Michelle Benvenuto, Executive Director of Winegrowers of Napa County, talks about the challenges winegrowers are having this season and discusses the battle over expanding vineyards in Napa County.

Opening Bell

Battle Over Plans to Expand Vineyards in Napa County Has Residents Split 

here to discuss is Michelle Benvenuto, executive director of the winegrowers of napa county, Michelle, can you explain what is going on in napa valley and how wine country is kind of running out of room for vineyards. Um well thank you for having me and it's not exactly that we're running out of room but that the areas to plant are more challenging. The napa floor is pretty well planted out And Napa's regulations or existing regulations now limit where you can plant and you cannot plant on slopes over 30%, which is only about 18°. So finding areas that meet those requirements is becoming pretty slim. And when you look at the Greenbelt Alliance stated that Napa County has more than more than 444,000 acres of land under permanent or high levels of protection from development, that's almost 90% of Napa County. So obviously the areas that you can plant are becoming slimmer Later this month, the Napa County Board of Supervisors is Gonna vote on whether to clear the way for over 200 acres of hillside development. One of the pros and cons if this gets a yes vote. Well, the, it's a good point because the April 19 decision is really a very limited decision. The there's a large project that has been approved by Napa County and the courts have upheld that approval aside of just one area and that's greenhouse gas admissions and whether or not this project can mitigate greenhouse gas um admissions. I mean, the problem here is if the board of supervisors finds that you cannot mitigate greenhouse gas admissions, that would be a serious policy shift in Napa County and rather than promoting agriculture, it would strongly discourage agriculture. And when you consider that agricultural land On average produces 58 times fewer GHG admissions than an acre of urban use. Um It's it's a little hard to believe that we would say no to Ag and yes to other um land uses. I'm curious residents in the surrounding community, what are they saying about the proposal? Um you know, to offer more land for vineyards? You know, it's Napa County is an agricultural community. In 1968, we created the ag preserve and subsequent ballot measures reinforced the importance of maintaining agriculture as the highest and best use of the land. So any change to this must be voted on by the people. This was a voter initiative, It must be voter voted on back out by the people. Um the current discussion on whether or not vineyards can mitigate ghg admissions seems to be an end around because if you can't plant grapes, then what can you plant? I mean, the positive impact that the wine industry has on the community, the economics, you've already went, went through those, but it's apparent decision like this, of prohibiting Ag would be profound. I mean, in the short term maybe activists and people who are against vineyards would feel victorious, but again, if it's not going to be vineyard and agriculture, then what is the alternative? I mean, not only do people and private landowners need beneficial use of their property, but the state of California has housing requirements that napa has been able to negotiate to lower amounts due to the agricultural zoning. If you can't plant agriculture, then there has to be another option. You mentioned greenhouse gas and, and how, you know, critical that's going to be to the decision and outcome here. What exactly is being done to mitigate potential greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts in Napa County? Well, it's first off, the discussion isn't just about vineyards, it's about not moving forward. It's about um, having no growth whatsoever. It's not looking for a path that would allow agriculture and the environment to coexist. I feel like the wine industry and wine growers is, is part of this hasn't done a good job communicating that Only 9% of Napa Counties 560 acres is planet in vineyard. We haven't come close to the um, the number of acres that our general plan had predicted. We would be planting The amount of vineyard acreage in Napa County averages less than 1% growth a year. And talking about the environment, environmental impacts. We have some of the most rigorous regulations in the country. I mean, that's how we have actually managed to keep growth at less than 1% a year Because these measures address the environmental factors in our community. We have conservation regulations that have been enacted in 1991. They control erosion, they require setbacks from streams and habitat vegetation, um preservation. We have to keep 60% of tree canopy cover 40% of brush lands. In addition, any tree that's removed has to be um mitigated at a 2-1 ratio, sometimes a 3-1 ratio. So we are actually in county and napa county is the only county in California that requires planning of agriculture to um have a sequel a determination which is the California environmental quality act. Sorry, before I have to let you go here cause I'm kind of running out of time. I'm just curious is this battle over more over plans for more extensive hillside vineyards continues. What exactly do you want to see happen? I'd like to see um we find a way to collaborate. Um there's napa's napa's growers and vintners have had a long history of being stewards of the land. They are highly invested in sustainable future. This means we need to be environmentally aware, economically viable and we need to take care of the people in the community. So it's not about unlimited growth, it's about evolving and finding ways to collaborate to yield a win win result. I really appreciate your time, Michelle Benvenuto, executive director of Wine. Girls of napa County. Thank you again