El Dorado County planning staff members received permission to continue working with wine industry representatives to refine a draft winery ordinance, but they were directed not to pursue an environmental study without the Board of Supervisors' approval.
Supervisor Jack Sweeney has sought to combine the winery ordinance update with an update of the county's ranch marketing ordinance. But board Chairwoman
Helen Baumann said merging the two efforts at this point, after wine industry representatives and the county Agricultural Commission have spent months developing a draft winery ordinance, would be a setback for the process.
Larry Appel, deputy director of planning services, said last week that planning staffers and an industry committee have been working to harmonize various elements of the document and evaluate its environmental effects. The major impacts of wineries and special events the ordinance would allow in conjunction with the operations, he said, would involve traffic, aesthetics and noise.
Appel said staff members and industry representatives are working on development standards to address those issues.
If the effects are determined to be significant enough to require an environmental impact report, Sweeney said, it should be combined with a report on the impacts of ranch marketing to avoid the cost of two separate studies.
Appel said he would update the board Aug. 21 and provide maps showing locations of winery and ranch marketing operations in the county.
-- Cathy Locke
Winery Ordinance On Track
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