County Supervisors Meet on Napa Pipe

Find all our Napa Pipe reporting, with links to other media, at our Napa Pipe topic page: napavalley.patch.com/topics/Napa-Pipe. 

Monday at 1:30 p.m., the Napa County Board of Supervisors takes up Napa Redevelopment Partners' scaled-down Napa Pipe proposal, with 700 to 945 apartments and townhomes.

The public hearing at the Napa Valley Opera House is the latest in a protracted series of public meetings that began in early 2011 and is likely to continue well into 2013 and perhaps even beyond.

The latest development proposal for the former industrial site on the east bank of the Napa River also includes a Costco store for the estimated 27,000 Napa County residents who currently drive elsewhere to shop at the members-only retail giant.

"I think we can confidently say we have left no stone unturned," said Napa County Planning Commissioner Tony Scott, as he prepared to vote in favor of the developers' proposal at the commission's final Napa Pipe meeting last October.

A 3-2 majority of the planning commission, with Michael Basayne and Jim Fiddaman siding with Scott, voted to approve the project's environmental impact report (EIR) and send the proposal on to the supervisors.

Commissioners Heather Phillips and Matt Pope were in the minority, voting for the second time against approving the EIR for Napa Pipe.

The proposed development just outside Napa city limits has been controversial since it was first outlined more than four years ago as a mix of housing and business with 3,000-plus dwelling units.

Click here to read the origins of Napa Pipe in a detailed 2008 magazine article by this reporter.

The project's environmental impact report has been circulated twice, for extended periods, and aired in a series of hours-long public meetings during which scores of county residents took their turn at the microphone to voice their support or opposition.

The planning commission had been split on the proposal since May, 2012, when it voted 3-2 to send Napa Pipe to the supervisors before agreeing to revisit the decision with the October meeting.

The pause gave Napa Redevelopment Partners time to scale its proposal down to one with fewer homes and the addition of Costco, which has been lobbying its Napa members to support the plan.

Traffic, water and infrastructure impacts have recurred as objections from Napa Pipe opponents, while supporters emphasize the promise of affordable housing for county residents and the renewal of the Napa River waterfront property.

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For more about the Napa Pipe development, including Michael Haley's traffic analysis and links to other reporting, please see our Napa Pipe topic page at napavalley.patch.com/topics/Napa-Pipe. Articles include:

• Michael Haley: Napa Pipe Comment for January 14 meeting of the Board of Supervisors
• What Really Happened at the Napa Pipe Meeting?
• Letter: "Napa Pipe is Bad for Students"

• County Holds Hearings on Napa Pipe
• Comment Period Extended on Napa Pipe Report
• Luce “Happy" to Keep Napa Pipe Industrial
• New Napa Pipe Hearings Set
• Where Do You Stand on Napa Pipe?
• How Big Should Napa Pipe Be?
• Was Law Broken at Napa Pipe Meeting?
• Many Voices Expected at Napa Pipe Hearing
• Napa Pipe Vote Postponed
• Napa Pipe Plan Divides County Planners
• Napa Pipe Hearings Canceled as Developers Revise Proposal
• Napa Pipe Returns to Planning Commission

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