Napa Pipe in front of Supes today

County may order EIR for proposed development

By DAVID RYAN
Register Staff Writer

Napa County Supervisors are scheduled today to review the Napa Pipe proposal — the largest residential development proposal ever to hit Napa County.

The board is scheduled to decide whether the Napa Redevelopment Partners’ bid — to build 3,200 dwellings just south of Napa on 150 acres of unincorporated land between Kaiser Road and the Napa River — is detailed enough to warrant ordering an environmental review.

The move would shuttle the proposal along a bureaucratic process that could change the land’s zoning, thus paving the way to build homes on the site.

The zoning change would also be in line with what the county’s draft General Plan Update has in mind for the Napa Pipe property.

The Napa Pipe proposal also includes 15,000 square feet of restaurant space and 25,000 square feet of commercial space slated to serve the neighborhood. A greenbelt would occupy lands once crisscrossed by industrial railroad tracks, and a riverbank promenade would grace an area now occupied by the ghosts of once-mighty shipbuilding docks.

The southern portion of the site would have 50,000 square feet of light industrial, warehouse or research and development space, plus a 150-suite condominium hotel. Those uses would be designated for the southern portion of the property because proximity to planes’ flight paths to the Napa County Airport makes it against zoning laws to put homes there.

About 20 percent of the housing at the Napa Pipe site would be deemed government-standard affordable housing, enough to take care of state demands on the county to zone for affordable housing, enabling the county to avoid costly agreements with city governments to take on that share to safeguard farmlands.

Napa city officials have expressed concern about the proposal, figuring so many new people will likely take advantage of city services such as law enforcement, fire protection, and water and sewer lines.

Meeting information

Who: Napa County Board of Supervisors

What: Napa Pipe proposal

When: 10:15 a.m. today

Where: 1195 Third St., Napa.

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