Tasting rooms almost…
The nascent rebirth of San Diego County winery industry was given another assist yesterday (August 4th 2010) as the County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the “Tiered Winery Ordinance” which enables tasting rooms by right of land ownership in A70-A72 agriculturally zoned parcels in the County. The proceedings and testimony are available at this video link http://bit.ly/9SyFQW .
This has been a long 4-year effort. Winery opponents derailed a similar ordinance two years ago requiring the County to spend some $300,000 on a Environmental Impact Report (EIR) along with associated staff hours and hearings on the report. Placer County near Sacramento passed a similar ordinance two years ago without incident and has had no problem with winery customers in that county.
What’s next?
There is a 30 day Ordinance enactment (waiting) period to allow among other things, the filing of opposing lawsuits. Following enactment of the ordinance, Boutique wineries plannning to open tasting rooms modify their existing California Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission (ABC) licences and meet several San Diego County Department of Planning and Land Use (DPLU) requirements.
Here’s a link to one of many news stories on the ordinance http://bit.ly/9fGe5q
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