Vineyards Policy Needed
Posted February 7, 2006 / Updated August 17, 2006

• What's happening    
• Why this is important
• What you can do    

There is an urgent need for regulation of new vineyards in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties to protect creeks and other sensitive habitats and steep, erosion susceptible hillsides. Please write to the Board of Supervisors in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties and ask them to adopt an ordinance similar to ones in Napa and Sonoma Counties.

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What's happening
New vineyards have recently been developed on steep slopes and within sensitive habitat areas in the Skyline and La Honda areas, and in the eastern hills of the Diablo/Mount Hamilton Range.

Committee for Green Foothills supports vineyards as part of our region's working farms and ranches, but their location must not jeopardize creeks, riparian areas, and other sensitive habitats.

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Why this is important
As people plant vines in more challenging areas for growing grapes, there can be impacts to streams, community water supplies, and sensitive habitats. Grading and clearing land can result in erosion and sediment deposits in streams that damage habitats for aquatic species. Clearing forested lands and chaparral can also impact important wildlife species, as well as harm neighbors and communities that depend upon wells or streams for drinking water.

Napa and Sonoma Counties' long experience with vineyards have resulted in environmental protections that are absent in our South Bay Counties. Those protections have done nothing to harm the vineyards' economic success.

For more information on vineyard impacts, read CGF's letter on this issue.

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What you can do
Please ask the San Mateo and Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to enact a strong ordinance that includes clear and effective standards to control grading and clearing of land for development of vineyards, particularly on steep slopes, within or adjacent to sensitive habitats and in areas where drinking water supply and quality may be affected.

Please write to:

San Mateo County Board of Supervisors
400 County Center
Redwood City, 94063
Fax (650) 599-1027
Email all five Supervisors in a single email.

Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
County Government Center
70 W. Hedding Street, 10th Floor, East Wing
San Jose, CA 95110
Fax (408) 298-8460
Email all five Supervisors in a single email.

Letter should be sent by Tuesday, February 14, 2006.

As always, please send a copy to us so we can track the efficiency of our work: Fax (650) 968-8431 or action@GreenFoothills.org.

For more information:
Read the August 16 article in the Daily Journal.
Read the March 27 article in the Mercury News.
Read the March 15 article in the Half moon Bay Review.
Read the February 12 article in the San Mateo County Times.

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