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APAC #8 Report
APAC #8 Report
Bill Hocker | Jul 28, 2015 on: APAC
NVR: Committee supports compliance checks of all wineries
APAC #8 agenda letter
APAC #8 documents
Compliance
In the second unanimous vote made by this Committee, Director Morrison's Proposal Z was approved. The authors of 2 other compliance proposals, John Dunbar and Peter McCrea, backed off their proposals in favor of Proposal Z setting the stage for the unanimous vote. The one significant difference between John Dunbar's Proposl W (page 7 here) was his itemization of the numbers to be reported which covered production, sourcing visitation, marketing numbers and description of products, rental activity and food preparation. Proposal Z lumps all these specifics into a generic bullet point: "The principal officer of each winery shall sign a document certifying the amount of wine produced, compliance with the 75% rule, as applicable, and compliance with all conditions of approval" (my bolding). And then in a further bullet point notes that: "A more in-depth compliance review will be held if the winery is exceeding their annual production limit, or is in violation of the 75% rule. In-depth compliance reviews will also be held to investigate complaints received from the public".
Cio Perez and Bruce Phillips lobbied for adding something like ", visitation and marketing conditions" after "...75% rule" in the second bullet point. But is was rejected on the grounds that "compliance with all conditions of approval" covers it. It doesn't really cover it. The second bullet point instead creates two separate monitoring processes for compliance: The county will monitor wine production. Visitation and marketing must be monitored by neighbors. (Time to set up a vigilante committee.)
Dan Mufson tried to introduce a motion concerning compliance with the "food at cost" provision of the WDO, which again gets at the heart of increased winery profits and a cause of winery proliferation. Again it was defeated with the "all conditions of approval" defense.
In fact, proposal Z specifically writes off visitation and marketing as an area of enforcement by stating that "Visitation is particularly problematic. Wineries generally maintain log books or other means of counting visitors, but the log books cannot be verified for their accuracy. To be credible and to allow for successful prosecution of violations, standards must be defined and quantifiable."
This reinforces the notion that this committee is continuing to deal with issues, like parcel size, variances, and production compliance that are incidental to the real reasons that have led to community discontent and to the creation of this committee: to protect the county's agricultural character and substance from the impacts that continued tourism development in the vineyards is having and will continue to have in the future. [Mike Hackett's rant on this point earlier in the meeting is here.]
Variences
The variance discussion started out based on David Morrison's Proposal Z which has specific percentage deviations from the 600' and 300' foot road setbacks allowed in the WDO in varying amounts depending on location and property size. The committee came to a consensus that the approach was too number oriented and instead unanimously approved a statement to the effect that "Variances are not a principal tool to achieve compliance in land use development applications. If variances are considered, evidence must be present to meet all findings present." I can't see how this differs from the status quo. A third unanimous vote.
Two meetings left
The Proposal X matrix will be the topic of discussion at the next meeting, Aug. 10th. with preparation of final report to be handled at the last meeting after that. Eve Kahn, just before Chair Hall could adjourn, brought up the "defintion of agriculture" issue. Oh that, Mr. Hall seemed to say. Well perhaps in the 2nd half of next week's meeting or else in the last meeting when the report must be finalized. If there's time. Committee may submit definitions.
NVR: Committee supports compliance checks of all wineries
APAC #8 agenda letter
APAC #8 documents
Compliance
In the second unanimous vote made by this Committee, Director Morrison's Proposal Z was approved. The authors of 2 other compliance proposals, John Dunbar and Peter McCrea, backed off their proposals in favor of Proposal Z setting the stage for the unanimous vote. The one significant difference between John Dunbar's Proposl W (page 7 here) was his itemization of the numbers to be reported which covered production, sourcing visitation, marketing numbers and description of products, rental activity and food preparation. Proposal Z lumps all these specifics into a generic bullet point: "The principal officer of each winery shall sign a document certifying the amount of wine produced, compliance with the 75% rule, as applicable, and compliance with all conditions of approval" (my bolding). And then in a further bullet point notes that: "A more in-depth compliance review will be held if the winery is exceeding their annual production limit, or is in violation of the 75% rule. In-depth compliance reviews will also be held to investigate complaints received from the public".
Cio Perez and Bruce Phillips lobbied for adding something like ", visitation and marketing conditions" after "...75% rule" in the second bullet point. But is was rejected on the grounds that "compliance with all conditions of approval" covers it. It doesn't really cover it. The second bullet point instead creates two separate monitoring processes for compliance: The county will monitor wine production. Visitation and marketing must be monitored by neighbors. (Time to set up a vigilante committee.)
Dan Mufson tried to introduce a motion concerning compliance with the "food at cost" provision of the WDO, which again gets at the heart of increased winery profits and a cause of winery proliferation. Again it was defeated with the "all conditions of approval" defense.
In fact, proposal Z specifically writes off visitation and marketing as an area of enforcement by stating that "Visitation is particularly problematic. Wineries generally maintain log books or other means of counting visitors, but the log books cannot be verified for their accuracy. To be credible and to allow for successful prosecution of violations, standards must be defined and quantifiable."
This reinforces the notion that this committee is continuing to deal with issues, like parcel size, variances, and production compliance that are incidental to the real reasons that have led to community discontent and to the creation of this committee: to protect the county's agricultural character and substance from the impacts that continued tourism development in the vineyards is having and will continue to have in the future. [Mike Hackett's rant on this point earlier in the meeting is here.]
Variences
The variance discussion started out based on David Morrison's Proposal Z which has specific percentage deviations from the 600' and 300' foot road setbacks allowed in the WDO in varying amounts depending on location and property size. The committee came to a consensus that the approach was too number oriented and instead unanimously approved a statement to the effect that "Variances are not a principal tool to achieve compliance in land use development applications. If variances are considered, evidence must be present to meet all findings present." I can't see how this differs from the status quo. A third unanimous vote.
Two meetings left
The Proposal X matrix will be the topic of discussion at the next meeting, Aug. 10th. with preparation of final report to be handled at the last meeting after that. Eve Kahn, just before Chair Hall could adjourn, brought up the "defintion of agriculture" issue. Oh that, Mr. Hall seemed to say. Well perhaps in the 2nd half of next week's meeting or else in the last meeting when the report must be finalized. If there's time. Committee may submit definitions.