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  1. TopTop #1
    Shepherd's Avatar
    Shepherd
     

    Laguna de Santa Rosa in the media

    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
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  3. TopTop #2
    Shepherd's Avatar
    Shepherd
     

    Re: Laguna de Santa Rosa in the media

    Following is a link to a PD article with encouraging news from the North County. On Jan, 22, 2015, the SoCo Board of Sups turned down a winery proposal by celebrity chef Guy Fieri by a 5-0 vote. 150 people showed up for the hearing, most of them against the winery. That was to be a small winery with only 10,000 cases a year, rather than the 500,000 proposed by Dairyman plus distilled spirits.

    https://www.pressdemocrat.com/home/3...turns-down-guy

    Following is an email from Carol Vellutini about that victory:

    Hi All,
    I belong to the Westside Community Association. I also belong to the Grange. We just partnered with the valley of the Moon Association and the Willowside Group to win a fight over Guy Fieri’s proposed winery, restaurant project. Again wrong, place etc. Our group has battled winery projects for at least 10 years and it is time consuming and tiring. We have asked the supervisors for county guidelines. Weddings are not agriculture. Concerts venues are not agriculture. Good luck with your fight. The key is networking and I am happy to read that you did have many groups represented.

    Carol Vellutini- Mt. Jackson Watershed Protection Group
    610 Willrush St.
    Santa Rosa, Ca 95401

    707-546-6308, [email protected]

    We can defeat the Dairyman proposal. We just need to show up and engage in persuasive speech.
    Last edited by Shepherd; 02-02-2015 at 06:13 PM. Reason: change "Sonoma Valley" in 1st paragraph to "North County"
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  5. TopTop #3
    Shepherd's Avatar
    Shepherd
     

    Re: Laguna de Santa Rosa in the media

    Dear Sonoma County-loving friends,
    I hope that you will join us this evening at the Sebastopol City Council meeting at the Youth Annex, 425 Morris which starts at 6 p.m.

    I am preparing my testimony for this evening. I just read today's Press Democrat article on the Dairyman Winery and Distillery. Following are rough notes toward my 3-minute presentation, which I will later revise and send out further. I send it to you with the request that you provide me feedback on how to improve it by a direct reply to 3sb@comcast, rather than clog up Wacco. What might you change, add, or delete? If you make changes within the text, be sure to identify where you have made those changes, rather than merely making them, since it can be hard to follow. Please feel free to send this draft to others who might be wiling to comment on it.
    Thanks for any help,
    Shepherd


    Rough Draft: Open Letter to proposed Dairyman
    Winery & Distillery applicant Joe Wagner
    Feedback appreciated: to [email protected]

    Dear Joe Wagner,
    I read with interest your comments in today’s Press Democrat. You are quoted as someday inviting “people out there to let them see.” I accept. When?

    I am available seven days a week, starting at sun-up, which is when we Sunrise Walkers traverse the majestic, mystical Laguna Trail across that high-speed highway from your place. When we meet, I will offer you my hand in hope that we can come to some agreements. I would like the opportunity to walk the land there and talk with about it and the project.

    You say that you want “to improve and upgrade the site.” I learned from my Iowa farming family that we mere mortals cannot improve on nature’s divine work. So I try to farm with nature rather than against it. Your industrial alcohol-producing factory would downgrade and worsen this vulnerable, venerable, pastoral land, in my opinion.

    It is not clear to me that the project would be “bettering the property.” That land is more than a mere commodity. It is home for endangered tiger salamanders and all kinds of critters, mainly invisible to human eyes. They fly, stay rooted, walk, crawl, dance with the wind, swim, and jump with excitement in what some consider merely property, which provides their homes. The project would be building over the perished habitat and dead bodies of many life forms. This is not a good way to spend one’s limited time on the Earth, in my opinion, and does not leave a good legacy for the Wagner family.

    By the way, both of your names—Joe and Wagner—are family names for me. I have a nephew named Joe Bliss and my sister Christine Bliss married Denny Wagner; they gifted us with two more Wagners. We come from the military family that gave its name to Ft. Bliss, Texas, so we don’t mind a good, fair fight. My brother Barry is Marine and I did my best to be an officer and a gentleman in the Army.

    In an eagerness to build on this pastoral setting, perhaps sufficient attention has not yet been give to some important details, such as the following:

    1. A few thousand fast-moving vehicles go down Highway 12 past this place every day. That number would be multiplied by this project, which would have all kinds of unintended consequences, such as snarling traffic. This would make it hard for emergency vehicles to reach their victims and get them to help, especially without an open hospital in Sebastopol, which you may have heard from your residence in Napa that we no longer have.

    2. The drought already consumes our precious life-giving water. According to the Sacramento Bee, one glass of wine requires 29 gallons of water to produce.

    3. This current application asks the thousands of walkers, cyclists, and pets who traverse the Joe Radota Trail every day “to yield” to the vehicles. This is an accident-producing demand. The winery would be responsible for the crashes and possible deaths for some tipsy drivers coming from tastings onto a fast-moving highway.

    By the way, I do enjoy wine, but as a food farmer I cannot afford the $300 a bottle of wine barons such as Paul Hobbs. Groups such as the Watertrough Children’s Alliance and our Apple Roots group kept a careful eye on him. We turned him in for violations. Though the mere $100,000 fine that he agreed to pay is only “the cost of doing business” to such a baron, it was a victory for the people.

    Then there is what happened to celebrity chef Guy Fieri. His proposal for a winery in North County that would produce only 10,000 cases a year was tiny compared to this application for 500,000 cases of wine and 200,000 cases of distilled spirits. The county staff approved the project, as they tend to do with tax-generating applications. The Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 against it last month, after 150 residents showed up at the hearing, most of them against it. Blessings to all the Supervisors and those who showed up.

    The Jan. 22 Press Democrat accurately reports that the “county has experienced pronounced backlash against wineries that double as event centers.” In my opinion, this proposal gives the wine industry yet another sore eye. Moderation would be a good idea in this case, as in others.

    Last year the zoning board took unprecedented action against Bella Vineyards. They halted all events at wine cave tastings at that popular Healdsburg winery.

    We’re keeping an eye on this project, and many of us love animals, plants, and like to consume water. Our challenge is based on that love, which can come in tough, protective forms.

    I appeal for the withdrawal of the current application, which many have already expressed their opposition to in the less than a week since we first heard about it. Read the writing on the wall.

    At the beginning of this 21st century the wine industry proposed spraying our lands with pesticides, without our permission, in fear that the glassy-winged sharpshooter pest would hurt their precious grapes. We formed the No Spray Action Network. After dogging the wine industry, we sat down at the table with the grape growers and came up with an agreement that they would not spray our lands. This would have ended the livelihood of organic farmers, as well as done damage to the homes, critters, habitat, and lands of all sprayed victims, especially children and elders.

    At least consider the money that would be lost as we continue to dog this application. Otherwise, we will be relentless in our challenges to this proposal. I hope that when we come for the visit that my leashed farm dog, a Catahoula leopard hound, would also be welcome. She can be fierce to predators, as well as sweet and protective with those who express love toward her. J

    I await your response,
    Shepherd Bliss, Apple Roots Group, [email protected]
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