S.J. County supervisors OK changes to winery ordinance

STOCKTON — During a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to approve changes to the county’s winery ordinance.

Kerry Sullivan, executive director of the San Joaquin Community Development Department, said that the changes will make it easier for wineries to obey the ordinance and improve their relationships with nearby residential neighborhoods.

“We love that wineries are growing, we love that we’ve streamlined the regulations. We’re hearing that it’s getting easier for wineries to follow the rules because we’ve made them clearer,” Sullivan said.

Jennifer Jolley, principal planner for community development, explained that the changes will primarily affect accessory, marketing and wine release events. She added that her department still needs to craft text amendments to the ordinance and conduct public outreach.

The revisions were influenced by a letter sent to the board by Michael Hakeem, an attorney from Hakeem Ellis & Marengo representing Michael Phillips, co-founder of Michael David Winery.

“My request at this point in time is that these changes not be limited to large wineries, but be applicable to all wineries,” Hakeem said.

Wineries will now be required to utilize parking attendants at events once their primary parking areas reach capacity and vehicles need to be directed to overflow parking lots, instead of one attendant per every 50 attendees, according to the revisions.

Attendance at accessory events will be determined based on the amount of permitted on-site parking available, the proposal states, while attendance at marketing events will be increased to 300 people instead of 150.

Outdoor amplified sound will now be allowed until 10 p.m. instead of 9 p.m., and will also be allowed at accessory events, according to the proposal. Accessory events will now be allowed up to 10 times each month with a maximum attendance of 80 people per event.

Although Supervisor Kathy Miller supported changes to attendance at wine release events, she expressed concerns about changes affecting smaller wineries close to residential neighborhoods that she said may result in noise and traffic complaints.

“I do have a problem with allowing outdoor amplified music at accessory events for all wineries. I think it’s going back to a lot of the issues that drove those changes in the first place. As wineries get more condensed, people are living closer to those wineries,” Miller said.

In other action, the board voted to approve $733,252 to purchase 175 body cameras for the San Joaquin Sheriff’s Office. Axon Enterprises will supply the cameras, along with video management and storage software, training, maintenance and licensing.