Bill Hocker | Aug 25, 2015

NVR on #10: Ag protection committee proposes countywide growth summit
Agenda and Documents for APAC #10

In a flurry of activity the APAC wrapped up its deliberations.

Opening public comments

In opening public comments Harvest Duhig led off with the issue that the vintners introduced in the last meeting and that seemed to become the theme of this meeting - this is not a winery problem - APAC is picking on the good guys. Why no hotel or restaurant definition ordinance? Traffic and the housing imbalance are the problems that should be addressed by county and cities together.
Patricia Damery: Nothing about land stewardship in the definition of agriculture.
Les Behrens: wineries are the good guys.
Rob Mondavi: this county is about wine, other problems: St H doesn't allow housing. APAC proposals (by people without dust on their boots) represent a death hold on industry.
Alex Ryan: high end wine requires "experiences". This is not an ag county. This should be winegrowers committee not ag committee.
Christian Meieux: Other world wine regions have protected their vineyards. Napa needs to enforce rules.
Bill Keever: wineries not a problem, address traffic and housing problems, county seal needs a wine bottle.

Dunbar winery definition proposal CC

John Dunbar then presented his winery definition proposal. (My critique of the proposal is below)

Committee members responded.
Cio Perez: LEED (or Napa Green) req'ts should be the norm w/o bonus, water use analyzed for production use, visitation unlimited in proposal.
Charles Hossom: LEED bonus good, no need to restrict hours.
Deborah Dohmer: food pairings require commercial kitchen, fast track for small winery per county's "CEQA" definition of small winery.
Eve Kahn: LEED is about building efficiency not environment. What are "special" vs temp events?
Jeri GIll: LEED is just a plaque on the wall. Napa Green about existing winery operations. State building code equivalent to LEED, bonus not necessary.
Ted Hall: allowed sales should include other ag products besides wine.

And public comments.
Gary Margadant: must maintain LEED
Tom Falcon: Temp events should not be allowed, convention ctr at airport, vineyard visitation allowed without winery, no hold and haul
Harvest Duhig brought up another really substantial issue. The Dunbar proposal is only for those applications for new wineries submitted after 1/1/16. As such it will have a minimal impact on the protection of agriculture - half of applications for increased capacity and visitation are winery expansions. There probably will be a deluge of applications prior to the end of the year.
Ginna Beharry: 10% LEED incentive for what? - there are no base standards to increase.
Rob Mondavi: Limiting commercial kitchens scary, get cities involved in traffic and housing problems.

Committee comments:
John Dunbar revises proposal: Remove LEED bonus, include ag products other than wine, remove "special events" language, 20% combined coverage (not 25%).
Motion to adopt Dunbar proposal as amended.
Tony LeBlanc: corkscrews and hats are key to winery brand development.
John McDowell: Fast tract options: 1. ministerial approval: no public review 2. administrative approval: noticing and public hearing.
Jeri GIll: "CEQA" definition already exists - why a new one.
Cio Perez: fast track will require noticing and public hearing?
Charles Hossom: can't support small winery definition different than "CEQA" def
Deborah Dohmer: can't support
Tony Leblanc: specificity is the problem
Vote: 11y - 6n, fails supermajority

Pieces of the Dunbar Proposal

The Dunbar proposal is then offered up one piece at a time.

Motion to adopt Dunbar #1, 20% or 8 acre max development for all uses on property.
Debra Dommen: will create many non-conforming parcels
Vote: 13y - 4n, passes supermajority

Motion to adopt "CEQA" definition of small winery under zoning administrator approval with public notice and PC hearing.
Bruce Phillips: "CEQA" definition doesn't include visitation amount or hospitality area.
Vote: 15y-2n, passes supermajority

Motion to adopt Dunbar #6, no hold and haul allowed to apply to AW/AP only.
Tony LeBlanc: Temporary suspension in emergencies?
Sub-motion: Include temporary suspension provision
Vote: 17y, passes

Motion to adopt Dunbar #8, guidelines to apply only to new wineries only not to existing expansions. Applies only to applications after 1//1/16.
Cio Perez: should apply to existing expansions as well
Deborah Dohmer: reiterates does not apply to existing wineries.
Vote: 13y-4n, passes

Eve Kahn hospitality area proposal EE

Motion to adopt Eve Kahn proposal to include outdoor visitation area and type3 (public access) caves in hospitality area calculation of "winery development area" in applications after 1/1/16.
Vote 13y-5n passes supermajority

APAC final recommendations draft

Next a discussion about the draft of the APAC recommendations that are to be submitted to the Planning Commission (beginning at the bottom of page 6 here)
These recommendations are to be reviewed by an executative committee of Eve Kahn, Jeri Gill, Ted Hall, John Dunbar, and Tony LeBlanc and then returned to the full committee for approval.

Committee comments
Eve Kahn: No committee discussion to support conclusions in Items F. and G. in draft
Cio Perez: same re: item G
Deborah Dohmer: no agreement on grid for items A, F, G, H, K
John Dunbar: language of draft not inaccurate but doesn't represent actual votes.
Dir. Morrison: thought grid based on parcel size was accepted
Bruce Phillips, Cio Perez: grid voted down at last meeting

Motion to accept grid (but not contents) on new wineries after 1/1/16.
Vote: 17y passed

NVV compliance and big picture proposal AA

Peter McCrea then presented the NVV proposal AA

Public comments
Bill Keever: address traffic and housing problem
Jeniffer Putnum of grapegrowers: supports one-community proposal
Michelle Benvenuto: what she said
Unknown Name: penalties for non-compliance
Harvest Duhig: traffic and housing problems are the crux of why we are here.
Kelly Anderson: correct zoning in GP in Angwin, enforce current regs
Les Behrens: Napa has an infrastructure problem

Committee comments
Motion to accept NVV proposal AA
Cio Perez: in Proposal item #1 add "hospitality and marketing subordinate to ag processing"
David Graves: "Right to farm" does not equal GP definition of agriculture,does not include marketing. (see discussion here)
Sub-motion to accept proposal less item #1
Vote: 9y-7n, fails supermajority
Vote on orig motion: 12y-4n, passes supermajority

Thanks all around and adjournment.

The wrap up

What of the recommendations approved today?

Good: combined development area for all uses. hold and haul prohibited. hospitality area to include outdoor and caves. grid idea accepted (modest gain).
Bad: "CEQA" definition has excessive visitation/marketing limits - 4500 parcels can now be more easily developed into mini event centers. guidelines only apply to new wineries, not retroactive. agriculture still = marketing.

The truth is that 4 months of APAC has really done little to stop the proliferation of wineries in ag zones, and has in fact made the development of small parcels easier. The wine industry has promised to obey their use permits - I guess that counts as a significant change. Beyond that they have allowed things to be a tiny bit more difficult for their future competitors after insuring that they would not be touched.

Several people in the winery business seemed to have a coordinated message at this meeting: stop persecuting the wine industry - the real problems in the county are traffic and affordable housing. A "growth summit" involving the cities and the county is needed to address these problems. The big picture is not a wine industry problem.

A growth summit IS something that the anti-growth side has sought from the beginning, in the same way that we sought a committee devoted to tourism proliferation at wineries. Such a summit was proposed at the Mar. 10th joint BOS/PC meeting. After seeing the trajectory of the APAC meetings it is obvious that the concerns around "growth" have vastly different meanings for the two sides. The APAC recommendations have yet to be parsed, but by any standards little was recommended to curtail the proliferation of winery tourism development taking place in the county. Tourism is the county's growth industry, and the tip of the effort to lure tourists into the county is the use of wineries as tourist venues. Yet most references to tourism ('hospitality', 'visitation', and 'marketing' in industry jargon) were stripped from any proposals accepted. Indeed tourism was the elephant in the room throughout the process and was rarely mentioned. Only the acceptance of Eve Kahn's last minute proposal to include outdoor spaces and caves in the calculation of visitation area for new wineries after 1/1/16, might be seen as a small victory.

The lesson from APAC is, not surprisingly, that an industry that profits from increased tourism development is still not about to curtail that development to preserve the rural character of the county that is the major tourist draw. As with global warming the consequences of our actions are still bearable. The strategy now seems to be to "mitigate" the traffic impacts to the point that the bulk of the citizenry, enraged by traffic congestion, will be placated and that the tourists will not be so put off that they stop coming. If the traffic problems can be addressed, the neighbor complaints about event centers being built next door can go on being ignored. The tools of that mitigation? A revision to the transportation element of the general plan that will somehow make traffic more tolerable (more lanes, more traffic lights?) and building more affordable housing for all those low wage workers now commuting to the tourist venues and tourism service industries. It is the development industry's answer to development impacts: more development. As if new development had no impacts of its own.

There probably will be a "growth summit" now that the wine industry is firmly on board, but it now seems much less likely that it will be about curtailing growth and more about making growth palatable.

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