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PrintHotel will benefit local economy
Editor, Index-Tribune:
On behalf of Petroni Vineyards, I am delighted to lend my support to the proposed Chateau Sonoma Hotel.
As a Sonoma Valley winery owner, I believe one of the most important issues facing our local businesses is a lack of lodging. Too many times, tourists are being forced to stay in Novato or Petaluma because there is not a room to be found in Sonoma. The Chateau Sonoma Hotel will allow those who might be forced to stay elsewhere, and spend money elsewhere, to stay in Sonoma.
Our winery and many others in the Valley are losing to the other wine regions in the area. The hotel, in partnership with the wine and tourism industries, will have the resources needed to attract global clientele. That clientele will spend millions annually at our stores, restaurants and wineries and bring additional recognition to the Sonoma Valley.
The Chateau Sonoma Hotel will have a positive effect on our local economy and increase Sonoma’s reputation as one of the great wine regions of the world.
Lorenzo Petroni
Petroni Vineyards
Sonoma Valley
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Really? "No room at the inn" in Sonoma??
One has to wonder, then, why Sonoma City Council recently felt compelled to form a Tourism Improvement District to subsidize marketing efforts for the major hotels in the City of Sonoma who were complaining that they were unable to fill their rooms.
Along with the large hotels in town that can't fill their rooms (if I recall correctly, by their own stats, their occupancy has been in the 60% range??) there are numerous bed and breakfasts and smaller hostelries who would love to experience the imaginary overcrowding described in the above letter.
There may be other credible/valid economic and other reasons to support the proposed Chateau Sonoma but a shortage of hotel space in the Valley for tourists is currently not one of them. Chateau's owners are quite business savvy and have doubtless done their own careful market research. But if local hoteliers are telling the truth, unless tourism and the broader national and global economic outlook brighten noticeably by the time Chateau goes on line in 2015, hotels in Sonoma will be renting vacant rooms for storage lockers.
Vacancy rates aside, unless a credible traffic mitigation plan accompanies Chateau, wineries and other businesses and residents located outside of town, e.g., on Cavedale Road, will not experience the already-intolerable peak hour traffic jams Chateau will create for those who live in or have to pass through the City. And then there's the question of Chateau's potential to aggravate that water shortage problem we keep hearing about. But the water shortage is probably another hoax, like global warming, as there always seems to be plenty of water for more vineyards, another winery, another housing project, another big hotel...
The argument about helping the local economy is a phony one. The additional costs associated with this proposed hotel include many indirect ones, including the need for more traffic control (traffic lights), risks to pedestrian safety, added street and plaza park wear and tear and maintenance, law enforcement, and fire department readiness, and waste water and sewage load increases. The crowding on the plaza is already excessive during the summer and fall. No new large hotel should be built until the annualized occupancy rate in Sonoma reaches 75-80%.