Planning crew pays visit to Napa Pipe

By JAY GOETTING, Register Staff Writer

The former Napa Pipe site is a hot property, with developers hoping to revamp the 152 riverfront acres south of the city.

It is also catching interest from county planners and the 21-member Napa County General Plan steering committee, as the property is emerging as a key element in Napa County's road map to the future.

On Saturday, the committee took a tour of the facility, which is still home to some industrial uses but has mostly become kind of a heavy metal graveyard. Just a handful of the 8,000 local residents on the mailing list for general plan information showed up Saturday, fitting in to two mini-vans for the tour.

Napa County Planning Director Hillary Gitelman said it is too early to say what the property will become. "We have a whole county to plan," she said. "We'll look at residential, industrial and mixed uses. All options are open. I don't want to preclude anything."

Gitelman added the new owners are open to various possibilities and are as anxious as anyone to move ahead with a plan that fits the community's needs.

That was the message two of the principals in the new investment group conveyed on the tour.

Keith Rogal, fresh off his development of the Carneros Inn on the road to Sonoma, is heading a group that hopes to see the property become an attractive and open gateway to the city of Napa. "It's very big and very flat," said Rogal of the land, which is outside the city limits.

Rogal already has a vision for the property. He spoke of an open area along the Napa River, with a bridge joining key components. He said that his group may retain some of the huge scrap metal pieces from the defunct pipe manufacturing plant, which takes on a post-modern sculpture look.

"We couldn't go out and buy something this good," he quipped to his small audience.

Rogal was joined by former Napa Mayor Ed Henderson, another of the partners involved in the multi-million dollar purchase of the property from Oregon Steel, which years ago bought it out of bankruptcy from then-owner Kaiser Steel.

Over the years the plant made major steel parts for the BART system, the retrofit of the Bay Bridge and the Alaska Pipeline.

Two firms are continuing to work on-site on parts for the current Bay Bridge construction. One worker said he hopes Rogal and company will allow industrial work to continue on at least a corner of the property.

The Napa Pipe site also serves as a major storage facility for the south county manufacturer Cultured Stone and a firewood distributor.

Development of anything on the property will have to be preceded by a major cleanup. "Environmental assessments have ranged from 'totally clean' to 'it glows in the dark,'" said Rogal. He estimated the cleanup could run into eight figures. "It will be expensive, but it's very do-able," said Rogal.

Henderson can also see the property's future in his mind's eye. "It could be a cathedral for the valley, if we do it right," he said, picturing a river walk and workforce housing along with other, higher-end amenities.

The property is the size of San Francisco's Marina District or Amsterdam's historic medieval sector, said Rogal. Union Pacific Railway still owns the right of way that runs through it, and the investors hope that can be put to use as a transportation link.

"It can be woven into the fabric of the city," said Rogal, noting that housing is the greatest need, although he doesn't favor a sprawling subdivision.

Housing would be precluded at the southern end of the property because of its proximity to airport flight paths.

Another public meeting will take to the road next Wednesday evening at the Dining Commons at Pacific Union College in Angwin. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.

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