Bill Hocker | May 2, 2014

[letter sent to Supervisors regarding the Woolls Ranch Project]

Re: Appeal of the November 6, 2013 Decision by the Napa County Planning Commission on
the Woolls Ranch Winery Use Permit No. P13-00187
Hearing Scheduled for May 20, 2014

Dear Supervisors:

I would respectfully request that you deny the Use Permit for the Woolls Ranch Winery to be located on Mt. Veeder Road. I do so for two reasons:

First, as is shown by the necessity of trucking water to the site and in the drying up of adjacent wells after water usage was increased on this site, the aquifer does not provide the .5 acre-ft per acre that the County assumes when granting a use permit. Water allowances approved by the County should have been based on actual water conditions determined by independent hydrologists before the use permit was approved rather than relying on an arbitrary and unsubstantiated number.

After years of essentially unregulated replacement of undeveloped watershed by vineyards which draw heavily on the aquifer, we are also entering a period of ever warmer weather which will drain the aquifer even more. If wells are already going dry and water must already be trucked then any proposed additional water usage should be denied and, in fact, developers should be required to come up with plans that reduce rather than increase current water consumption in their proposals.

To permit a winery with its increased water needs is irresponsible in such an area. To permit further water usage for the toilets and drinking water and dishwashers necessary to accomodate 22,000 tourists a year is an obscene use of the resources needed to maintain the agricultural health of the County. If water is in short supply it is incumbent upon the County to make sure that agricultural needs are met before any accessory uses are undertaken, and that means prohibiting those accessory uses.

Second, the argument, advanced at the Planning Commission hearing, that an aggressive tourism plan is necessary for the economic viability of the winery project since it is in such a remote location (or any location) is disturbing. If the project cannot be economically viable without tourism then the Ag Preserve is meaningless. The infrastructure of a tourism economy, for tasting rooms, and winery enlargements and hotels and restaurants and parking lots and upgraded roads all consume the land and water that the Ag Preserve was created to protect. If the county wishes an economy based on tourism, as a more profitable alternative to agriculture, then it should change its General Plan.

Over 1,000,000 gal/yr of winery capacity, 290,000 sf of new winery construction, and 250 winery parking spaces have been presented to the Planning Commission in the last year alone. New "marketing plans" with increased tasting, "wine pairings", "marketing events", on-site consumption and that holy of holies, wine auction participation, are being applied for by many wineries in the valley. All these permits will create pressure for more hotels, restaurants, and even more parking spaces.

Existing and permitted winery capacity in the County has probably already exceeding the ability of county grapegrowers to supply their 75% contribution. Watershed areas are reaching their limits for new vineyard development at the same time the County continues to permit new wineries and winery expansions every month to accommodate increased tourism. It is past time for the Supervisors to consider a moratorium on all winery construction and tourism marketing plans until someone has a chance to look at the cumulative effects that water depletion in a warming climate and that paving over vineyards for tourist attractions will have on the ability of the County to remain an agricultural economy. A good place to start the moratorium is with the tourist facility being planned for the water starved acres of Woolls Ranch.

Sincerely,

Bill Hocker,
Resident of Napa County at
3460 Soda Canyon Road
Napa, CA 94558

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