Sonoma County: Supervisors accept Sebastopol winemaker's preservation offer

(PD) - Sonoma County supervisors on Tuesday approved an offer by winemaker Paul Hobbs to permanently protect 117 wooded acres near Forestville from development, but they insisted the preservation-oriented gift will not sway them if Hobbs attempts to move ahead with a controversial adjacent vineyard project.

Accepting the easement “in no way mandates, requires or ties the board's hands” in any other matter related to Hobbs, said Supervisor Efren Carrillo, who represents the area.

The land will be permanently placed off limits for development under a conservation easement, administered by the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District. In an unusual move, Hobbs included an endowment of $175,750 to pay for the district's costs in administering the land.

The land is on the same Pocket Canyon-area property where Hobbs cleared 10 acres of timber in 2011 without obtaining the proper county permits. That matter remains under review by county officials and Hobbs has not applied for the permits he would need to convert the cleared land to vineyards, as he apparently intended in the first place.

During Tuesday's meeting, supervisors said they were receiving angry calls and emails from constituents suggesting the conservation easement was somehow intended to influence their decision on the vineyard, should the matter ever come before them. They vigorously denied the two matters were connected.

Nor, said Supervisor Susan Gorin, would rejecting the easement have somehow punished Hobbs for his past conduct.

“If we reject this, it will not save one tree,” she said. “The trees have already been cut” on the neighboring 10 acres.

Hobbs has made himself unpopular with neighbors and county officials with several aggressive vineyard projects, including this property and the clearing of 8 acres near Sebastopol, also in 2011