Home
Valley News
 |
|||
|
Suisun Valley. The county orderly
growth law, which
freezes zoning in the valley, will
sunset in 2010 and can be revised. A tourist destination A group called the Suisun Valley Fund Advisory Committee meets every month at Wooden Valley Winery to work on a plan. Valley farmers, Fairfield elected officials and others plot the future of the valley. “I think we can keep it in ag,” said group member and Fairfield City Councilman Jack Batson. |
Gary Goldsmith/Daily Republic
Doreen Lum checks young plants in her greenhouse at The Vegetable Patch on Rockville Road.
| ||
|
But not the agriculture of the
past, with vast orchards shipping
pears, cherries and other
produce to locations all over the
United States. The packing
houses have disappeared. Foreign
competition has emerged. “We’re in transition, slowly but surely, to more retail,” Batson said. “Ag tourism seems to be emerging.” This is the vision of Suisun Valley as a mini-Napa or Sonoma, taking its place amid the region’s wine country. It would have 10 or so wineries, as well as produce stands and other attractions. Corporations own some of Napa’s most famous wineries. Traffic on Highway 29 up the Napa Valley can be a nightmare. Suisun Valley would be Napa with a more human face and scale. Customers could stop and chat with Larry Balestra of Larry’s Produce or Ron Lanza of Wooden Valley Winery. Under this scenario, Interstate 80 is no longer the force that inevitably brings subdivisions to Suisun Valley. Instead, it is the conveyor of tourists who are the valley’s economic salvation. Batson has no interest in Suisun Valley going from farms to subdivisions. “We consider this to be a quality-of-life issue for people in the city of Fairfield, that people can go out, get away from the city into a more rural environment, buy some fresh food and some superior wines,” Batson said. But Suisun Valley has only two wineries, too few to make it a tourist magnet. Having another eight or so open means private landowners will have to make the big, risky investment to develop wineries. |
Some landowners such as
Ray Ferrari are skeptical. Ferrari
said he’s letting his fields
go fallow because he can’t
make money off of them. He
doesn’t see Suisun Valley as a big tourist destination. People can come to see vineyards and two wineries. There’s nothing to promote in Suisun Valley. People can go to Napa Valley instead, Ferrari said. “You tell me why anyone would come from San Francisco to go see Suisun Valley?” Ferrari said. Getting agritourism started Desmond Jolley is director of the Small Farm Program at the University of California, Davis. Since 1998, he’s worked to promote what he calls “agritourism.” Agritourism can be many things. It can be wineries, farmers letting people stay overnight on their farm for a rural experience, produce stands, people picking their own fruit, hikes, photography, painting, cooking schools, and places for business and church retreats. “There’s just no end to the possibilities,” Jolley said. There are at least a dozen associations in California promoting agritourism for various areas, he said. Apple Hill is an example of agritourism, Jolley said. The area in the Sierra Nevada foothills of El Dorado County foundered in the late 1960s, with the decline of the pear industry. Now some 50,000 people visit in apple season to go to farms and markets, he said. “That has actually revitalized small farming in the foothill area,” Jolley said. Agritourism areas need publicity, promotion and creativity, Jolley said. “Some farmers may not be interested in that,” Jolley said. “It’s very management-intensive. It’s easier just to sell the land. You have ready money upfront.” He took a group of people on a tour of the Suisun area, including Pleasants Valley, Jolley said. “They are just flabbergasted there is such beauty out there,” he said. |
“The trick is being able
to generate more revenues
without spoiling the countryside,
without turning it into traffic
jams and that kind of thing.”
Zoning changes needed Nor do the existing zoning laws in Suisun Valley allow for all of the tourist-type attractions that some people envision. Linda and Stephen Tenbrink have farmed in the valley since the early 1980s. She thinks Suisun Valley must become more than a beautiful place to drive and look at the countryside. She’d like to see more wineries, more produce stands, more ways for visitors to interact with the farmers. She’d like to see opportunities to start bedand- breakfasts and spas that are difficult to build under existing zoning. “When people think of Napa Valley, they’re not just thinking about vineyards,” she said. “They’re thinking about, ‘Where am I going to get a massage, where am I going to go to eat’ ...We’re a culture of people who have those expectations.” Tenbrink talked about Suisun Valley remain a farming region. “This is our lifestyle. This is what we love to do. This isn’t just our jobs, this is our home, our heritage,” Tenbrink said. But she’s concerned about regulations that hamper creative ideas. She’s concerned about farmers being forced to provide open space and lovely landscaping for Fairfield-Suisun while losing money. “Everyone just comes and enjoys it without any sweat off their backs,” Tenbrink said. Solano County during the next three years will revise its General Plan. It will do a special section on Suisun Valley. “They’re interested in ag tourism in Suisun Valley,” county planner Harry Englebright said. “I think there’s interest in more fruit stands. They certainly want to encourage more wineries. We may have to look at our regulations.” Click here to continue |
|