 60 trees and grade soils prone to landslide and erosion. Appellants are telling the County and Anthem: the driveway does not fit.
Oak savanna: Anthem decided to ignore and redefine the meaning of the legally recorded tree easement protecting ancient valley oaks by planting the savanna. They are also threatening the trees' survival by planting too close to the dripline and drilling wells within the savanna’s midst.
Caves: One of the largest caves in the County for a 30,000-gallon winery, the winery already permitted for far more wine than they can grow grapes on site. The plans for disposing of the tailings appear to be erroneous.
Please see the attached last page of the staff report for the September 1, 2020 meeting. The last paragraph says it all. "given the local context of the winery site, site constraints, water supply, the extent the site would need to be manipulated to provide adequate access and accommodate an expanded winery and visitation levels, and the requests and exceptions necessary to accommodate the expanded winery, this site may not be appropriate for a winery of the requested size and visitation level. "
Anthem is one of numurous winery projects that have been vehemently opposed over the last 7 years by rural communities who's quality-of-life is threatened by a winery event center in their neighborhood: Yountvile Hill, our own Mountain Peak, Woolls Ranch, Girard, Raymond, Hard Six, Aloft, Caldwell, Scarlett and others. In addition, in that period, are the mega projects, Walt Ranch and Syar Quarry that have galvanized neighbors intent on protecting their rural communities. Each project has been legally argued on the basis of very specific impacts, necessitating the involvment of lawyers and consultants to show that the project will comply with or violate some aspect of county code. Never are they argued on the basis of the loss of rural tranquility that has attracted many to live in the county.
County ordinances are created with developer underwriting to codify the conditions that will allow development to happen, never to codify the value of undeveloped land. It is the development threat to Napa's agricultural, small town quality-of-life that is at the center of resident concern about every project in this 7 years -- as it was to the establishment of Napa as an agricultural preserve 50 years ago. Since the election of Bill Dodd as Supervisor 20 years ago, that commitment to preservation over development has been losing ground, figuratively and literaly, "Once it's gone, it's gone", Sup. Pedroza reminded us about the agricultural-watershed-open-space land protected by a previous generation of county leaders. With each new development project he and other Supervisor approve, it continues to go.
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