What a sad day it was.....Tuesday, June 9th ! The Board of Supervisors chose to vote in favor of special interest and developers and ignore the pleas of the residents who demand an EIR (environmental impact report) on the project for the Best Family Investors LLC .
People came to the hearing prepared to inform the Board of Supervisors that changes to the Mitigated Negative Declaration require the project be moved to a date when the public has been notified of the hearing with sufficient notice to speak to the new changes. Each member of the public wishing to address this project was allowed ONE MINUTE to speak to the issues in the Draft Resolution only, a documents delivered to the public via counsel at 4:20pm on Friday afternoon !
The Board of Supervisors ignored ,on Staff's recommendation, the expert opinion of Dr. Robert Curry, a well respected professional and a registered Hydrologist and Geologist. His supplemental report reads as follows:
"The footprints of the delineated wetland and its required setbacks as well as that for the water supply well, together with the proposed 38,000 square feet of winery buildings and 42 parking spaces on this small parcel do not allow for future redesign of an inadequate septic system. The design must be proven effective in advance of your approval of rezoning."
The Planning Commission at the initial hearing on October 2009, by their own admission, stated that the system the applicant was planning had a high failure rate.....But, one said, "I'm sure it will be allright".
The Best Family Investors LLC presented this project as an example of water conservation. They proposed the use of the infamous 3oz toilets which Mr. Tom Lynch, 5th District Planning Commissioner, boasted about in a newspaper article. These toilets, it appear, are not permissible in Sonoma County. In addition, the investors presented a water capturing system of cisterns and stated they would use the captured water to clean the wine barrels, wash the interior of the crush facility, etc. Well, it appears they never had a system in place to make this water potable. It also appears such a system is not permissible in Sonoma County ! The Applicant's representation of water use was misleading. So, all the water savings down the drain, no pun intended, and the Board of Supervisors doesn't think it's necessary to require a new Water Balance Report to calculate the new well water use of this project and the impact it will have on the area? That's right !
The public submitted expert opinion suggested "drawdown from the private parcel well and the winery well could be expected to coincide and temporarily reduce the water tables at the pumps on both wells. .....This would reduce somewhat the water available to each well and may draw leachfield effluents into the local groundwater" !!!!!! That's potential contamination of local groundwater.
Expert opinion was overriden by County Planner with her own mitigation. Last time the public checked, County Planner was not a registered hydrologist or geologist, qualified to contest the opinion of an expert.
Well....that doesn't appear to matter. The Board of Supervisors let it go.
So many things wrong with this project. So, why is the Board of Supervisors voting for it? It appears this Board is in favor of special interests and not the environment. The cummulative effect of this, along with all the other winery projects in line for approval, could be our own GULF DISASTER in the making ! The Board is selling us down the river in favor of fattening the county coffers and special interest.
Wake up residents of West Sonoma County. Who speaks for us if we don't speak up for ourselves?
Please support Concerned Citizens for Responsible Land Use. With your support we can continue to speak up against this injustice. For more information and to pledge your support write
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Let's keep West Sonoma County beautiful, clean and healthy for ourselves, our children and our children's children.