Napa County Nearing Adoption of New Winery Compliance Policy; NVV Releases Issue Brief

The Napa County Board of Supervisors has been considering a resolution that would impose a number of deadlines and compliance requirements for existing winery use permits.  The Napa Valley Vintners has published an informative Issue Brief  discussing the highlights of the proposed resolution.  In addition to the NVV issue brief, we encourage you to read the entire resolution  and the report from the Napa County Planning, Building, and Environmental Services Department.  The Board of Supervisors is expected to adopt the resolution at its December 4 meeting.

The proposed policy would set a deadline of March 29, 2019, at 2:00pm, for landowners to apply for a permit to voluntarily remedy existing use permit violations on their properties.  Meeting the deadline, with some exceptions, would avoid the imposition of a new policy that landowners come into compliance with existing entitlements immediately, and do so for one year before a use permit modification to remedy any violation would be considered.

The policy also suggests that wineries with questions about their Use Permit entitlements can request a determination or interpretation of their use permit from the County Planning Department.  We strongly encourage wineries to discuss their use permit with their legal counsel prior to doing so.