Napa Confidential: Limits on hillside development will rise again

                                                                           

     Last year's mandatory stream set-back and timber cutting initiative to protect Napa County's wooded hillsides was disqualified on a technicality. But it will not go away and could still end up before the state supreme court. There it might well be reinstated, but even if it isn't the initiative will rise again. And next time the number of signatories in the county will rise with it, as will stakes for both the undervalued watershed and those misguided organizations opposing its preservation.
    The so-called wine "industry" - they  used to be "farmers and "winemakers" - is working behind the scenes to propose a watered-down version of the initiative in hopes of saving some face and forestalling stricter regulations next year. But any compromise in this age of The Donald is opposed by what I guess we must now refer to as "wine industrialists." For instance, a spokesman for the Napa Valley Vintners still publicly refers to development in  the hills as "farming."
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