My Support for Fauquier's Family Farm Wineries
- by: The Fauquier Wine Council
- recipient: The Fauquier Board of Supervisors
In the next two to three months, Fauquier's Board of Supervisors is considering passing a new winery ordinance that would restrict its family farm wineries in several potentially devastating ways.
We ask that you sign the petition below in order to register your support for Fauquier county's family farm wineries and against the proposed county ordinance. You can see the entire petition by clicking under the photo to the left on "letter".
Please read on if you'd like more information about this issue or feel free to skip directly to the petition signing.
In an October 7, 2009 confidential analysis, Fauquier's Deputy County Attorney unequivocally stated that "We are prohibited from regulating any activity that is agricultural and preempted by the State ABC laws from...regulating the sale, tasting and consumption of wine during the regular business hours and within the normal course of business of the winery. " She goes on: "We are permitted to regulate those activities that are 'usual and customary' for wineries only where there is a 'substantial impact' on health, safety, and welfare.
As of this date, the county administrator has not provided any evidence that any of the wineries of Fauquier County are substantially impacting the health, safety, or welfare of the county's citizens. There have been no formal complaints against the county's wineries in the past year. Yet this ordinance would reduce the current and in-place operating rights of the county's wineries, greatly undermining their economic viability.
Under State law, this ordinance is illegal. Yet the county can pass an illegal law. If passed, and in defense of our livelihoods, a lawsuit will have to be initiated against the county at great expense to taxpayers and winery owners. There is no question that several wineries will be forced out of business by the damage and cost of the government's action.
The proposed ordinance tells winery owners what hours their businesses can operate. It prohibits wineries from having caterers prepare food on their property - a right enjoyed by every other property owner in the county. It prohibits wineries from serving any food whatsoever, an action required of every other business that sells alcohol for consumption and a matter of public safety and common sense. It prevents any outdoor amplified music, a right granted to every other business and resident in the county. For the first time it requires business licensing for wineries, a requirement not made of any other agricultural business in the county. And it puts Fauquier's wineries at a fundamental competitive disadvantage with the wineries in surrounding counties which allow all of these activities as required under state law. Finally, the proposed ordinance sets a terrible precedent that if taken up by other counties in the Commonwealth would effectively destroy the economic viability of the only agricultural business that has shown any growth in Virginia over the past decade.
What are they thinking? Fauquier's 20 family farm wineries employ over 250 people and have together invested over $50,000,000 in preserving over 600 acres in agricultural lands in the county. Wineries are the only agricultural business that attracts sizeable tourism revenues and the only one that pays substantial --much less measurable-- sales taxes to the county treasurer.
We need your help now. We are small farm owners who have invested every penny and our dreams in our businesses. To meet state law, we must grow our own grapes to make our wine. In return, we are given the right to sell our wine without local restriction as long as we do not disturb our neighbors. We are not disturbing our neighbors. Most wineries take years to break even. The Commonwealth understands this and has passed laws that give us the chance to pursue our dreams and recoup our investments in spite of the enormous costs associated with starting our businesses. The county is threatening to illegally disregard those laws, effectively taking away our rights and our income. This is wrong.
We need your help now!
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We, the undersigned, are Fauquier County Residents. We enjoy the amenities and open space protection provided by our wineries. We also appreciate the benefit of substantial tax revenues derived from these local agricultural businesses. Therefore, we believe that the county should support its family farm winery owners by:
1. Allowing farm winery retail operations to offer evening hours as provided for under Commonwealth ABC laws and in accordance with their ABC Farm Winery licenses
2. Not restricting visitations, groups, activities, or events provided that the farm winery is in compliance with state health and traffic safety requirements as administered by the Commonwealth's Environmental Health and VDOT offices,
3. Allowing entertainment in the form of indoor and outdoor music provided that such music is not louder than current county noise ordinance permits and does not disturb neighbors,
4. Not imposing any new farm winery restrictions given the continued absence of formal complaints from neighbors and, in the event of such complaints, applying existing ordinances as necessary to bring a farm winery's activities back into compliance with applicable county requirements,
5. Allowing limited food service, either pre-prepared or prepared at the winery in accordance with Health Department regulations, to be at the farm winery so as to encourage patrons who consume wine on-premises to do so with the accompanying intake of food --as indeed is the norm at every other venue that serves alcohol for consumption on-premises.
In sum, it is our desire to see more wineries thriving in Fauquier County, utilizing and protecting agricultural lands, supporting local values, paying wholesale, property, and sales taxes, and creating a magnet for destination tourism that supports the diverse range of local family businesses such as the restaurants, hotels, B&Bs, gas stations, caterers, antique and other retail outlets, farmer's markets, apple, pumpkin, peach, and other roadside farmers located in Fauquier County.
Thank you for taking the time to consider our concerns in this matter. We hope that you will in good faith work with the winery owners and other interested citizens to correct the shortcomings in this ordinance such that our farm family wineries are afforded the full range of protections currently extended under state law and clearly jeopardized under the language of the proposed ordinance.
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