The City’s Foster Road Mixed Use (FRMU) Plan represents the largest, riskiest and most expensive development in the history of Napa - a new city within the City of Napa.
KNGG feels a renewed urgency to address the May 21, 2024 Board of Supervisors meeting
The gateway to Napa Valley, designated as Prime Agricultural by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), represents the foundation of Napa Valley's agricultural excellence and stature. The re-zoning decision, approved in just 10 minutes at the BoS meeting, endangers the very soil that has made Napa an emblem of world-class viticulture and sustainable farming.
We must share our profound concerns with you, our steadfast supporters, and we ask for your patience and effort in staying with us while this document slogs through all of the complexities, twists and turns of the past week or so.
Highlights include:
DISPENSING OF REGULATORY REVIEWS: Foster Road’s designation as Prime Agriculture Land by LAFCO requires that any development proposal on such land must navigate a complex regulatory landscape and address multiple layers of environmental, legal and policy considerations. This LAFCO designation of Prime Agricultural Land was quickly dismissed and deemed irrelevant by the County.
MISLEADING NARRATIVES: During the BoS meeting, the Napa County Planning Commission’s representative seemingly gave an inaccurate presentation of H4d and H2 as State of California legal mandates requiring by-right development. Apparently State law does not require by-right development of the Foster Road site. The County’s inclusion of by-right development could lead to significant, possibly unnecessary and irreversible, changes without any due diligence or environmental consideration.
“CHANGING ZONING AT ALL COSTS”: The County’s consultant, Gen Housing, presented the need for housing in Napa - a need which is unquestionable and doable. Unfortunately, they neglected to address the crucial balance between smart growth development, environmental preservation, and climate resilience concerning the Foster Road site. Their 'changing zoning at all costs' approach blatantly disregards smart growth directives of urban infill and threatens an icon of our Agricultural and Cultural Heritages and mainstay economic drivers such as Agro-Tourism.
MISGUIDED PUBLIC POLICY DECISIONS: There is a real danger that the BoS may have made decisions based on inaccurate information resulting in potentially misguided public policy decisions and possibly undermining public trust.
UNNECESSARY AND SHORTSIGHTED: What makes this re-zoning decision even more perplexing is that it is entirely unnecessary. There are viable existing alternatives to accommodate Napa’s housing needs without exploiting these prime agricultural lands. Sites like Napa Pipe (currently in development and under capacity) offer ample opportunity for fully vetted development without sacrificing the region's agricultural heritage.
A LONG PLANNED STRATEGY: The decision to re-zone from agricultural watershed to high-density residential mixed-use appears to be the culmination of years of planning by private interests in collaboration with pliable public officials and local NGOs, suggesting that profit margins are being prioritized.
May 30, 2024
KNGG’s letter to the Napa County CEO and Napa County Planning Manager regarding the lack of clarity and apparent inaccuracies in the recent presentation by the Napa County Planning Staff during the May 21, 2024 Board of Supervisor Meeting.
KNGG’s response to supporters following the Napa County Board of Supervisors’s meeting on May 21, 2024.
May 29, 2024
KNGG’s press release “The Battle for Napa's Future: Defending Napa's Agricultural Legacy Against Over-Development”.
May 21, 2024
KNGG’s written comment to the Napa County Board of Supervisors in advance of the May 21, 2024 Public Hearing.
May 6, 2024
Napa County Board of Supervisors Public Hearing Notice
Tuesday, May 21, 2024 @ 9am
County Administration Building
1195 Third Street, Suite 305, Napa, CA
During this hearing the Napa County Board of Supervisors will vote on adopting a re-zoning ordinance (an up-zoning really) for multi-family housing development at the Foster Road Site.
This is one of the more serious meetings regarding our almost 20 year effort opposing this re-zoning of Prime Agricultural/Grazing lands. As most of you know, the approximately 5 acres is proposed to be re-zoned for 100-150 units of multi-family housing. The proposal seems to include a “density bonus” which, in essence may double the number of units to be built.
Perhaps most unfortunately, is the needless inclusion of a “by-right“ clause in the proposal. In essence, allowing developers to bypass any CEQA requirements/environmental reviews for their own proposed projects in order to streamline development.
KNGG will be requesting that the County Board of Supervisors reject this re-zoning/up-zoning of AG to RM for the FRMU plan and follow the directive of the City of Napa’s Planning Commission’s recommendation for Greenbelt designation of these parcels.
We urge you to attend the hearing and voice your concerns. KNGG also encourages you send written comments on the proposed revisions PRIOR to 4:45pm on Monday, May 20th to:
Trevor Hawkes, Supervising Planner
Napa County Planning
Building & Environmental Services Department
1195 Third Street, Suite 310, Napa CA
707-253-4388
trevor.hawkes@countyofnapa.org
To that end, we are providing a sample letter for your use in its entirety or do a cut/paste version, as you like. We are also supplying a list of talking points for your consideration. In addition, KNGG has submitted a written comment to the Board of Supervisors.
May 1, 2024
Napa Valley Register, Barry Eberling
“Napa County Starts Rezoning for Multi-family Housing Sites”
Napa County Planning Commission Public Hearing Transcript
EXCERPT:
”Motion carries unanimously.”
“And I too, I guess just in as a postscript, wanna underscore, Miss Ben Benito's comments., about the, special nature of our agricultural, lands.
I think that there's a sense that … you know, there's many of these actions that we might not take if it … if it was that the state and the association of Bay Area Governments allowed us to …you know … to maintain our agricultural land use designations and not plan for housing in areas, but that isn't the world in which we live.”
- Commissioner David Whitmer, 05.01.2024
__________
what can one say other than
OMG …
Untie your hands …. and represent the people of Napa
Other counties are challenging the state and winning
Why isn’t Napa County???
_______________
April 30, 2024
KNGG’s response to the Planning Commission’s request for comments on Napa County’s Draft Housing Elements (HE) and Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR).
April 12, 2024
Napa County Planning Commission Public Hearing Notice and Agenda
Wednesday, May 1, 2024 @ 9am
1195 Third Street, Suite 305
During this hearing the Napa County Planning Commission will make its recommendation to the Napa County Board of Supervisors regarding the proposed ordinance rezoning the Foster Road Site for multiple-family housing development.
KNGG requests that the County Planning Commission reject this up zoning of AG to RM for the FRMU plan and follow the directive of the City of Napa’s Planning Commission’s recommendation for Greenbelt designation of these parcels.
We urge you to attend the hearing and voice your concerns. KNGG also encourages you send written comments on the proposed revisions prior to 4:45pm on April 30th to:
Trevor Hawkes, Supervising Planner
Napa County Planning, Building & Environmental Services Department
1195 Third Street, Suite 310, Napa CA
707-253-4388
trevor.hawkes@countyofnapa.org
Community Development - Land Use - includes tips for writing letters responding to Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs) - although the local issues are different the Land Use information is invaluable.
The acceptance of this woefully inadequate EIR and CEQA evaluation are
dependent on YOU not speaking up , not writing letters and not showing up at the meeting on Wednesday, 9AM
As had been the case in 2007, the county and the city’s positions are patently absurd regarding the specific aspect of the EIR and CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) dedicated to the FRMU Plan as having no significant impact.
The same players, such as Hillary Gittleman, that had been heavily involved in pushing this through in 2007 (and scurried out of the Irene Snow school meeting with their tails between their legs) are now the very same players pushing this through today.
It was unacceptable then & remains unacceptable now.
Keep Napa’s Gateways Green is committed to smart growth initiatives advocating for urban in-fill, resilient and affordable housing to be built throughout the single-story City of Napa, rather than perpetuating disavowed planning measures such as urban sprawl, spot-zoning and leapfrogging. These would only result in the exploitation and devastation of the last vestiges of iconic prime agricultural lands in Napa (aka the Ghisletta Lands in Southwest Napa).
The Ghisletta parcels’ protected vistas, FEMA flood plains, landslide areas, cultural heritage sites, and ecologically vulnerable areas would be subject to relatively high density, multi-level housing units, unfathomable levels of varying pollutants, traffic congestion and more.
ALL OF WHICH WILL BE CRITICALLY IMPACTED DESPITE THE COUNTY’S POSITION THAT THIS FRMU PLAN WILL HAVE NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT.
These high-risk parcels, ostensibly to be re-zoned for affordable housing, sit directly atop the West Napa Fault Line (an Alquist Priolo Zone) which runs through the entirety of these parcels. Think of Napa’s 2014’s 6.3 earthquake - the largest in the Bay Area since Loma Prieta in 1989.
There are viable alternatives to this proposed project despite claims by the County/City’s Planning staff. Yet these prime agricultural lands are exactly where the City and County chooses to locate most (perhaps 90%) of the planned thousands of affordable and low-income housing units.
The City’s Foster Road Mixed Use Plan represents the largest, riskiest and most expensive development in the history of Napa.
It will be a city within a city…irreversibly metastasizing Napa…and never to be reclaimed.
And it is not necessary.
Dubious Data
The State housing figures (RHNA) that the City and County are hanging their hat on are based on shifting, unverifiable, implausible and increasingly publicly acknowledged inaccurate data sets. This is a mistake. The City and County could easily make a decision to up-zone, annex, and/or develop these prime agricultural lands ONLY upon:
1. The confirmed development of every viable site in the four identified City Transit Corridors and City Core;
2. There is an unquestionable need, one verified and confirmed that any such housing will be:
a) fully affordable to build,
b) fully affordable to purchase by everyone,
c) sustainable; and
d) as the very last option/absolutely necessary
In that case, the City could then enact a special amendment to the General Plan 2040/2060 as was done for the Napa Pipe Project in 2012-13.
Public Interests Not Served
Many citizens are looking at the Foster Road Mixed Use plan as a “land grab”, a “hostile takeover” of local government and “a gift to developers and realtors”. Unfortunately, this is at the literal and figurative expense of the citizens of Napa, turning Napa into a megalopolis like the South Bay - seemingly all for privatized profit. The up-zoning, annexation and development of the Ghisletta lands is folly. It only serves privatized interests - not public interests.
As developers know, urban infill reportedly does not offer the same high profit margins to developers as does building on virgin land. According to realtors, there are hundreds of millions of dollars to be made from this proposed FRMU development - quite a temptation, to be sure.
The Ghisletta family asserts that they are entitled to this up-zoning. They are not. They are entitled to the value of their land as it is currently zoned - Prime Ag - which is highly valued as it is vanishing in California at a breathtaking pace.
The current embarrassment of riches offered by state and federal funding could handsomely underwrite the urban in-fill necessary and still offer the City a reasonably increased property tax base. If only the City Council members would make a decision to do so. If only they could wrangle their campaign donors into understanding the long term, sustainable, resilient interests of Napa rather than short term profits intended to underwrite the proverbial fat cats.
The people of Napa are sick and tired of this dubious, happy face narrative of “Pleasantville”. We need public servants who will truly work for the good of all the citizens of Napa. This sentiment is not simply idealistic, it is critical to our collective future.
The City Council’s recent decision to approve the Foster Road Mixed Use plan speaks of folly and places the citizens of Napa at grave risk and, once again, haunted by the specter of financial liability. Not only does the City’s decision fly in the face of required Fair Housing Policies (which requires such housing to be sited throughout the entire City and County of Napa) it smacks of blatant environmental racism and segregation…the one legacy that Napa should actually bury - not cloak with glib lip service.