Who is the NVLSA?
We are citizens like you, alarmed about losing the sanctity, privacy, and utility of our homes and properties to poorly considered land use regulations in a county that already has the strictest land use regulations in the state. We are dedicated to bringing balance and sound environmental reasoning to local land use decisions.
What has NVLSA done?
We organized the opposition to the Stream Setback Ordinance. This ordinance purported to protect the Napa River Watershed by establishing buffers from streams, but it went way too far, defining 3,200 miles of Napa County dry washes and gullies as “streams”, establishing setbacks of up to 150 feet on either side of them, and prohibiting virtually all use of the more than 53,000 acres enclosed within those setbacks. After the Board of Supervisors passed this ordinance in spite of massive public opposition at the public hearings, we organized the first successful referendum petition drive in Napa County history. Our successful petition signature drive forced the Stream Setback Ordinance into abeyance and qualified it for the March 2004 ballot as Measure P. We then organized a grass roots election campaign against Measure P, including letters to the editor, roadside signs, newspaper ads, radio ads, public speakers, live TV and radio debates, public demonstrations, and this website. The voters overwhelmingly sided with us and over-ruled the Board of Supervisors by rejecting Measure P with a 64% to 36% vote.
There was considerable pressure to pass Measure P from a formidable alliance between the leaderships of the major agricultural organizations and the entire local political establishment and the local media. Proponents of Measure P included the Napa County Farm Bureau, Napa Valley Grape Growers Association, Napa Valley Vintners Association, Winegrowers of Napa County, U.S. Congressman Mike Thompson, State Assemblyman Wes Chesbro, State Assembly candidate Noreen Evans, County Supervisors Mike Rippey, Brad Wagenknecht, Bill Dodd, and Diane Dillon, Napa Mayor Ed Henderson, all five Napa County City Councils, all five Chambers of Commerce, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Napa River, Save Our Rivers and Farms Coalition, KVON and KVYN Radio, the Napa Valley Register, the St. Helena Star, and the Weekly Calistogan. Only Supervisor Mark Luce and Napa City Councilman Harry Martin’s weekly Napa Sentinel stood with us.
NVLSA stood firmly against this formidable alliance. Despite being branded as “a small band of property rights radicals”, we expanded our ranks to over 1,000 members during the election campaign, recruited hundreds of campaign volunteers and raised and spent over $140,000 provided by hundreds of financial contributors. Our success demonstrates that voters do respond to issues of fairness and common sense, and that if we stick together and remain vigilant we can protect ourselves from onerous, unfair, unnecessary, and counter-productive regulation. But the threat has not gone away, and our unity and vigilance will be required for the foreseeable future.
What is NVLSA going to do now?
We continue to work to ensure reason and balance in policies affecting our right to use and enjoy our property and our homes. Other recent issues of concern to us have been the County’s attempt to have the State Board of Forestry enact special rules for Napa County (which we defeated), the County’s attempt to ban helicopter landings on private property (which we did not defeat), and the recent County CEQA Guidelines Update (which we heavily influenced). Future issues of concern include the coming update of the Napa County General Plan, the imminent implementation of the Napa River TMDL report, the Napa River Baseline Data Report, and the Program EIR. Our goal is to draw as many affected citizens as possible into the debates on these issues and other issues of importance to us. Unfortunately, many people are busy with personal, family, and business affairs, and do not take the time to monitor the activity of their elected representatives and to analyze the impacts of new regulations on their right to use and enjoy their property. Our job is to alert them to threats to the security and sanctity of their property and to tell them how important it is to study these issues and to get involved before their right to object has been lost. We provide a clearing house for information and ideas on these issues, a convenient forum for expression of opinion, a support system comprised of like-minded individuals, a powerful advocacy for property owners, and a vehicle for united political action when necessary.
What principle guides NVLSA?
NVLSA emphasizes that respect for the environment and respect for individual citizens and their property rights are equally important, and that these values are mutually consistent. Individual private property ownership provides a strong incentive for good stewardship. Those who live and work on their land are the labor force that prevent erosion, repair flood and wind damage, and reduce the risk of flood and fire. Rather than hampering their efforts with excessive regulation, we should provide them quality information, so they can work in concert for true environmental gain. NVLSA recognizes that individual owners, armed with the best information, are the best possible stewards of the land. It is from this principle that we draw our name, the Napa Valley Land Stewards Alliance.
What are NVLSA’s resources?
If you feel as we do, then you are our best resource. Your time, your energy, your reasoning abilities, your influence, your creative ideas, your moral support, and whatever money you can contribute will carry us to our goals. If you feel as we do, we need your help. Please join NVLSA today.