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Board restarts Pleasant Valley agritourism overlay work, approves PlaceWorks contract on consent
Summary
The Solano County Board of Supervisors approved on consent a professional services agreement with PlaceWorks to resume work on a Pleasant Valley Agricultural Tourism zoning overlay, with staff and public commenters emphasizing low‑impact, farm‑centered agritourism.
On the board’s consent calendar the supervisors approved a professional services agreement to restart the Pleasant Valley Agricultural Tourism Overlay planning process with consultant PlaceWorks. The item was on consent and passed as part of a 5-0 consent vote.
Scope and intent Staff and PlaceWorks will resume a civic process that began with public workshops and a 2021 visioning effort, staff said, with a re‑scoped work plan emphasizing low‑impact, direct‑to‑consumer agritourism — farm stays, u‑picks, workshops and small‑scale sales — rather than large commercial development. Planning staff said the overlay covers roughly 5,000 acres of Pleasant Valley and will include two public meetings and a publicly transparent engagement process.
Public comment and concerns Alexis Kofed, president of the Pleasant Valley Agriculture Association, told the board she supports PlaceWorks but urged careful community engagement and a focus on agricultural viability rather than hospitality or highway‑oriented commercial development. “What we need to do is focus on community‑informed framework … that supports low impact, small scale agritourism rooted in working farms,” Kofed said.
Staff background Planning staff said the effort originally started in 2021 and had an in‑person outreach phase that yielded useful feedback; the earlier work was put on hold and has now been rescoped to match board priorities for economic development and agricultural preservation.
Quote “We think that’s appropriate, and we will engage this consultant to act on those actions,” planning manager Alan Calder said of PlaceWorks’s role reengaging landowners and residents.
Next steps Staff will provide the scope of work to supervisors and begin the public engagement described in the agreement. Supervisors asked for copies of the earlier 2021 visioning materials to inform decision‑making.
