The Laguna Foundation of Santa Rosa Foundation executive director David Bannister has an excellent Close to Home in today's Press Democrat entitled "Can't Afford to Ignore Wetlands." He puts the issue of the current Winery proposal in a larger perspective.
Also, following is his letter regarding the Dairyman Winery proposed for Highway 12. The Press Democrat may have an article on the Winery in tomorrow's paper, which should soon be online. Please consider sending letters to the editor.
I was back at the 5150 Hiway 12 site again today. Even though we have not had much rain in the last month,
there are plenty of pools of water at the front of the site. Please consider going. Since I do not have a camera or smart phone, please consider taking some photos and sending them out. They could be useful at the Seb. City Council meeting tomorrow evening.
Feb. 2, 2015
Subject: Dairyman Winery, 5150 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa, CA
To: All Concerned
From: David Bannister, Executive Director, Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation
I am writing today to express concern about the proposed development at 5150 Sebastopol Road. We have a number of questions and concerns about the environmental impacts of the proposed project:
- The property is in a community separator zone between Sebastopol and Santa Rosa.
- The project is an industrial use that we think is inappropriate in the community separator.
- Zoning overlays on the property include “floodplain, scenic resource and valley oak habitat districts.” How is the proposed use consistent with these overlays and how will those resources be protected?
- This large wine and spirits production facility will use huge amounts of water. How much water? The application doesn’t say but a bit of research indicates that it could be in the hundreds of millions of gallons per year. The application indicates that this water will be provided by a domestic well, except for irrigation water which will be treated wastewater from the City of Santa Rosa. It seems unlikely that a “domestic well” could supply the needed water for the production and office facilities, and if that much groundwater is removed, the impact on Laguna flows could be significant. Gravenstein Creek, which is a Laguna tributary and appears to flow thru the property could also be heavily impacted.
- The project proposes to treat and dispose of wastewater generated on site. We question the feasibility of this proposal given the amounts of wastewater created.
The best way to gather information to address these concerns is to conduct an Environmental Impact Report under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Act exists specifically to study the impacts of projects like this and to determine whether those impacts should be (or can be) mitigated. These questions and many more (traffic, noise, Rodota Trail impact, etc.) can be and should be answered before the project is allowed to proceed. This is why CEQA was created by the California Legislature. A Negative Declaration on a project of this size and with so many questions is simply inappropriate.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this proposed project.
Sincerely,
David Bannister
Executive Director, Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation