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Protesting wine tasting in Vallejo adobe

Editor, Index-Tribune:

    

  The City Council unanimously approved another wine tasting room, with corporate offices, at 143 Church St., the historic Vallejo-Castenada Adobe, along with a parking lot.

  They approved this under the adaptive use provision even though this does not meet all of the criteria. Under the provision, “only professional and services-oriented offices are permitted” and uses “must stabilize and improve the economic value of the districts and neighborhoods, sites, structures and zoning districts.”

  The provision is intended for “disadvantaged properties with hardship for lot or structure in need of saving.”

  The adobe is in outstanding condition and possesses exceptional integrity. The wine tasting room and corporate offices would add to the already congested area of Spain Street by the Plaza. No traffic analysis was done. The City Council totally ignored a petition, with 66 signatures of surrounding neighbors, that stated they did not want another wine tasting room, did not want increased congestion, did not want commercializing of this already impacted residential zone, and that the residents of Church Street did not want the parking lot.

  The planning commission previously denied an application for this parking lot. Being that the permit runs with the land, in time this tasting room could grow much bigger. The council is possessed with the historic mystique of the historic adobe and the integrity of the buyer. The mayor spoke at the meeting of a true democracy, but failed to perform at the first opportunity. The only hardship here is that the owner of the adobe can’t get $1.8 million for a property that’s worth one-third of that unless they go commercial.

  Philip Rosasco

Sonoma