With the June election less than five weeks away, the Napa Chamber of Commerce, Napa Valley Vintners and a south Napa neighborhood group, Save Napa’s Agricultural Gateway, have voted to oppose Measure N, an initiative aimed at killing a major housing proposal at Napa Pipe.

Both the Napa County Farm Bureau and the local chapter of the Sierra Club debated the merits of Measure N before deciding to remain neutral. A veteran slow growth group, Get A Grip On Growth, is supporting Measure N.

Measure N is a flawed, unnecessary initiative of murky origins that could have harmful unintended consequences, the chamber’s board of directors said Monday.

On Monday night, more than 70 residents in the Foster Road area rallied against Measure N at Snow Elementary School. If housing is blocked at Napa Pipe, leaders of the group said, the city and county may shift their focus to seeking as many as 1,000 homes on the former Ghisletta dairy in their neighborhood.

Save Napa’s Agricultural Gateway is distributing flyers that say, “If you don’t want to see high-density development on the Ghisletta pasturelands, vote no on N.”

Get A Grip on Growth is vigorously supporting Measure N, calling it the best way of discouraging a 3,200-home development at Napa Pipe, in the unincorporated part of the county.

The group “worries more about explosive growth outside of our cities than we do the threats of legal challenges” to N, said Eve Kahn, Get A Grip’s chairwoman.

The Napa County Farm Bureau voted two weeks ago to remain “absolutely neutral” on Measure N, Sandy Elles, the group’s executive director, said Tuesday.

The Farm Bureau’s board of directors is concerned that the initiative appears legally flawed and organizers have not fully disclosed who is behind it, Elles said.

At the same time, the bureau is worried about the size and scale of a developer’s proposal for Napa Pipe. This concern precludes a “No on N” position, Elles said.

The local chapter of the Sierra Club voted earlier this month to take no position on Measure N, said Elisabeth Frater, the chapter’s chair. The Sierra Club liked the measure’s 1 percent growth limit, but worried that restricting housing to three stories could result in sprawl, she said.

Members were troubled that Measure N seems designed to kill a specific project and its “true backers” are not known, Frater said.

Wary of Napa Pipe, too

While the chamber and Save Napa’s Agricultural Gateway are anti-Measure N, their opposition should not be construed as support for development proposals for Napa Pipe, both groups said.

These development plans will be the focus of environmental studies and future public hearings by Napa County, making it premature to stake a position now, said Linda Cavalli, an organizer of Save Napa’s Agricultural Gateway.

The chamber’s board of directors made a similar point, saying opposition to Measure N “is not de facto approval of the Napa Pipe project.”

When more is known about the impacts of the Napa Pipe plan, the chamber will advocate for a development that is “appropriate for the community,” the board said.

Napa Valley Vintners’ board of directors voted Thursday to oppose Measure N. A statement detailing the reasons will be forthcoming, a spokesman said.

At Monday’s Snow School meeting, Cavalli told her neighbors “there is a land war being fought in Napa and we’re in the middle of it.”

Because there are only a limited number of housing sites left in the Napa area, Measure N’s attempt to take Napa Pipe off the table will only put more development pressure on the Ghisletta site, she said.

Cavalli noted that Get A Grip supports development at Ghisletta because it is within the city’s Rural Urban Limit line, whereas Napa Pipe is not.

If residential development is precluded at Napa Pipe, the 152 acres will likely attract commercial and industrial development and lots of new jobs, Cavalli said. These jobs will create pressure for even more housing in Napa, she said.

Dave Posner, a resident in the Foster Road area, urged Save Napa’s Agricultural Gateway to be careful how it campaigns against Measure N. “This is very delicate. We’ll look like we’re pro-growth,” he said.

One of Save Napa’s Agricultural Gateway leaders, Mike Campbell, disagreed with the decision to try to kill Measure N. If Measure N loses, he predicted major development at both Napa Pipe and Ghisletta.