| May 28, 2015

I’m here today speaking with you today as a result of work over nearly ten years protecting one of our most valuable watersheds, that is the headwaters for both Moore Creek and Conn Creek which feed Napa’s water supply from Lake Hennessey.

Over the last year I could sense the growing wider concern throughout the County, and with Volker’s passing, it became mandatory that we all step up and take action. In a perfect world, I’d take the opportunity to talk with each of you personally, but we don’t have the time….thus I take this chance to speak to all of you at once.

Therefore just a bit about my history: I grew up in small dairy farm/lumber community in Washington. Only reason I mention it is because literally in my back yard was the open forest to play in as a kid. After college I flew for the Navy during VietNam and I was turned into an idealist. I got an airline job in mid seventies and chose to live in Napa because it was rural, beautiful and green! I had a Christmas tree farm in Browns Valley 20 years and raised my kids there. I retired 10 years ago and moved up to Angwin to get away from the crowded city of Napa.

I bring this up to point out that I do NOT have a dog in this fight. I don’t own a winery, don’t run a restaraunt, don’t work in the wine industry, etc. I have the purest of reasons, that is the preservation of what I cherish here. I have altruistic reasons only.

We sense traffic problems, crowds, intrusions into our watersheds, winery/event centers exposing rural homes to noise and traffic pollution, wineries turned into event centers and most troubling: compliance problems. In last few weeks: Melka, across from Titus, Caves at Soda Canyon, Markham, Bell, etc. with Reverie coming, Yountville Hill, Wools Ranch, etc.

Many of these problems are a result of errors in judgement. Including language in the GP that includes the marketing and production of wine as ag, loosening of the WDO to include food events, the attitude of the previous Planning Director, the ever-improving economy which puts increasing pressure on this County for expansion of new wineries. It’s a natural aspiration to own Napa Valley vineyard and build a winery, especially now with the new marketing schemes.

WE ARE IMPORTING APPROX 25,000.000 GALLONS OF JUICE EACH YEAR WHICH MEANS WE PRODUCE TWICE THE AMOUNT OF WINE THAN GRAPES WE GROW.
As Mark Luce said at the Mar 10th meeting:

"The justification ... for putting yet another new winery into our ag resource area is much thinner than it has ever been in the past. And I think that we are really faced with a question of why should this be allowed to continue. And what does this mean for the next 25 years?"

1. Yes on 40 acre minimum with 90% grown on parcel
2. Weekend traffic is tourism - no new industrial processing
3. Weekday-stagger workers schedules and mandate marketing/sales into the cities
4. Protect our watersheds at all costs with restrictive regulations
5. Put some teeth in compliance and increase oversight including fines

JFK said “Ask not what your Country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” We should all be asking this same about our County, “ask not what this County can do for you, but what you can do for this County.”

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