Despite pending lawsuits and mixed feelings about Riverside County Board of Supervisors’ recent adoption of the Temecula Valley Wine Country Community Plan, Third District Supervisor Jeff Stone says it will move “full-steam ahead” in the not-so-distant future.
In the works for at least five years, the new plan allows for the expansion of unincorporated Temecula Valley Wine Country from its current 7,000 acres of vineyards to 25,000 acres. This is along with zoning for more lodging as well as preserving pockets of acreage for rural residential and equestrian use.
“We are going to go from 35 legitimate wineries that exist today to roughly 105 at build-out,” Stone said, during a sit-down interview. “So when the word starts getting out, and it will, to the 20 million people in Southern California, it’s going to bring thousands of jobs and that is what I am most excited about.”
Evidence that the plan will be beneficial for business, Stone said, is in the fact that Eastern Municipal Water District has already started constructing a $17-million pipeline that will bring sewer service to Wine Country.
The region and its wineries have historically run on septic systems, he explained, which have been costly to maintain and have had an adverse effect on water quality as winery business has grown.
“Septics aren’t designed for that, but you’ve got some of the larger wineries with restaurants emptying them every week or every two weeks,” Stone said.
Installing sewer lines was therefore a condition of the San Diego Region of the California Water Quality Control Board in order for the county to move forward with its blueprint for expansion or for any new wineries to be built, Stone explained.
“The plan is approved,” Stone said. “The next steps are we are waiting for the sewer to get in and after that we will start taking applications and processing them.”
That is, of course, “unless somebody throws an injunction,” Stone said.
The supervisor said he is aware of at least two lawsuits that have been filed contesting components of the county’s plan.
One was brought by a group of developers who own 80 acres in the southern portion of Wine Country and wish to build one house per acre although the parcels are zoned for one house per five acres, Stone said.
The other lawsuit, he said, involves the only church in Wine Country, Calvary Chapel Bible Fellowship, and the county’s zoning that allows the church to expand. The church was grandfathered into Wine Country having been approved by Stone’s predecessor, Stone said.
“We will follow whatever the direction of the court is,” Stone said. “But I think these lawsuits are going to be extinguished and I plan on moving full-steam ahead.”
While Stone is optimistic about the opportunities paved by the plan, some of those who will have to live with it have mixed opinions.
“We have all had a part in it, some people got what they wanted and some people really didn’t,” said Ben Drake, a longtime local winegrower and current president of the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association.
Drake said his main worry is that the county’s new zoning and application process and related fees may make it cost-prohibitive and confusing for those wanting to plant new vineyards or expand existing ones.
“The thing I look at and hope for is that it would improve the whole area by having more grapes planted—I would love to see the whole valley green,” Drake said. “But at $20,000 an acre to plant an acre it can take 15 years before you actually turn a profit.”
He is not alone in that even with the expansion, the main goal should be solidifying Temecula Valley Wine Country’s reputation for its quality grapes.
“That is the key to all the success,” said fellow winegrower David Bradley, who owns Vindemia Vineyards, situated on a 10-acre parcel where he also lives with his family. “If you don’t get that right, if we don’t make good wine grapes, that precludes everything else.”
Bradley says that as far the plan goes, he and other smaller vintners brought their concerns such as eminent domain to the Board of Supervisors. The response was positive he said.
“The idea (of the plan) is very forward-thinking and super necessary because of the real estate pressures that were starting to happen,” Bradley said. “So now, if you want to put in a winery, 75 percent of the property has to be grapes. So in the long term, you have an agricultural preserve.”
Stone, whose involvement with Wine Country dates back more than a decade to his time as a Temecula City Council member, admitted there are “a lot of moving pieces—it is not easy to go from 7,000 acres to 25,000. But overall, it has been very synergistic.”