Letters

Public Letters to the County

Protecting Rural Areas response from Victor Sund

Coastal wineries EDITOR: I agree with Kirsten Cutler (“Protecting rural areas,” Letters, Oct. 12). Our coastal hills need stronger protection from industrial enterprises such as wineries in areas where roads are too small, water too scarce and the environment too fragile to accommodate more development. Emergency services cannot deal with the tourism as it is …

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Time for vineyard managers to plant cover crops and restore streambanks

Dear Editor, Now that the crush is over vineyard managers can turn their attention to planting cover crops and laying straw to protect exposed dirt from the rains we will be getting soon. Alice Outwater, in her book Water – a Natural History, states that without the protection of leaves or straw rain strikes the …

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Fred Allebach to Supervisors: “I encourage you to not approve the Dry Creek winery expansion ….”

-the whole county is keyed up to conserve water during a 500 year drought and to permit a 25,000 case winery sends the wrong message to a citizenry hoping their efforts will count; more and more wineries mean citizens are effectively subsidizing wine expansion by their conservation measures; many hope to be saving water to benefit stream ecosystems and higher groundwater levels.

-no new large wineries should be allowed until Groundwater Sustainability Agencies have been formed…

Peter R. Baye, Ph.D. Coastal Ecologist, Botanist Letter to PRMD on Coastal Plan

To: Lisa Posternak, Sonoma County Permits & Resource Management Department (PRMD). Cc: Interested parties Date: September 30, 2015 SUBJECT: General comments on preliminary draft Local Coastal Plan: significant environmental baseline deficiencies and consequences Dear Ms. Posternak: I would like to provide only preliminary and general comments on some selected basic aspects of the preliminary draft …

Peter R. Baye, Ph.D. Coastal Ecologist, Botanist Letter to PRMD on Coastal Plan Read More »

“The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of the LCP” by Ken Sund

Dear Supervisors and county planners- My family has owned first and second homes on the Russian River since the early 1950s when our region was known as the Redwood Empire. The pressures of tourism, wineries and urban growth has reached the peak carrying capacity of the Sonoma Coast. We can’t accommodate more traffic, more water …

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Richard Charter Senior Fellow, The Ocean Foundation on the Coastal Plan

From Richard Charter, Senior Fellow The Ocean Foundation on the proposed LCP September 28, 2015 Permit & Resource Management Department County of Sonoma 2550 Ventura Avenue Santa Rosa, CA 95403 Attention: Lisa Posternak Submitted via email at: PRMD-LCP-Update@sonoma-county.org Re: Comments on the draft proposed Sonoma County Local Coastal Plan (LCP). Dear Ms. Posternak: Thank you …

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