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Santa Barbara County wine industry gets special session with supervisors later this month

Flickr member Damian Gadal
A vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Barbara County

The Santa Barbara County wine industry will get another chance to address lawmakers regarding a proposed set of new rules for wineries and vineyards. 

A special County Board of Supervisors meeting is scheduled for November 22. The vote to postpone the issue by a few weeks came after several hours of discussion Tuesday at a Supervisors meeting in Santa Maria.

The winery community is generally expressing concern over the county's Winery Ordinance Update, saying it unfairly favors larger operations when it comes to events and other activities allowed on the various properties.

Santa Barbara County Supervising Planner Davide Lackie said Wednesday that the process to update the rules has been in the works since 2011 and came about to address some concerns developing in the county's agricultural areas.

Lackie said there is gray area in the rules that needs to be cleaned up to make the planning process more labor and cost efficient. 

He also said there are land-use issues and the county wants to "promote the primary use of those agricultural parcels as the growing of the grapes and the making of the wine, and that tasting rooms and events could be complementary, but they are clearly secondary."

Lackie said the meeting later this month could end in a variety of ways, including with the Board of Supervisors calling for a task force to further investigate the issues.