Winery, Brewery Distillery Code Changes March 15 – June 4, 2019 Auzins, Erin
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Public Comments on Proposed Ordinance 2018-0241.2 Winery, Brewery Distillery Code Changes March 15 – June 4, 2019 Auzins, Erin From: Susan Boundy-Sanders <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, March 15, 2019 1:04 PM To: Communications, Comments; Auzins, Erin Subject: Monday's documents Attachments: Reso532AndCoverLetter.pdf; IDontWantToPutAnybodyOutOfBusiness.docx; WhyRuralBuffers.docx; BuildableLandsFourCities.docx Dear Council: Susan Boundy‐Sanders from the Woodinville City Council here, but speaking mostly as a private citizen. Now that the Beverage Ordinance, 2018‐0241, has come to the full Council, I'm attaching a few documents, some modified slightly from those I submitted at Monday's committee meeting. Woodinville's Resolution 532, with its cover letter, is the Woodinville City Council's official position on the ordinance as of mid‐February 2019 ‐‐ in other words, Woodinville's resolution addresses the Executive's transmittal and Chair Lambert's Conceptual Striker. The other three documents are from me as a private citizen, and address specific concerns some of you have raised in conversations with me. In response to the concern, "I don't want to put anybody out of business," a table shows the ways in which the businesses with code complaints against them are not in danger of shutting down. The statement that the ordinance does not threaten agricultural land or farming is refuted with a document that lists several ways in which development in agricultural buffer land violates Best Available Science and fuels land speculation, thereby harming the Agricultural Production District. The third document contains two tables. One lists the 870‐plus acres of vacant and redevelopable commercial land in Woodinville, Redmond, Kirkland, and Bothell as of 2014. The other table lists commercial vacancy rates and commercial development newly opened, under construction, or in design inside the Woodinville city limits. Overall, the goal is to show clearly that Ordinance 2018-0241 is needlessly generous to the businesses that are the primary beneficiaries of the ordinance. The businesses with code complaints against them are mature and robust, with plenty of wealth backing them up. They do not match the study's goal of supporting "burgeoning" businesses, with that word's connotation of newness, tenderness, and vulnerability. My request of you is to realize that nearby cities can and should be the places to host these robust manufacturing, retail, and bar enterprises. Instead, I'd urge you to turn your attention to the entities that really do need and deserve your help: farms and farmers, salmon and other wildlife, and rural homeowners. I hope that as you take up this ordinance you will transform it into something that fits with the many other environmental and agricultural initiatives that King County and its citizens have invested so heavily in, for so long. Specifically, I urge you to: Rescind the ill-conceived and legally questionable Settlement Letter. Enforce code. 1 Strengthen citations and fines. Close loopholes. Do an EIS. Prioritize farming, farmers, and farmability of the land. Modify the ordinance so that it keeps rural and agricultural land, rural and agricultural. Eliminate the overlays. Provide incentives and a timeline for urban activities to move inside the UGA. Kind regards, Susan Boundy-Sanders [email protected] 425.591.3672 17859 149th Ave NE Woodinville, WA 98072-6202 Boundy-Sanders.com 2 “I don’t want to put anybody out of business” – Not a real problem Susan Boundy‐Sanders, as a private citizen 425.591.3672 sboundy‐[email protected] Summary: Because they are renters, have other distribution channels, have other lines of business, or other reasons, no code violators in the Sammamish Valley are genuinely in danger of being put out of business as a result of King County’s ordinance or enforcement. Winery Own or Production or Volume Events Locations Also sold at Notes rent? tasting only? Matthews Own Tasting <6000 cases March 2019: 1‐3 Grapes: Negociant Costco, Retirement project. in 2012 public events per Production: "All" in Walla Village Wines, In addition to paid week on calendar Walla wine.com, events, several free Tasting: Outside Wdnvl (RA totalwine.com events per year for zone). Also have a space in madwine.com Facebook Wdnvl Warehouse Dist communities Feliciana Rent Tasting 2500 March 2019: 1 Grapes: 66‐acre estate south Also B&B in Walla cases/pr public event per of Walla Walla Walla week shown on Production: Walla Walla calendar Tasting: Walla Walla, outside Woodinville (RA zone) Silver Lake Own Tasting 50,000 No events posted Grapes: Negociant QFC, Silver Lake is / Roza Hills cases/year online. Weddings Production: Zillah (near wine.com consumer‐owned, but / Fish at Yakima Yakima) totalwine.com other wineries are Brewing location. Tasting: Outside Woodinville owned by Sal Leone. (RA zone) Sal is retired Land: Vacant parcel in periodontist. Woodinville South Industrial District Cougar Rent Tasting 12,000 None on calendar Grapes: Owns 110 acres of Costco, David Hansen was Crest cases/year grapes on own estate QFC, veterinarian, Deborah Production: Walla Walla Village Wines, a pharmacist for ~25 Tasting: Outside Woodinville wine.com years. 110 acres of (RA zone), Walla Walla, totalwine.com 125‐acre apple Spokane, Dundee OR (SW of madwine.com orchard have been Portland) compasswines.com converted to grapes. Cave B Rent Tasting 5000 None posted for Grapes: 100+ acres estate Village Wines, Seattle neurosurgeon cases/yr Woodinville Production: wine.com purchased several Tasting: Gorge, outside totalwine.com hundred acres in Woodinville (RA zone) madwine.com 1980. Part is now The Gorge Amphitheater. They have sold off 44 condos, inn, spa, and restaurant. Forgeron Rent Tasting 5000 1‐2 per month Grapes: Negociant Village Wines, Opened 2001 in Walla cases/yr posted for Production: Walla Walla wine.com Walla, 2013 in Woodinville Tasting: Walla Walla, outside totalwine.com Woodinville. Woodinville (RA zone) madwine.com compasswines.com Sky River Own Tasting 4500 None listed for Grapes: Negociant QFC, Founded 1997, first cases/yr Woodinville Production: Outside totalwine.com release 1999. Woodinville (RA zone) madwine.com Tasting: Outside Woodinville (RA zone) DeLille Own Tasting 10,000 March 2019: All Grapes: Negociant Costco, Founded 1992. (Chateau) cases/yr posted events Production: Moving to QFC, 2018: Announced that are at Kirkland former Redhook site wine.com production will move Maison. Tasting: Woodinville totalwine.com to Redhook site. Hollywood District (in city), madwine.com 2018: Greg Lill says he Kirkland, sales at Chateau compasswines.com is gradually retiring (outside Woodinville in RA ("stepping back"). zone) Betz Own Production Open 2x/yr for Grapes: Negociant with wine.com Betz family sold to releases designated blocks in 4 AVAs totalwine.com Steve and Bridgit Production: Outside compasswines.com Griessel in 2011. Woodinville in RA zone Bob Betz is now Tasting: None consulting winemaker. Agricultural zoning is not enough to protect farms. Here’s why. There’s nearly universal agreement that the Sammamish Valley and its agriculture are special, beautiful, and worth preserving. Some, however, claim that all that’s necessary to preserve Sammamish Valley agriculture is Agricultural zoning. Here’s why that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Land speculators are pricing farmland out of reach of farmers. Two agricultural parcels in the Sammamish Valley have sold in the past three years for $230,000 to $300,000 per acre [1, 2], compared to Washington’s 2016 average of $12,500 per acre [3]. Two agricultural parcels are currently for sale from $500,000 to $1,625,000 per acre [4]. Developers are approaching farmers with offers to buy their farmland for development. Nonenforcement, and rewarding violators with favorable code changes, set a precedent for loosening land use rules in response to violations. Buffers upslope of Agricultural land are Best Available Science and King County code. The proposed overlays overthrow Best Available Science. Buffers around Ag lands are Best Available Science, encouraged by the USDA to reduce erosion, shield farmland from pests and pathogens, and to infiltrate pollutants [5]. King County’s Special District Overlay 120 (SO‐120) was established to provide a buffer between agricultural and upslope residential uses (at a time when residential was the only likely use) [6]. Salmon need cold, clear, clean water. Properties within a quarter mile of the 100‐year floodplain of the major receiving water – including the Sammamish Valley overlays and properties near them – are exempt from requirements to detain their storm water. They can release water warmed by blacktop and polluted by runoff with minimal treatment for pollutants, and no treatment for temperature [7]. Conversely, farmers tell us that their well water supply has been diminishing rapidly over the past few years. This means less cold, clean water entering the Sammamish River. Crops need darkness. Artificial night time light impairs the growth and flowering of plants [8, 9, 10]. Bats and other nocturnal animals pollinate plants and eat pest insects at night. Studies show that the ecosystem may suffer if feeding is inhibited by artificial night, which blinds bats. [11]. Insects, including pollinators, are mesmerized by artificial night lights and hover around lights rather than going about their usual activities [12]. Crops need clean air. Ground‐level air pollution impairs plants’ ability to