THE NAPAFICATION OF SONOMA...

Please act on this now

DAIRYMAN WINERY & EVENT CENTER

THE PROJECT: JJW Real Estate agents for Joseph Wagner of Rutherford, Ca. has requested a use permit for a huge winery and distillery at 5150 Sebastopol Road (HWY 12) Santa Rosa. The projects includes:

ð    Production of 500,000 cases of wine

ð    Production of 250,000 gallons of distilled spirits

ð    64 yearly events with up to 600 attendees.

ð    Events to run until 10pm

ð    87,000 square foot of production and office areas

ð    Public tours and tastings 7 days a week, open 10-5 pm for retail sales

STATUS: Sebastopol’s City Council unanimously voted against this project at their February 3 meeting, but they do not have authority to stop this. The Permit Resource and Management Department (PRMD) of the County are now reviewing the application. Traci Tesconi is the Planner assigned.

TRAFFIC, GREENHOUSE GASES AND SAFETY CONCERNS:Dairyman proposes to produce 1,500,000 gallons of wine and distilled spirits; their 40 acres of grapes will only yield 15,000 gallons of grape juice, thus they will be trucking in 99% of their raw materials.  This will result in tremendous greenhouse gas emissions and traffic hazards on Highway 12 and the Joe Rodota Trail.  Trips for raw and finished product, employees and weekly events will total approximately 33,866 trips along Highway 12 and across the Rodota Trail. Think of the greenhouse gas emissions, the wear and tear of the county’s highway, the intrusion over the Rodota Trail; a disastrous safety hazard for bicyclists and walkers.

WATER USAGE/DROUGHT CONCERNS: We are in a drought with no foreseeable end in sight.  30 gallons of water are needed to produce ONE GLASS OF WINE! The Dairyman application grossly underestimates water usage for this massive production/event facility. The public’s access to water to drink, wash and grow food should trump any arguments about tax revenues or jobs.  Overbuilt Napa County has to truck in water and truck out wastewater for their wineries. Are we next?

LAGUNA de SANTA ROSA. The Laguna is the county’s richest area of wildlife habitat, and the second largest freshwater wetland in coastal Northern California. It is the most biologically diverse. It drains a 254-square-mile watershed encompassing nearly the entire Santa Rosa Plain. It is an important stopover on the Pacific Flyway and home to a wide variety of wildlife of more than 200 species of birds and endangered salmon, steelhead, salamanders and plants, mountain lion, bobcat, coyote, mink, badger, and river otter.

This industrial factory/event center would have a dramatically destructive impact on this sensitive, vital environmental region.  The lighting and noise generated by nighttime events threaten a disastrous impact on local wildlife, including the migratory birds of the Pacific Flyway.

COMMUNITY SEPARATOR: Such an industrial development in a community separator violates the intent of the greenbelt surround for urbanized areas. This converts Ag zoning into industrial bottling and distillery use rather than Ag.

"Follow the progress of the Dairyman project                   and the fight against it on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/preserveruralsonomacounty 

Take action now. Write to members of the Board of Supervisors, and Sonoma County PRMD Planner Traci Tesconi.

David.Rabbitt@sonoma-county.org                                   Susan.Gorin@sonoma-county.org                   Shirlee.Zane@sonoma-county.org                    James.Gore@sonom-county.org                  Efren.Carillo@sonoma-county.org                 Shirlee.Zane@sonoma-county.org

Planning Dept. traci.tesconi@sonoma-county.org.

Daily Press Democrat editorial page editors:paul.gullixson@pressdemocrat.com,

Sweeney@pressdemocrat.com.

Weekly Sonoma West editor David Abbott: news@sonomawest.com.

Weekly North Bay Bohemian editor Stett Holbrook:editor@bohemian.com

Monthly Sonoma County Gazette editor Vesta Copestakes:vesta@sonic.net.

Monthly Russian River Times: Johanna Lynch rrtimes@sonic.net. 

Thank you.