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APAC Dec 8th Statement to BOS
APAC Dec 8th Statement to BOS
Bill Hocker | Dec 7, 2015 on: APAC
[this email was sent to the Board of Superfvisors prior to their Dec 8th, 2015 meeting to begin considering the APAC recommendations with Planning Commission additions]
12/7/15
Members of the Board of Supervisors,
Two years ago I found out that tourism was coming to the remote, rural paradise-on-earth that had been so important to me for the previous 20 years. I was terrified (I still am). Who was I, a nobody, to stand in the way of a government, an industry, an incredibly wealthy individual wanting to commercialize my backyard. Fortunately, I wasn't the first or only resident in the county beginning to confront an ever expanding tourism presence. Even more fortunately, the county government seemed to realize that the wave of development it had been promoting in previous years was creating impacts of concern to all. Enough concerns that we have spent the last year discussing them, as we will again tomorrow.
I owe my paradise to the wine industry. The success of the zoning laws and initiatives that Napans have enacted to enable the wine industry to survive have made the existence of an area as remote and rural as the Rector watershed possible. The voters, I feel, didn't approve these protections to promote the jobs and income the wine industry might provide. Santa Clara County, in pursuing the urban development typical of the rest of the Bay Area, has been much better at creating jobs and income for its citizens. In Napa it was understood that voting to protect the wine industry meant voting to protect a particular rural, small-town quality of life that the wine industry provided - a desirable livelihood in a desirable place to live. And until recently that compact has survived.
But it is now being stressed. The embrace of tourism as a revenue source by many vintners is beginning to impact us all. The commitment to maintain this as a desirable and beautiful place to live is being tarnished by traffic, the loss of neighborhoods and housing to short term rentals, the deforestation and defacement of the natural landscape with development (and billboards posing as art!), the conversion of vineyards into building projects and parking lots, the corporate consolidation of the many small wineries, the conversion of the iconic beauty of the Silverado Trail into a winery strip mall, and the flouting of use permits to bring in ever more tourists.
In their own self interest, the vintners should be protecting the rural resource they depend on and should be staunch opponents of the urban development that results from ever expanding tourism, just as the Farm Bureau is. But they are not. They have taken on the tourism industry as their savior. Some may truly feel that this is what they must do to survive, yet there are many wineries in the valley that have long survived with minimal or no tourism. The notion that only through wine pairings and events (and $20,000 castle tours!) will Napa wines maintain their respect and their prices in the world's wine markets needs to be proven - because the wine pairings and events are eroding the commitment of many to support the industry.
The vintners are claiming that this is not a winery problem, that traffic and affordable housing and water are problems that winery regulation won't solve. To be sure those problems won't be solved by winery regulation alone. But winery projects that encourage more tourism into the county, and result in more urban development to accommodate the visitors and tourism employees, cannot be shrugged off. The vintners should recognize that their embrace of tourism will only increase the traffic, housing and environmental problems, and that they should take actions where they can to regain the respect of the residents that have supported the industry in the past. The current APAC recommendations are an opportunity to do that.
At this point the APAC and Planning Commission recommendations are modest, and may have little effect on the proliferation of wineries that has raised public concern and led to the creation of the committee. Many projects, unregulated by the recommendations, are already approved or under review, and their tourists and the development they spawn will keep adding to current impacts for years to come. But these recommendations are a first step in recognizing that the current policies are not adequately protecting the character that makes Napa special and that new policies must be crafted if this place is to be recognizable 50 years from now. Please approve these recommendations, or better, strengthen them to be more effective in reducing the trajectory of urban development embodied in the current event center proliferation. Let us know that Napa County has an environment and a quality of life you feel is worth preserving.
Thank you for this opportunity to express my concerns.
Bill Hocker
3460 Soda Canyon Road
Napa
[this email was sent to the Board of Superfvisors prior to their Dec 8th, 2015 meeting to begin considering the APAC recommendations with Planning Commission additions]
12/7/15
Members of the Board of Supervisors,
Two years ago I found out that tourism was coming to the remote, rural paradise-on-earth that had been so important to me for the previous 20 years. I was terrified (I still am). Who was I, a nobody, to stand in the way of a government, an industry, an incredibly wealthy individual wanting to commercialize my backyard. Fortunately, I wasn't the first or only resident in the county beginning to confront an ever expanding tourism presence. Even more fortunately, the county government seemed to realize that the wave of development it had been promoting in previous years was creating impacts of concern to all. Enough concerns that we have spent the last year discussing them, as we will again tomorrow.
I owe my paradise to the wine industry. The success of the zoning laws and initiatives that Napans have enacted to enable the wine industry to survive have made the existence of an area as remote and rural as the Rector watershed possible. The voters, I feel, didn't approve these protections to promote the jobs and income the wine industry might provide. Santa Clara County, in pursuing the urban development typical of the rest of the Bay Area, has been much better at creating jobs and income for its citizens. In Napa it was understood that voting to protect the wine industry meant voting to protect a particular rural, small-town quality of life that the wine industry provided - a desirable livelihood in a desirable place to live. And until recently that compact has survived.
But it is now being stressed. The embrace of tourism as a revenue source by many vintners is beginning to impact us all. The commitment to maintain this as a desirable and beautiful place to live is being tarnished by traffic, the loss of neighborhoods and housing to short term rentals, the deforestation and defacement of the natural landscape with development (and billboards posing as art!), the conversion of vineyards into building projects and parking lots, the corporate consolidation of the many small wineries, the conversion of the iconic beauty of the Silverado Trail into a winery strip mall, and the flouting of use permits to bring in ever more tourists.
In their own self interest, the vintners should be protecting the rural resource they depend on and should be staunch opponents of the urban development that results from ever expanding tourism, just as the Farm Bureau is. But they are not. They have taken on the tourism industry as their savior. Some may truly feel that this is what they must do to survive, yet there are many wineries in the valley that have long survived with minimal or no tourism. The notion that only through wine pairings and events (and $20,000 castle tours!) will Napa wines maintain their respect and their prices in the world's wine markets needs to be proven - because the wine pairings and events are eroding the commitment of many to support the industry.
The vintners are claiming that this is not a winery problem, that traffic and affordable housing and water are problems that winery regulation won't solve. To be sure those problems won't be solved by winery regulation alone. But winery projects that encourage more tourism into the county, and result in more urban development to accommodate the visitors and tourism employees, cannot be shrugged off. The vintners should recognize that their embrace of tourism will only increase the traffic, housing and environmental problems, and that they should take actions where they can to regain the respect of the residents that have supported the industry in the past. The current APAC recommendations are an opportunity to do that.
At this point the APAC and Planning Commission recommendations are modest, and may have little effect on the proliferation of wineries that has raised public concern and led to the creation of the committee. Many projects, unregulated by the recommendations, are already approved or under review, and their tourists and the development they spawn will keep adding to current impacts for years to come. But these recommendations are a first step in recognizing that the current policies are not adequately protecting the character that makes Napa special and that new policies must be crafted if this place is to be recognizable 50 years from now. Please approve these recommendations, or better, strengthen them to be more effective in reducing the trajectory of urban development embodied in the current event center proliferation. Let us know that Napa County has an environment and a quality of life you feel is worth preserving.
Thank you for this opportunity to express my concerns.
Bill Hocker
3460 Soda Canyon Road
Napa