Much
advocacy has gone into an Amador future of agri-tourism and wine tasting.
Promotion has included public money being spent via the Amador Council of
Tourism. The success of this part of our economy has pleased most everyone. But
the Shenandoah Valley and related area's boom has turned into a bust with
nighttime noise and too much traffic for the quaint roadways. The Planning
Commission has grabbled with expansion plans on a case by case basis to
minimize impacts without a seemingly overall conception or direction.
This
diffuse approach has led to the inevitable. An application for a small winery
tasting room on Ostrom Road was turned down cold. Was door was slammed shut?
Other ventures probably felt the chill. I certainly did, because it felt like
the restrictive circumstances that led the ancestors of many of us from Europe
to America. If we kill our entrepreneurial spirit, we have turned our future into
something other than the existing and self-sustaining America.
The
applicant’s presentation to the Planning Commission contained a 32-page
Environmental Negative Declaration from our Planning Department. US Fish &
Wildlife contributed an additional nine pages. Another 32 pages contained staff
reports from other related agencies, public comment and other documents. Every
move is under review. As I read these 73 pages, all I could think of was how
many bureaucrats (or tax dollars) it takes to screw in a light bulb.
Along
with this stifling process, those who most wanted agri-tourism prosperity are
now among those preventing this new wine tasting venture. What did they think
would happen? Aside from the obvious
possibility of failure, did they think that some sort of fantasy perfect would result?
Success breeds success until the market becomes over-saturated. The cure for
high prices is high prices say the commodity traders, just as they say the cure
for low prices is low prices (production is either reduced or expanded). How long will this wine boom continue? Are
the wine tasters' twenty-somethings beginning a life time habit or middle aged
people about to fade away?
But
presently, supply is being denied due to external factors. Presumably road
improvements could be made without sacrificing the area’s charming qualities.
Assuming no new taxes and uneconomic increases in traffic mitigation fees
(which the proposed facility did pay), there appears to be three sources of road
funding. The first would be cleaning up the corruption and waste at CalTrans.
But we lack the courage and leadership to de-fang that imperial behemoth. The
second, getting rid of the bicycle/pedestrian set aside, would yield a very
small but useful amount of funding. However, that is politically impossible in
green California. The third possibility would be increased County tax revenue, but
the project denial is the opposite of this.
How much revenue has the County lost due to the delays of the Newman
Ridge project? How much public money has AWA wasted fighting lawsuits?
While
the three road funding suggestions above are all feasible, none are likely.
Katherine Evatt of the Foothill Conservancy has suggested doing a specific
plan for this area. While that is procedurally correct, why is more government
always the answer? Aren’t the noise problems sufficiently abated through the
existing regulation? Does the Planning Department have the staff for a specific
plan or do we hire a consultant? Who pays for that? And how long will the
process take including hearings, reviews and possible law suits in relationship
to the problem just dissipating? But a plan’s worst outcome could be picking
and choosing winners or losers rather than have the proprietor’s drive and hard
work determine their success.
While
I have no magic answers to all the valid complaints of area residents, denying
this new facility and the dreams of its instigators is far worse than the
alleged problems this tasting room winery could create. The denial will be
appealed to the Board of Supervisors this coming Tuesday morning, 9/13. Be
there and voice your support for entrepreneurship, freedom and prosperity.
Copyright
2016, Mark L. Bennett
