Napa, CA
For immediate release by Napa Valley Land Stewards Alliance
May 7, 2003
Contacts:
George Bachich, president
Mike Rodrigues, referendum coordinator
For more information: www.landstewards.org
STREAM SETBACK ORDINANCE SUCCESSFULLY CHALLENGED BY REFERENDUM
Napa Valley Land Stewards Alliance (NVLSA) has declared its Stream Setback Ordinance referendum petition drive a success, as evidenced by its delivery to the County today of petitions bearing over 6,700 signatures. "The support for this referendum has been overwhelming," said George Bachich, NVLSA president, "We received over 3,000 more signatures than we needed for a successful referendum." Bachich indicated that a successful referendum requires the Napa County Board of Supervisors to either repeal the ordinance or refer it to the voters at the next election.
NVLSA's Referendum Coordinator, Mike Rodrigues, reports that even though the referendum petition was very well received and most people readily signed it, his biggest challenge was to get it into the hands of enough people in the limited time allowed. According to Rodrigues, State law requires that all referendum signatures be gathered within 30 days after the ordinance is passed. Since each petition must include the full, final text of the ordinance, Rodrigues says he could not print his petitions until the ordinance was actually passed and a final copy received from the County. That meant he was not able to get the petitions printed and begin gathering signatures until April 14, six days into the 30 day period.
According to Rodrigues, signature gathering works best on weekends. "But the first weekend after petitions were ready was Easter weekend," he said, "so not many petition carriers and not many signers were available, and the signature drive got off to a very slow start." That, combined with April's inclement weather, says Rodrigues, had many people wondering whether enough signatures could be gathered in time.
"Fortunately", said Rodrigues, "the weekend of April 26 brought nice weather, so our petition carriers were able to contact more people. Then, a lot of petition signers began asking if they, too, could carry petitions, and I began to realize that we were riding a wave of community support for the referendum. The community involvement was much greater than we anticipated, and signature collections began to accelerate rapidly. The enthusiastic public reception of our referendum petition is what really made this work." Rodrigues says he stopped signature gathering three days early, once it became obvious that the goal was being exceeded.
According to Bachich, NVLSA members feel that the Stream Setback Ordinance is an unjustified, arbitrary, and senseless regulation. Bachich says it needlessly deprives thousands of property owners of legitimate use and enjoyment of their property, in exchange for no real environmental gain. "Over 6,700 Napa County voters have exercised their constitutional right of referendum to ask the Board of Supervisors to reconsider its decision and either repeal the Stream Setback Ordinance, or subject it to full voter scrutiny," says Bachich. "If the Supervisors fail to repeal this ill-conceived ordinance, the voters themselves will have to reject it," he said.
Bachich says Napa Valley Land Stewards Alliance is a local citizens group dedicated to bringing balance and sound environmental reasoning to local land use regulations. "As Napa County works to preserve the health and beauty of the Napa River Watershed by revising its conservation regulations, we want to ensure that good stewardship is encouraged, while private property rights are respected," he said. Bachich says people can learn more about NVLSA at www.landstewards.org.
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