More events, no easement for Cohn winery

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, at their June 17 meeting, voted 5-0 to grant a use permit by Bruce Cohn of B.R. Cohn Winery allowing him to increase his events capacity, and dropping their January requirement of a perpetual conservation easement on a portion of his property as a condition of the expansion.
At issue is how much extra-agricultural activity can be permitted in an agricultural district without compromising the character of the Valley. “I think we hit a healthy balance,” said First District Supervisor Valerie Brown.
In his request, which he first initiated over two years ago, Cohn asked for four big events per year. Supervisors gave him two, with a review at the end of five years. “He was kept to the two big events, but he could choose to do the two big events on one two-day weekend or two separate days,” said Brown.
The open space easement idea was dropped, she said, because the 48 acres the supervisors had wanted to place in permanent agricultural easement are already protected by the Williamson Act – and have been since Cohn inherited the property in 1974. Brown said she is keeping zealous track of such properties, as the county is now being audited by the State Department of Conservation for compliance with the Williamson Act. To safeguard the Act, she said, she will maintain scrupulous adherence to the rules to continue to preserve agriculture and provide tax credits for those in agriculture.
Cohn said the Act has a number of criteria for staying in its good graces. “And I am,” he said.  “I qualify in all the different areas of the Williamson Act. What I was afraid of [with the imposition of the easement] is that policy they were brainstorming at the county was going to make people exodus from the Williamson Act to avoid the open space easement, and that would have been counter-productive.”
The Williamson Act is designed to maintain the agricultural character of the area by specifying that only a certain percentage of a property can be devoted to production, winery facilities or what they call “nonagricultural” use in exchange for tax advantages.  For his property, 3.2 acres of production activities within the 48 falls well within the allowable limits of the Williamson Act.
Brown said this decision is not a precedent-setter. “You can’t extrapolate what happened on Bruce’s property. Each of the properties is very different in terms of the amount of events they have, the amount of production, the amount of activity they have on their property. Each is seen independently of that.”
Cohn defended his request for expansion saying, “A lot of people don’t understand that the events are really a part of what we’re doing with the agricultural lands. The products have to be sold, not just made. The county is limiting a revenue stream by limiting these events. That’s a matter of opinion, of course. My opinion is that well-run events, the way we do them, help everyone in the Valley – from limousine services, restaurant owners, caterers, hotels, everyone.”