Another flawed traffic report and another approval. Traffic reports should be conducted at peak season and peak traffic impact times. Bella Winery was approved with a low season traffic report and how many others? It is time for the Supervisors to put people and our environment before corporate profits. The Public Trust Doctrine states that the government must protect the citizens health, welfare and safety.
“Their behavior, emulating petty tyrants rather than community leaders, was sad and inexcusable” .
A terrible precedent
EDITOR: The Board of Supervisors, by a 4-1 vote, approved construction of a winery, creamery, event center and tasting room on Sonoma Mountain Road (“Board approves winery project,” Nov. 18). Supervisor Susan Gorin said she didn’t trust the traffic figures in the environmental impact report and couldn’t support a project in her district that would increase traffic on one of the county’s worst roads by up to 15,000 cars a year, creating a (drinking/driving) accident waiting to happen.
The approving board members seemed unable to distinguish between a desirable agricultural project and its placement in an exemplary rural setting, where no such enterprise has ever existed, instead of in an area with appropriate infrastructure, creating a terrible precedent in the process.
In the past, a supervisor’s opinion concerning her district was pivotal because she would be particularly knowledgeable about her district’s needs. Gorin received no such recognition from her colleagues.
Supervisors Shirlee Zane, Efren Carrillo, James Gore and David Rabbitt addressed opposition, including several conservation/preservation groups, with contempt, as malcontents rather than citizens with serious concerns about a project affecting their well-being and future development in Sonoma County. Their behavior, emulating petty tyrants rather than community leaders, was sad and inexcusable.
B. LaGOY
Santa Rosa