First a few definitions:

“1992 Building” This refers to the existing building here prior to the use permit application in 1995.

“1996 Building” This refers to my main metal winery facility.

“2002 Building” This refers to the two story building finished in 2002.

“2012 Building” This refers to the addition partly finished.

History

In 1994 I started David Coffaro Winery and got bonded with the ATF. I started making 400 cases in my garage. In 1995 I wanted to start selling directly to the public so I asked for a USE permit to construct a simple metal building, “1996 Building”. I had a great deal of problems dealing with Sonoma County. The State of California and the ATF were very accommodating. After resolving several issues with Sonoma County, it came down to one last issue and this problem existed for months. If I remember right it was about the Scenic Corridor. One agency wanted me to plant trees to cut off noise because the “1996 building” would be too close to the road they would not come out and take a look). Another agency wanted me to cut down trees because they were too close to the road. Obviously the two agencies were not communicating with each other because I already had a large row of pine trees, 700 feet along my property. Finally after getting nowhere for months, a friend suggested I call my supervisor. He came out to take a look and decided it was not necessary to cut down all the trees. He called a meeting at the planning commission and got up to speak and my winery building was approved in less than 5 minutes. I received a permit to produce 8,000 cases. This year we hope to produce 4,000 to 5,000 cases. This total has not changed for over 10 years.

I have no plans to expand. In 1998 I decided I needed another building, “2002 building“, because I did not want to store wine off the property. I obtained another USE permit and started on plans. I found out I could construct a two story structure with the upstairs being an area used for marketing and promotional activities for non paying guests so I decided to present plans. To this day I have regretted the decision to construct the upstairs. It is never used by any customer and we have no distributors so it sits idle except for an occasional family member who helps at events, about three times a year for a total of 10 days in the whole year.

Again like the “1996 Building”, I had a great deal of trouble getting the project through Sonoma County. One person wanted me to construct a commercial kitchen but it was a residence. I could not have a commercial kitchen so that took many months to resolve. I remember being told once after complaining to my contractor, that someone had told him “If he wants to construct this upstairs he will have to jump through all the hoops just like big wineries”. It took about two years with many similar problems like the one about the trees, but in 2001 it was finished.

There was an existing building, “1992 Building” alongside this larger two story structure which had been used to store wine for 15 years. I certainly was not hiding the fact. I thought I had the right. In 2003 I realized I needed to store wine in the larger storage area under the guest area. I did not think that would be a problem. I thought I had the right. After that for 7 years I stored wine in the”2002 Building” right in the open with no problems. I even had employees of Sonoma County come by for tasting so I was not hiding anything. I thought it was accepted.

In 2008 I was approached by a friend who wanted me to custom crush 1000 cases for him. I did so but realized if he was to continue to custom crush here I needed another small addition to store my equipment, like empty barrels and vineyard equipment. I was told by everyone I knew to just do it and not contact the County of Sonoma. I said I had nothing to hide and I wanted to do the right thing so I asked for an Agricultural building and was told they do not do those anymore. So we decided to ask for a commercial addition like the main building where I had been storing the equipment and wine. We were denied after also presenting detailed plans to construct a handicap restroom with a very extensive ramp alongside the “2002 building”. After many months we found out we could only construct a residential garage so I went ahead because I figured this would work to store my equipment.

The “2012 building” started in 2010. The inspector who came out was very grumpy but we dealt with him OK. When we were finally ready to close in, after all the electrical was done, this guy came out and saw that we were packing up some wine stored in the “1992 building” not associated with the project. At that time I had been storing wine in the “1992 Building since 1996 right in the open, 15 years without anyone questioning it. Shouldn’t there be some grandfather rule? He immediately said we could not have wine in that building. I was shocked. Again I have never hid anything. The “1992 Building” was not part of the project.

Since then, 23 months ago, Sonoma County has done everything to make it impossible for me to finish this project. Construction wise, the cost to do what they want would be in the $50,000 to $100,000 range. It would also involve my losing a great deal of my business and cost considerably more. I will explain:

We store wine on the property because we sell directly to the public. As I said we have no distributor nor do we sell to retailers. We sell mostly “Futures” at wholesale prices. We make over 20 different wines. Customers may pick up their wine (already paid for on “Futures”) any day of the week. We also have permits in other states to ship directly to our customers so we need to have access to all the 20+ wines and past vintages. We store them on pallets as little as 20 cases. That means we need an area to store at least 50 pallets flat on the ground in order to get to the wine. Like I said we only produce 4,000 cases so on average we produce less than 200 cases of each wine and extra cases are stacked up high in one of the storage areas. Installing sprinklers would limit the height and we would not be able to stack as much wine. Installing sprinklers and or new sheetrock would require us to remove all the wine. I have found no facility that would allow me to store wine in this way and to keep it at the right temperature. If I had to move all this wine to another facility I would have to hire someone full time to hand wine out to my customers off the premises. Customers would not be purchasing more wine because they would not be able to taste. The only solution I can think of is to move wine outside in the winter months, one section at a time to construct the 2 hour firebreak, sprinklers or sheetrock. Of course that would still involve a loss of business and be very complicated.

I am asking for a compromise.

I want to construct a handicap spot over by the “2002 Building”. I don’t think I should be required to give wheelchair access inside the “2002 building”. This modification inside would cost me more than the whole “2012 addition”. Also the building is always locked and is not allowed access by the public. Employees occasionally have access for work related duties. The job description for these employees would not allow wheelchair employment. Most work is heavy lifting, forklift work and vineyard work, none of which could be done on a wheel chair. If an employee was unable to do the job, the person would be on disability until able to return to work.

The upstairs residence is rarely used and only by family members. Do you really think wine will catch on fire? All of these storage areas below the upstairs building will have no winemaking activities. Only lights are used so no hazardous electrical activities.

I am willing to have wheelchair access to the “2012 building” but I don’t know why it would be necessary regarding the work requirements of employees mentioned above. Also, my plans are no longer to store custom crushing barrels in this new addition.

In closing, I have already spent way too much on this project. It was supposed to be simple. The “2012 Building” has been incomplete for two years now and thus exposed to the elements. Over the last few years we have presented three sets of plans to Sonoma County. I have had engineers, architects and contractors. I was hoping for this small addition “2012 building” to cost $50,000 and I am way above that and have no hopes insight for a finished building.