Grand jury offers advice for Napa winery permitting
Building and Environmental Services management structures – those are among the grand jury’s recommendations for Napa County.
The county’s 2024-25 grand jury dived into the world of use permits. Such county issued permits dictate such things as how much wine a winery can produce and how many visitors a winery can host.
“Behind the Curtain: Napa County Use Permit Process” is the name of the resulting report. The civil grand jury has 19 citizens serving year-long terms and is a watchdog over local government.
“The process for issuing and enforcing permits in Napa County has been the focus of numerous disputes over the years, several of which have been controversial,” the grand jury report said.
People wanting to build a winery or make major changes to existing wineries must file applications with the county. They must show they are meeting a variety of requirements, from county road standards to state environmental laws.
When county planning staff deems an application to be complete and the necessary work done, the matter goes to the Planning Commission or the zoning administrator for a decision. In some cases, the process can take several years.
“A common complaint heard by the civil grand jury was that the permitting process can be long, causing delays to the proposed project timeline,” the grand jury report said.
But the grand jury said the complicated process usually seems to function fairly smoothly.
Applicants can go through pre-application meetings with county staff to help them understand what will be involved to obtain a use permit for a particular project. The grand jury recommended making those meetings mandatory and folding the cost into the full permit fee.
Grand jurors during their investigation frequently heard complaints that obtaining use permits costs too much. The county wants applicants instead of taxpayers to bear the brunt of associated expenses, a goal the grand jury called “worthy.”
County officials have told the Napa Valley Register that county fees for winery use permits might range from $25,000 to $50,000. In addition, an applicant for a complicated project will pay for consultants and studies to comply with county and state laws.
“There is no way for an applicant to confidently estimate what the final cost of their permit application will be,” the grand jury report said. “This can make project planning, budgeting and financing very difficult.”
Napa County should have a standardized county fee structure whenever possible. By using historical average costs for similar projects to set the fees, the county could still recover its costs for processing the application, the report said.
The grand jury also concluded that the county Department of Planning, Building and Environmental Services has structural inefficiencies, including a high supervisor-tostaff ratio. It called the organizational structure “top-heavy.”
“Such structures are often associated with higher costs, slower response times and less effective decision-making,” the grand jury said.
It recommended the Board of Supervisors consider alternative management structures for the department.
Napa County from 2006 to 2014 conducted winery audits, looking at wine production and visitation to make sure wineries were following their use permits. It would choose several wineries at random each year for examination, with planning commissioners literally pulling names out of a hat.
The 2014-15 grand jury and the county-appointed 2015 Agricultural Protection Advisory Committee suggested overhauling the winery audit. Supervisors discontinued the audit while pondering a makeover.
In 2018, supervisors passed a new code compliance program. At the same time, the board directed staff to devise a new winery audit that would require every winery to submit information on wine production. Violators would face more extensive audits.
Wildfire response and the pandemic helped cast that planned winery audit revival into limbo. The 2024-25 grand jury wants the county to follow through with the idea.
“Reinstating winery audits would help ensure compliance with permit requirements and reinforce confidence in the regulatory process,” the grand jury report said.
Fines collected for violations could partially fund the inspection program, it said.
The grand jury also wants the county to improve its online winery database, which lists about 500 wineries and such information as their permitted wine production and visitation.
Wine industry officials told the grand jury that many wineries say they do not know their current permit conditions. Conditions vary from winery to winery.
“Moreover, winery representatives stated that they are hesitant to inquire about the permit conditions for fear that they will discover previously unknown restrictions on their operations,” the grand jury report said.
Looking at the winery database may not help, given the grand jury found the database to be outdated and inaccurate. The grand jury wants to see a reliable winery database by July 2027.
“This is likely to be a time-consuming exercise and may involve substantial discussions with some of the affected wineries,” the report said. “However, in the long run, it would reduce misunderstandings and legal challenges, especially when existing wineries are purchased.”
Napa County’s winery database came up in the 2024 trial involving the county’s lawsuit against the Hoopes Vineyard winery outside Yountville. Hoopes attorneys pointed out that the 2012 version said the winery could host visitors, while the 2016 version said it could not.
On another front, the grand jury also said the public doesn’t officially comment on proposed projects until the Planning Commission hearing.
“For large and complex projects, this is often very late in the project planning process, making it difficult for applicants to adequately address concerns or modify their plans in response,” the grand jury said.
But the grand jury made no recommendation on this topic. County officials have recommended that project applicants reach out to neighbors far in advance of the Planning Commission hearing.
County Planning, Building and Environmental Services Director Brian Bordona said in an email that the county appreciates the grand jury’s time and effort.
“Napa County staff is reviewing the findings and recommendations and will provide input to the Board of Supervisors, which is responsible for issuing the formal response in accordance with state law within the required 90-day timeframe,” he said. We remain committed to continuous improvement, transparency, and ensuring our permitting processes serve both the community and applicants effectively.”