Blasting for new winery riles neighbors Blasting for new winery riles neighbors (March 05, 2003)

** Crews encounter rock while drilling tunnels to place the new winery underground. County didn't notify downhill neighbors in La Honda.

By Marion Softky
Almanac Staff Writer

T.J. Rodgers' new winery, under construction west of Skyline Boulevard, is a little like sausage. The end result may be wonderful, but you don't want to see -- or hear -- how it's made.

That's certainly the view in La Honda, where residents see an industrial gash in a bucolic hillside, and wince at daily blasting, as construction crews dynamite three tunnels into the green hill above their rural community.

When completed, the 300-foot-long tunnels will house a winery on the 173-acre property where Mr. Rodgers and Valeta Massey of Woodside aim to make the best merlot in the world. Outside the tunnels, Mr. Rodgers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor, is planting vineyards that, he hopes, will win prizes for protecting and restoring the natural environment.

This was the vision last March when Mr. Rodgers won a grading permit from the San Mateo County Planning Commission to move some 31,185 cubic yards of earth for improvement of Langley Hill Road, and construction of the underground winery he calls "Clos de la Tech."

Somehow the Cuesta La Honda Guild, a community of some 300 homes just downhill from the winery, was never notified of the hearing, and did not appear. The county has apologized, and attributed the mistake to "human error."

When construction crews began drilling into what they thought was going to be dirt, they encountered rock about 30 to 40 feet into the hill, said Ms. Massey on a recent tour of the winery site. The schedule slipped more than a month as they scrambled to get state and federal permits for the blasting.

"We got surprised by the rock. All our geology reports said there was no rock," says Ms. Massey, who is in charge of the project. "The rock is basalt; it's 10 times stronger than concrete."

The blasting began in December, recalls Janet Clark of the Cuesta La Honda Guild. "It shakes windows, it spooks people and animals, it wakes babies," she says. "It's totally unpredictable."

The blasting should be completed by June, Ms. Massey promises. The crew sets off two or three explosions per day. Noise measurements in La Honda are within the county's acceptable noise levels, she says.

Once the heavy construction is complete, workers will restore the hillside as closely as possible to its previous contours, Ms. Massey says. They have even stockpiled all the topsoil that has been removed, and plan to replace it and plant it with California natives. Rocks saved from the blasting are being stored in piles to be used in the landscaping.

"When this is all over, you won't know there are holes in the ground," says Ms. Massey. "We will do the best we possibly can to make it as natural as possible."

Big construction site

Looking from below at the big notch in the hillside packed with a cement plant and heavy equipment, it is still hard to visualize the promised return to natural contours.

But Ms. Massey is thorough, organized, sincere, and convincing. An electrical engineer, she relishes her transfer from designing tiny computer chips to managing big construction.

The flat area accommodates heavy equipment, cars, an office and a cement plant. Having the cement plant at the construction site saves some 3,000 truckloads of cement traversing two miles of Langley Hill Road, she notes. "The plant reduces truck traffic and increases safety for the crew."

A short walk away -- stepping aside for an occasional cement mixer -- the mouths of the three tunnels yawn huge and dark over the green hillside.

Imposing as they look, the tunnels are carefully engineered so that the wine will flow downhill by gravity from the fermentation cave, to the cave with barrels, and then to the bottling cave. The caves are so big that the front of the central cave will accommodate offices, and an apartment for Mr. Rodgers and Ms. Massey. In the bottling cave there will be rooms for seasonal workers or friends who come up to help pick and crush grapes.

Already grapes are budding in serried ranks on about 25 acres of unplowed, west-facing hillsides. Ultimately Clos de la Tech owners expect to plant almost 80 acres of grapes to produce 2- to 2-1/2 tons per acre. "We'll get grapes this year," Ms. Massey says hopefully.

Mr. Rodgers and Ms. Massey are particularly proud of a special machine they had custom-built in Germany to handle the grapes with minimal impact on the land. The multi-purpose tractor with rubber tires will straddle two rows and is pulled up and down the hill by cable, Ms. Massey explains. It can be used to plant individual grapes with an augur, mow, weed, spray and pick -- all by hand and all without damaging the land. "Anything we disturb, we replace by natives," Ms. Massey says.

Farther around the hillside, fourth generation Skyline resident Lou Bordi is in charge of the dirt excavated from the tunnels -- 19,000 cubic yards of it. He sorts out the rock into piles for use in future landscaping, and then places the soil on a hillside that is carefully engineered so dirt won't run into Langley Creek and disturb threatened steelhead trout and other rare animals.

"The topsoil is parked, protected, and will be returned," Ms. Massey says. "This is all Lou Bordi's work. He is so good with dirt."

Issues with neighbors

Nevertheless, many neighbors are uncomfortable with the winery. Besides the blasting, they worry the project is too large, that it may affect water supplies and wildlife, and set a precedent for the Napa-ization of San Mateo County's coastal hills into vineyards. "This seems to me overkill on a very fragile landscape," says neighbor Ami Jaqua.

Cathy Crane of Yerba Buena Native Plant Nursery, another neighbor, worries about impacts from the project on the natural environment, especially fences. "The fencing of large areas makes a tremendous difference in the movement of wildlife in natural areas," she says.

Ms. Massey, who is reaching out to neighbors, says that only the actual vineyards are being fenced, with about 7,500 linear feet of deer fence installed so far. There are no perimeter fences, and no fences over creeks.

Down in Cuesta La Honda, they also worry about noise, creeks, night light, and water. Ms. Clark notes that the county's environmental studies did not include blasting, or the effects the noise might have on wildlife, particularly nesting birds. "If it scares horses and dogs, it will probably freak out birds as well," she says.

Ms. Massey says they are having a biological assessment prepared of the impacts of blasting noise on wildlife, and expect no problems. "I'm pretty confident," she says. "I watched raptors mating while blasting was going on. They didn't stop. It was beautiful."

Downhill neighbors are particularly concerned about possible impacts of the winery project on the creeks below, and on their water supply. A future vineyard is proposed above the water intake for their reservoirs in Woodhams Creek. "We want to prevent any use of that area because it a potential contaminant of our water supply," says Ms. Clark.

Ms. Massey is negotiating this and other issues with the neighbors. "We will make sure that nothing will get in their water," she says.

People in La Honda are so worried about the project that a record 75 turned out to a meeting in February. "The real issue is, this sets a precedent. That really concerns a lot of people," says Ms. Clark. "We just want to safeguard our water system and make sure the Santa Cruz Mountains don't become the next Napa Valley."

Mr. Rodgers and Ms. Massey will be coming back later this year for a use permit to operate their winery. They are asking for permission to make 10,000 cases per year, instead of the 2,500 allowed under the county ordinance. There are no plans for wine tasting or public access to the property.

"Our goal is to make it look as beautiful and natural as possible," Ms. Massey says.