Sonoma Country

Is Sonoma County getting too small for all of us? On many days
it’s beginning to feel that way, or haven’t you noticed?
Just look around: new houses popping up on ridgetops overlooking
our towns; almost no more space for “in-fill” projects inside our
Urban Growth Boundaries; more lanes on Highway 101 — all just as
full of cars as before; too many winetasters in our valleys;
hundreds of backroads bicycles every weekend; a new winery sign
going up at every turn of the road; and, not enough seats on
Saturday night at our favorite restaurants. Is this a good problem
or a bad one? Depends on who you’re asking.
We like Sonoma Country, as some call it, and we like our quality
of life, lively communities and the world-class stature of our
wines, farms, river valleys and coast and hills.
Sonoma County covers 1,768 square miles. That’s 1,131,520 acres.
With a population of about 470,000 people, that adds up to about
2.4 acres for every man, woman and child.
Could it be possible that we are running out of space here and
over-crowding ourselves with too many “incompatible uses?”
If not, how do we explain the mad crowd of hundreds of our
neighbors that overwhelmed a county Planning Commission meeting
last week in Santa Rosa. Major changes were introduced by county
staff that would redefine “allowable,” “compatible” and
“noncompatible” uses and buildings in rural and agriculture
zones.
Some of the proposals could limit the size of a livestock
operation based on actual parcel size. Changes would limit the size
of greenhouses, chicken coops and tractor barns. How many gallons
of wine a small winery could produce and the size of a new wine
cellar would be encoded. New schools and churches would be banned
on rural or previously zoned ag lands. Lumber mills, visitor
services and guest or worker housing would face new restrictions or
prohibitions.
More population, new agriculture production activities and more
and more “wine country” attractions, facilities and seasonal events
has certainly brought new traffic and impacts to rural Sonoma
County.
There’s no doubt that one neighbor’s idea of a “compatible” use
can be seen by the next neighbor as “noncompatible.” We all need
some clarification, but we need to be careful what we ask for.
Remember, it’s not just us we need to find space for here in our
beautiful county. Each year our tourism and winery promotions
attract over 4 million visitors. We all like tourism for the jobs
and other positive economic impacts it brings. But what happens
when too many competing uses clash? 
When is a winery’s special event too noisy and crowded for its
rural neighbors and when is a farmer’s manure fertilizer too smelly
for the wine event next door?
The Permit and Resources Management Department (PRMD) hearing
last week was too crowded and was overpowered with hours of very
emotional testimony to reach any conclusions or new definitions.
The hearing will be continued on Thursday, March 17 at the Santa
Rosa Veteran’s Building. (Next week’s issue of this newspaper will
further explain the proposals and early criticisms about the PRMD
documents.)
We urge the county’s planners to take a step back, regroup, and
launch a very thorough public input process before proposing such
major land use changes here. Begin with a new notification to the
20,000 rural and ag land owners. Let’s prepare for a more calm
overview of how to better define “allowable” uses and to regulate
the “noncompatible” ones.
As we go through this public updating of our agriculture and
rural zoning laws, let’s be reminded that the most important part
of our wine country is still the “country” part.
— Rollie Atkinson