'Napa Pipe' redevelopment to encourage urban wineries

(Decanter) - A new development in the City of Napa may encourage 'wine ghettoes' where small-scale wineries can pool resources, officials say.

After eight years of deadlock, the plan to convert 62.3ha of abandoned industrial property on the Napa River into a ‘mixed use’ residential and commercial community was approved on Tuesday by Napa County.

County Supervisor Keith Caldwell called the development a ‘blueprint for city-centred growth. Our workforce will live in the cities while protecting our agricultural land.’

Known as the Napa Pipe, the proposed development includes 954 homes, 13.75ha of publicly accessible parks, trails and a community farm.

There will also be ‘substantial land available for industry,’ Keith Rogal of developers Rogal, Walsh and Mol said.

This would potentially include small-production wineries modelled after so-called ‘wine ghettoes’ in urban and suburban areas like Walla Walla and Santa Barbara (an office park dominated by distribution centres not far from the Napa Pipe has been burgeoning) where small wineries — making as little as 1,000 cases — can operate independently but share resources.

‘We would love to see that,’ Rogal said. ‘Obviously, there are a lot of people who want to be a part of the [winemaking] community, but it would be good for it to be more accessible.