News Release
Starting in February 2023, Santa Cruz County officials and staff began considering the idea of a new Cuisine Tourism initiative for the Sonoita/Elgin area. Please see the PRT online archives for the full background on this topic.
The effort has gone by several names: Winery District Master Plan, Cuisine Tourism Overlay District, Tourism Plan, etc. Community outreach meetings started in the Fall of 2023 and then in January of 2024, there was a large meeting held at the Elgin School where the community expressed concern and input. Coming out of that meeting, a steering committee comprised of 73 locals began meeting over the following six months. That group learned about overlay districts, analyzed community survey results, launched a new survey to gather more input from the community, analyzed more survey results, and had lengthy, lengthy—and we mean lengthy—discussions about the pros, cons, concerns, and opportunities.
The folks on the steering committee, including our neighbors at the wineries and other tourist-focused businesses, were primarily focused on using the concept of an overlay district for the preservation and thoughtful planning for the future growth of our community.
Initially, the committee work was being facilitated by a contractor associated with the County; but as of May, that contract has ended, and the effort is solely on the shoulders of the committee of local residents. The six months of work culminated in the committee voting to move forward with the process (as reported in the PRT on June 19, 2024) and, as of the end of June, the committee has downsized to a group of 24 residents.
What does moving forward mean?
It means the committee is willing to work with the County staff to select a new consultant who will work with us to draft some ideas of what an overlay district could look like, and what it could do for our community. Any drafted ideas would come directly back to the community for consideration, input, and ultimate decision.
What is the committee doing?
The first thing the committee did after the end of the County facilitator contract was change the name. We are not focused on cuisine tourism; we are focused on preservation and planning. The new name is the: Sonoita-Elgin Planning and Preservation Committee.
We have communicated the vote to move forward to the County staff and are currently awaiting an update regarding the grant extension.
There is a separate business-focused component to the grant that several Sonoita/Elgin businesses are discussing and engaging on. Those businesses include some of our restaurants, some of our wineries, the hardware store, and some of the ranches/farms. While it is a part of the same county grant, it is not the focus of our committee.
What’s the deal with the extension?
The original 73-member committee felt strongly about gathering more community input. The additional time to build a new survey, send it out, collect everyone’s responses and analyze it ate up a chunk of the original grant timeline. The County is requesting a 12-month extension to give our committee time to thoroughly work on the project.
For anyone not familiar with grant writing, grants require adherence to a documented timeline. Failure to do so can jeopardize your future capacity for receiving grants.
How will the committee communicate updates?
During that last round of surveying, we learned that no matter how we communicated, a chunk of the community was not seeing the communication. We used Facebook, NextDoor, paper flyers hung up at hotspots (like the Post Office), direct emails to businesses, and even resorted to driving around to talk to businesses face-to-face. A huge chunk of the community still wasn’t aware of what was going on.
To streamline communications and give the community ample notice of updates from here on out, all committee updates will be communicated via the PRT.
When we have something to show, or if we need to gather some broad input on something, a notice will be published to announce a public meeting.
Is everyone on the committee in favor of an overlay district?
Nope. We’ve got folks all across the spectrum. Some people are in favor, some not. Some focused on the strong preservation of the community, and some wanting to find a balance with tourism. Some focused on water availability, and some who are confident in the water reserves in our wells.
Who is on the committee?
Gail Christmann, Mary Darling, David Dorsey, Dottie Farrar, Edwin Gaines, Aaron Gudenkauf, Nita Gulbas, Bruce Hamilton, Tina M. Hamilton, Shannon Harwell, Burton Hume, Bart Lawrence, Toni Leo, Carrietta White Lumia, Pat McNamara, Josh Mentesana, Jeff Nork, Leonard Ordway, Matthew Richards, Kati Spencer, Kiyo Taylor and Ron Yospur