Alameda County board adopts zoning and plan amendments aimed at reviving South Livermore wine tourism

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors on May 8 approved general plan and zoning ordinance amendments intended to promote visitor-serving uses in the South Livermore Valley, adopting an addendum to the 1993 area-plan EIR and introducing an amended ordinance for a second reading.

Planning staff recommended a package of changes — including a new Program 141 that would allow clustering plans, two-acre building envelopes for visitor-serving commercial uses (with hotels allowed on larger envelopes), and agricultural conservation easement requirements covering parcels in clustering plans — to help attract hotels, tasting rooms and other tourism-supporting businesses. Ali Abbots of the county planning department told the board the staff recommendation also adopts an addendum that treats a net increase of 150,000 square feet of new visitor-serving commercial space as the cumulative CEQA threshold for the area.

Supporters, led by the Tri Valley Conservancy, said the amendments reflect more than five years of stakeholder work and legal review. Tri Valley Conservancy conservation manager Diana Roberts told the board the proposal preserves landowner flexibility while ensuring conservation: “This would allow a property owner to be able to modify the location, and configuration of their building envelope,” she said, arguing that including the building envelope within the easement preserves the ability to connect to Measure P sewer projects and avoids unintended barriers to development.

Stakeholders from the region, including Rebecca Spector (executive director, Tri Valley Conservancy), Brandon Cardwell (director of innovation and economic development, City of Livermore), and several winegrowers and business owners, urged the board to adopt the staff/TVC-backed language. Speakers repeatedly cited a UC Davis study and Measure P’s requirement that parcels seeking sewer service record conservation easements as reasons to retain the building envelope within easements.

On a policy question of where conditional-use decisions should be heard, the board amended the draft ordinance so the Board of Zoning Adjustments would be the hearing body for clustered visitor-serving conditional use permits rather than the Planning Commission. The board then waived full reading and introduced the ordinance as amended, with roll-call votes recorded in favor of the staff-recommended amendments.

The board’s action included findings that the proposed addendum to the 1993 EIR adequately addresses the amendments and adoption of related general plan changes. Supporters said the package aims to preserve the agricultural character of the South Livermore Valley while enabling clustered commercial development that proponents say is essential for the area’s competitiveness with other California wine regions.

Opponents had raised procedural concerns at earlier hearings and the Planning Commission had recommended a modification to Program 141 that would exclude the building envelope from the conservation easement. Staff and TVC told the board that accepting that Planning Commission change would, in their view, risk stakeholder support, complicate sewer access under Measure P, and reduce landowner flexibility; the board accepted staff’s reasoning.

The ordinance was introduced and will return for a second reading at the next meeting, when the board will take final action on the amended code language and any further technical adjustments.