Sonoma City Council extends tasting room moratorium until Sept. 30

New applications remain frozen until Sept. 30, when results of the city's ‘discovery process' should point the way.|

The Sonoma City Council last week approved an extension of the current moratorium on new wine tasting rooms in the downtown.

In a 4-0 vote, with downtown property owner Gary Edwards recused, the council extended the moratorium to Sept. 30; meanwhile city staff will conduct a study examining the ramifications of having a concentration of tasting rooms in the downtown business district.

The initial moratorium, which began Dec. 4, was given “emergency” status, which only lasts for a 45-day period.

The moratorium period, as Councilmember Rachel Hundley pointed out, ran over the holidays when Council typically doesn’t schedule public meetings. During that period Hundley said she’d heard from a number of residents who expressed interest in joining planned city study sessions about new tasting-room regulations.

City Planning Director David Goodison said interested persons should email him at david.goodison@sonomacity.org.

“We have been collecting the names of interested people who would like to participate in this discussion,” said Goodison. He suggested people in the tasting-room community as well as other downtown businesses and local residents would be expected to participate.

It was Goodison who recommended a briefer moratorium extension, to Sept. 30 – a month shorter than a typical 10-month moratorium – to minimize the “uncertainty and angst” of being without clear direction on tasting rooms.

Resident Richard Silver, however, objected to the shorter deadline, arguing that engaging the staff on an accelerated schedule wasn’t warranted in a community burdened by affordable housing issues, cannabis regulation and other more important concerns. There was no such burden on people in the wine business, said Silver.

“You’re not really prohibiting anybody from selling wine,” he said.

Regina Baker, who said she worked on the Plaza in retail for eight years, pointed out that for tourists, coming to Sonoma is not just for wine tasting any more.

“Now the tourists are complaining about the number of tasting rooms – this is from tourists,” stressed Baker. “They come here to shop in small shops, they come here for other reasons than wine tasting. When the tourists are actually complaining (about tasting rooms), there’s a problem.”

Councilmember David Cook pointed out the rationale for the moratorium.

“The reason this was brought forward, and why it is an important discussion, is to protect Sonoma, to the protect our wine industry,” said Cook. “There’s been legislation passed by other cities in a close proximity to Sonoma which could push out-of-county wineries into Sonoma.”

Email Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.

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