Napa Pipe Vote Postponed

Monday night's continued special meeting of the Napa County Conservation, Development and Planning Commission ended without a vote on whether or not to recommend the proposed Napa Pipe development to the county board of supervisors.

It was, in the words of commission chair Michael Basayne, "a little bit of a confusing evening."

Planning commissioners had arrived ready to hold their deliberations and vote, only to find themselves, at the recommendation of county staff, reopening a public hearing they'd thought had been closed last month.

Perhaps because public comment had been closed, fewer than 100 people turned out for this meeting, held in the same venue —Napa Valley College's Little Theater — that had overflowed with more than 250 at last month's session.

As Napan Ginny Simms pointed out to the commission, many people may have stayed away from Monday's meeting because the public hearing had been closed at the end of the five-hour March 21 marathon.

County staff had recommended reopening the hearing because of the volume of written comments still coming in after March 21.

The result was a mixed bag that may have left nobody satisfied: A series of public comments — for, against and questioning the proposal — was followed by a partial deliberation in which three commission members indicated their support of housing development at Napa Pipe, although at different densities. (For excerpts from their comments, please see .)

The commission will resume deliberations at its regular meeting in the county building May 2, following a final bout of public comment that Basayne said would be restricted to people who had not spoken previously, with a three-minute time limit.

The May 2 meeting is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. A video of Monday night's meeting, filmed by James Raymond of , will be available on the county website.

For more on last night's meeting, see the report Planning commission delays Napa Pipe decision until May, by Peter Jensen.