By Dick Schneider
In an effort to promote agriculture and agricultural tourism in Alameda County, the county Planning Department has proposed an amendment to the county’s zoning ordinance that would permit microbreweries the unincorporated agricultural areas. The Sierra Club would like to support the zoning amendment, but as currently drafted the amendment is flawed. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to make a decision on Tuesday, December 4, at 1:00 pm. Our goal is to have the board modify the zoning amendment and then adopt it.
Currently, wineries and olive mills are permitted on unincorporated land zoned as ‘Agriculture’. The draft amendment would add microbreweries and associated visitor-serving commercial uses (tasting rooms, catered events, concerts, etc.) to the list of permitted uses on agricultural land.
The first problem with the draft ordinance is that it does not distinguish between different land use designations as they exist in the county’s General Plan. In amending the county General Plan in 2000, the voter-approved Measure D established a ‘Large Parcel Agriculture’ designation that permits agriculture, agricultural processing facilities, and visitor-serving commercial uses. That designation allows microbreweries and associated commercial uses like tasting rooms.
Measure D also created a ‘Resource Management’ designation designed primarily to protect biological and other natural resources. The ‘Resource Management’ designation permits low-intensity agriculture like grazing but it does not permit processing facilities or associated visitor-serving uses.
Here’s the rub: the proposed zoning amendment currently before the County Supervisors would allow uses on ‘Resource Management’ land that are not permitted by Measure D. State law requires that zoning be consistent with the general plan. It’s vital to maintain distinctions between land use designations. We don’t want the resource protections enacted by the voters to die a death by a thousand cuts.
The second problem is that Measure D, as well as other policies of the general plan, require that agricultural processing facilities (microbreweries in this case) be directly related to and primarily support in-county agricultural production — that is, that they use some agricultural crop grown in the county. Without this connection, there is no reason for a processing facility to be located in the ‘Agricultural’ zoning district; it should be located in a commercial or industrial district without taking up limited agricultural land. Wineries in Alameda County, for example, use grapes mostly grown in the county even if some grapes are brought in for particular blends of wine.
Hops are used in beer production and are the obvious crop to be sourced from within Alameda County. Some hop plants are grown now in south Livermore, and at one time, the largest hops farm in the world was located on what is now Hopyard Road in Pleasanton. A zoning requirement that microbreweries located on agricultural land use some county crop ensures compliance with general plan policies as well as stimulating more agricultural production, which is the goal of the policies.
The third problem with the draft zoning amendment is that it does not require a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for all visitor-serving commercial uses especially tasting rooms. Microbreweries will be a new use in rural Alameda County. They may or may not resemble the wineries and olive mills to which they are being compared, especially in how and when they attract customers. Hours of operation may more resemble a tavern than a winery tasting room — that is, staying open late into the night as urban brewpubs do. Impacts on nearby rural residents and agricultural operations (disturbance of farm animals at night, for example) could be substantially different. Nighttime lighting requirements, vehicle noise, and so on are hard to predict for a new use without the long experience that exists for wineries.
There is good reason to treat microbreweries differently at this stage of their evolution. Unanticipated impacts will be much easier to control by requiring a Conditional Use Permit than if one is not required. A CUP involves periodic review, especially soon after it is initially granted, which will make any needed alterations in operating conditions or site development relatively straightforward to implement.
These three modest changes to the draft zoning amendment would enable the Sierra Club to support rather than oppose the amendment: microbreweries in the Agricultural District are (1) not permitted on ‘Resource Management’-designated land, (2) required to obtain some ingredients grown in Alameda County for their beer production, and (3) tasting rooms be added to the list of visitor-serving commercial uses that require a Conditional Use Permit.
What You Can Do:
If you live in Alameda County, contact your county supervisor and urge that these three modest changes to the draft microbrewery zoning ordinance amendment be made when it goes to the board on December 4. If you can, please attend the 1:00 pm hearing to state your opinion publicly. The hearing will be at the Alameda County Administration Building, Board Chambers, 5th Floor, 1221 Oak Street, Oakland.
You can look up your supervisor and their contact information here.
For more information, contact Dick Schneider at richs59354@aol.com or call (510) 926-0010.
Photo: Hops, courtesy Duncan via Flickr Creative Commons.