No need to second-guess Eco-village planning

By Herbert Ford

How interesting to note in the Register that the self-interest-serving Save Rural Angwin group is now latching onto relatively huge hunks of wine-interest money to employ consultants who will attempt to second- guess and micromanage Napa County’s planners in their current EIR work relative to Angwin’s Eco-village.

What a waste! And what an insult to the award-winning planning staff of our county.

One notes that SRA’s Allen Spence is concerned about the capacity of Angwin’s roads and water systems to handle the Eco-village. Those are exactly the concerns I have voiced for the past 30 years as one vineyard and winery after another has gotten approval to chop down Angwin’s forests and do business on Howell Mountain.

The only difference is that the Angwin Eco-village won’t be chopping down one tree; it will add trees — many of them — to the community.

And the already-proven water resource for the village will not diminish one Angwinite’s water supply; it may even increase the water supply through its unique, wintertime rain catching system. Road-wise, changes to accommodate the vineyards’ and wineries’ increased Angwin traffic generation have always been smoothly and promptly met by a combination of county and individual effort. Why should it be any different for the Eco-village?

While Angwin may be characterized by the county as a “rural” community, it certainly operates like a small city. Angwin has four schools; a four-year, fully-accredited college; four or five water systems; nearly a score of outlying vineyards; three wineries, either built or planned; cleaning service; a copy center; the largest of the county’s nine volunteer fire companies; an ambulance company; accountants and tax preparers; an airport, one of only two in the county; aircraft repairs; attorneys; auto repairing; a bookstore; contractors of several kinds; carpet cleaning; dentists; two churches, one arguably the largest in Napa County; estate-planners; a savings and loan association; a post office; massage; music instruction; a notary public; psychologists; plumbing contractors; printing; a radio station; real estate agents; a supermarket; a launderette; a youth center; welding; the county’s biggest co-generation plant; a sewage disposal system; a community council and more.

There are many people in Angwin and throughout Napa County who want the Eco-village to become reality. The fact that its planners are bending over backwards to meet and even exceed today’s serious environmental challenges deserves praise rather than the self-interest condemnation of the SRA.

(Ford lives in Angwin.)

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