Vote no on
Measure N

Voters should reject Measure N, create consensus without an ill-informed rush to the ballot box and set a smart course for the county.

There is a sane way to make important land-use policy, and then there’s what’s going on in Napa County right now.

In our view, Measure N is flawed and lacks transparency. Voters should reject Measure N, create consensus without an ill-informed rush to the ballot box and set a smart course for the county. A better way is not far away.

Some facts:

• Measure N would give voters the exclusive right to enforce the county’s existing 1 percent per year growth cap and 35-foot height limit on buildings. It would only govern developments in the unincorporated county, not within the cities.

• The unincorporated county is, in fact, growing at a rate of less than 1 percent a year as things stand. According to a January report, the population in the unincorporated county grew by 372 people between 2000 and 2005, about .27 of one percent. The overall population of Napa County, including fast-growing American Canyon, was 1.5 percent over that period.

• Measure N was hastily and poorly drafted, and campaign manager Victor Ajlouny now proposes that, should it pass, a clean-up measure should be placed on the November ballot to “fix all the hiccups people are concerned about.” This is poor policy-making.

• Measure N was designed to stop the Napa Pipe project. Napa Redevelopment Partners proposes building seven-story buildings and 3,200 townhomes at the 152-acre Napa Pipe site, which is along the river just outside the city of Napa.

• The proposed Napa Papa project it is too huge and violates local land use principles by proposing substantial growth outside any of the five cities. But it is not about to break ground. It is undergoing studies. In addition, it will take a year or more to clean up the toxins in the soil at the site after 70 years of heavy metal manufacturing, work that has not yet begun.

• County and municipal elected leaders appear to have gotten religion after months of public pummeling, and are about to launch a regional planning effort that would consider Napa Pipe, the Angwin eco-village, the 150-acre Ghisletta site off Foster road, and more in setting the table for sustainable growth. If they are up to the task, they can set policy that covers the whole county, not just a sliver of land in the south county.

We have time to take a deep breath and formulate a rational policy.

Steps: Reject Measure N. Pull together Measure N proponents, citizens groups, environmental, agricultural and business leaders and draft a consensus policy unencumbered by legal and technical flaws or murky political origins. Re-establish priorities on building sites, building heights, voter oversight of major developments and more. A wiser, more comprehensive initiative could be on the ballot or before local leaders by November.

We can reject the rotten choice we are being offered between Napa Pipe and Measure N. We can so no to ham-handed policymaking and go about the hard work of building a sensible policy that will work for all. Vote no on Measure N.

Napa Valley Register Copyright © 2009