The county is creating a policy that may shut down some small businesses in Temecula’s Wine Country.

The county has designed an amendment to change the Citrus/Vineyard Rural Policy Area’s plan – which is part of the Southwest Area Plan, itself part of the larger Riverside County Integrated Plan – to require home owners operating "special events facilities" to sit on 10 acres, rather than the five required previously.

The amendment aims to prevent urbanization of the area and preserve its wine and citrus growing industries, according to Derek Hull, a principal planner with the County of Riverside.

Nonetheless, the amendment discriminates against small businesses and eliminates competition for local wineries, according to some business owners in the region.

The amendment will affect the 11.8 square miles local residents refer to as "Temecula’s Wine Country," though the area sits on county land outside Temecula’s limits.

A public hearing on the proposed amendment is planned for July 23.

The Wine Country is home to more than 20 wineries and numerous smaller businesses, such as houses that serve as bed and breakfasts for tourists, ranches that offer horseback riding lessons, hot air balloon companies which launch and land in open fields and special events facilities which serve as places to hold weddings and reunions, according to local business owners.

Trouble for small businesses

"It’s very unfair to the business owner," Eileen Rivard, a Wine Country resident, said of the plan amendment.

Rivard is a professional wedding planner who hosts ceremonies and receptions at her home.

Her home – which she calls Villa de Amore – sits on Calle Cabernet, a dirt road which winds through patches of desert brush and vineyards before climbing a tall hill.

From the crest of that hill, Villa de Amore peeks out from what looks like an ocean of green.

Rivard fears the plan amendment will close Villa de Amore down because it sits on only five acres.

"I’m a single mom putting three kids through college," she said. "I have no career to go back to. It will be devastating [if the county approves the amendment]. My whole future will be down the tubes."

On June 28, Rivard hosted the kind of event she fears the county will ban. More than 100 people dressed in suits and evening gowns sat in rows of white folding chairs in her home’s courtyard.

Though people were chatting and a woman was singing through a public address system, the event was hardly audible from the parking area less than 150 feet from the courtyard.

The county has no reason to oppose what was taking place on her property that day, she said, standing in front of her home while a young couple took their vows behind her.

The plan amendment favors big businesses by barring their smaller competitors, said Leah DiBernardo, a Wine Country resident.

"This ordinance will affect small businesses and I’m very concerned with that," she said.

In 2004, DiBernardo and her family built a house on Rancho California Rd. and opened The Castle Bed and Breakfast, she said.

Though The Castle has been operating as a bed and breakfast ever since, she is still in the process of getting her plot plan approved.

"They told us we could operate as long as we were working on bringing [The Castle] into compliance," she said.

Additionally, the planning department told DiBernardo she could hold special events as long as fewer than 200 people attended.

She had been following the county’s directions and everything had gone fairly smoothly until recently, she said.

A county staff member she declined to name told her the proposed amendment would derail her business plans.

"As business owners you move forward based on what your government – in whom you put your trust – tells you," she said. "You spend thousands and thousands of dollars and then they Advertisement

[ Berry-Bell and Hall Mortuary ] turn around and tell you something different."

The amendment will have no effect on bed and breakfasts, according to Hull.

Origin of the amendment

Though the amendment will affect the entire region, Villa de Amore provoked the plan amendment’s creation, Hull said.

After the county amended the Citrus/Vineyard Rural Policy Area’s plan for the first time in 2006 the Planning Commission reviewed Rivard’s plot plan.

The plot plan delineated Rivard’s business activities and included a layout of her property.

The amendment barred all commercial activity in the region unless 75 percent of the property on which the business took place was dedicated to agriculture.

Commercial uses, such as day spas, bed and breakfasts and special occasion facilities, were "permitted only when they are secondary, and directly related, to the agricultural operations," according to county records.

The county allowed wineries to conduct these other businesses so wineries would have more than one way to make money, according to the amendment.

"The intent of allowing limited incidental commercial use is to provide economic viability to the primary vineyard and winery operations," it stated.

Therefore, the county instructed Rivard to make several changes, including tearing out almost four acres of olive trees and replace them with vineyards.

"I met zoning. I met every one of their requirements," she said.

Notwithstanding, Villa de Amore was causing noise and parking problems and the county received some complaints, Hull said.

Thus, the county’s Planning Commission denied her plot plan in June 2007, according to county records. Rivard appealed the decision but the County Board of Supervisors upheld the Planning Commission’s decision.

Last fall, Supervisor Jeff Stone instructed the planning department to create a plan amendment that would require such a facility to sit on more acreage, Hull said.

The county hoped more acreage would buffer neighbors from the noise and traffic these events cause, he said.

In addition, the amendment aimed to preserve winemaking as the region’s primary function, Hull said.

Other businesses, such as Villa de Amore, pose a threat to winemaking, he said.

"The problem comes when the intent of the Wine Country is threatened by these [other] uses," he said. "So we don’t lose the intent of the area we had to make stricter regulations."

This plan amendment is only the latest problem Rivard has had with the county, she said.

Rivard built Villa de Amore in 2002 to realize her dream of being a wedding planner, she said. Before building the house she went to the county for guidance numerous times.

According to her, county officials gave her the unofficial "go-ahead" and she built the home and started her business based on their guidance.

Her business was going so well she quit her job in the financial department of a local automobile retailer and became a full-time wedding planner, she said.

To date, Rivard has invested nearly $2 million in her home and business, she said.

Last May, after Rivard refused to stop the events, the county filed an injunction to close down her business.

She took her case to court and this time, she won.

"It seems as if the county’s trying to get [Rivard] to stop doing that which you allow the wineries to do. That didn’t seem quite right to me," Judge Michael B. Donner told Lisa Traczyk, the county’s attorney, according to the June 4 trial’s transcripts.

Traczyk told the judge Rivard’s facility creates dust and noise and is a nuisance. Judge Donner responded by saying similar events at a winery would have the same negative side effects.

The judge denied the county the right to close down Villa de Amore. If the proposed amendment is approved, however, she may face another costly court battle, Rivard said.

Some business owners in the affected region have suggested that the amendment shows favoritism for big businesses and campaign contributors to Jeff Stone, the region’s County Supervisor.