Geoff Ellsworth | Jan 5, 2015

Dear Napa County friends and coalition,

As you may know, recently Schramsberg/Davies Family Winery has received approval for a large scale Event Center Winery in St. Helena on Hwy 29. The project was passed with no EIR and very little review by the St. Helena Planning Commission and City Council. While it is a tenet of the Ag Preserve to have new development happen in the municipalities rather than the county, the proposed development still has to conform to the rules of the municipality. We believe this one does not. We'll be sending out a newsletter this week with more info on this.

We have made a court filing in hopes to have the case reviewed by the Napa Superior Court.

This is a project of a comparable scale to the proposed Yountville Hill project, hoping to serve over 55,000 visitors a year, with 8 tasting rooms and a 3400 sq/ft 3rd floor outdoor entertainment deck that enters and exits directly into a school zone with the High School right across the street and the primary school in close proximity.

As the applicants of Yountville Hill made the decision to do an EIR, we are trying to urge the Davies Family Winery applicants to do the same.

If you have time in the next few days to send a quick email I believe the voices of the public can help persuade these people to do the right thing by their community and volunteer for the EIR.

You could just send the following that I have written or something of your own with the above subject line. I have provided email addresses below.

ps I plan to be at BOS on Tues morn and Napa CC Tues eve., I hope we can get more and more involvement from the citizens of Napa City as they see how these Event Centers might impact them.

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We, your neighbors in Napa County request that Schramsberg/ Davies Family Winery make the leadership decision to volunteer your project in St. Helena to an EIR.
This will ensure the residents and citizens of the community to which you belong are protected.

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The email address I have for Schramsberg is info1@schramsberg.com

These are our City Council and Planning Commission members who could be CC'd

SH City Council-
gregp@cityofsthelena.org
pauld@cityofsthelena.org
sharon@terraceswine.com
alang@cityofsthelena.org
peterw@cityofsthelena.org

SH Planning Commission

sparker@cityofsthelena.org
matthewh@cityofsthelena.org
bobbimonnette@yahoo.com
gracek@cityofsthelena.org

Project advocate - St. Helena Chamber of Commerce
also could be CC'd
info@sthelena.com

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