Yountville Hill winery wins narrow approval from planners

A controversial winery project in Yountville won narrow approval from county planners on Wednesday after a contentious public hearing and some public wavering by a key planning commission member.

The hearing on the 100,000-gallon winery project proposed to be built on Yountville Hill unfolded much like a heavyweight boxing match proponents trading arguments with the developers, but neither side scoring a decisive knockout.

That initially left the commissioners split at the end of a marathon five-hour meeting before an overflow crowd, with Commissioners Matt Pope and Terry Scott saying they opposed the project because its production was too great and its marketing plan too aggressive for a 10.9-acre parcel off of Highway 29 and south of Yount Mill Road.

Commissioners Bob Fiddaman and Mike Basayne said they were in favor, and Commissioner Heather Phillips recused herself due to a conflict of interest, leaving a two-two deadlock and spelling defeat for the winery. Before the commission could vote formally, however, Eric Sklar, developer of the proposed Yountville Hill Winery, asked for a two-week delay to possibly revise the project and win over votes.

After a brief recess to discuss the delay, the commissioners returned and Pope said he would change his vote. By a 3-1 margin, with Scott opposed, the commission voted to approve the projects use permit to the stunned silence of the roughly 50 people left in attendance, almost all of them opposing the winery.

Pope prefaced his initial comments opposing Yountville Hill by saying he was deeply torn about the project, believing some of the vintners who wrote letters opposing it were saying I got mine, now too bad for you. He also believed that by making it difficult and prohibitively expensive for winery developers, the county was narrowing the pool of new winery owners to large corporations with the deep pockets to navigate the process.

Still, he said he was swayed by the arguments that Yountville Hill could be a precedent-setting decision for Napa Valley, in essence giving a green light for developers to pursue large-production projects that need ample tasting room traffic, nestled into narrow parcels in the hillsides.

Pope said comments from commission Chairman Bob Fiddaman ultimately changed his mind, as Fiddaman argued that the commissioners were bound by the countys existing interpretations of the laws and therefore had to approve the winery.

This was the most ambivalent Ive ever been, Pope said shortly before changing his vote. I am in support of this project and that is my decision.

Lester Hardy, an attorney working with Sklar on the project, said after the hearing that Pope changing his vote reflected him keeping an open mind about Yountville Hill, and shows that the hearing process with each side exchanging arguments and evidence ultimately works.

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Yountville Hill winery wins narrow approval from planners