We are currently sending 3 emails to you over the course of four consecutive weeks, this is the second in our series. Each email has important information that needs to stand alone. Our group is getting attention in the Napa Valley and your voice is being heard. We now need to be heard at the State level. This email explains how a Bill, currently in the California Legislation channels, can affect our community directly. 'AB 672 as proposed further jeopardizes the Napa County Fairgrounds and Golf Course by providing a financial incentive for cities and counties to eliminate golf courses and convert the property to low-income housing.' This is a brief summary of the Bill-- AB 672, as amended, Cristina Garcia (serving in the California State Assembly representing the 58th Assembly District, Los Angeles County). Publicly owned golf courses: conversion: affordable housing. Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development and requires it to, among other things, administer various programs intended to fund the acquisition of property to develop or preserve affordable housing. This bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, require the department to administer a program to provide incentives in the form of grants to local agencies that enter into a development agreement to convert a golf course owned by the local agency into housing and publicly accessible open space, as specified. Please click here for the full AB 672 Bill, it is relatively short. Friends of the Napa County Fairgrounds, please contact these elected officials and let them know that you don't support this happening to the Fairgrounds property (see email template below as an example).
*Bill Dodd contact link
California State Senate, 3rd Senate District, Northern San Francisco Bay Area and Delta region
Sacramento office phone number (916) 651-4003
*Cecilia Aguiar-Curry contact link
California State Representative 4th Assembly District, Wine Country and parts of Sacramento Valley
Office phone number (530) 235-6743
*Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis contact link
Office phone number (916) 445-8994
Dear ______________,
Bill AB 672, which is currently in the legislative channels, may work for some communities but it doesn't for ours (Calistoga, Napa County). This bill is a 'blanket' effort being put forward by an Assemblywoman in an area of our state that desperately needs unused space for their housing needs. Calistoga's affordable housing needs, and all of the approved development that is in the pipeline, meet the need for the foreseeable future. We want to make sure that a vision shared by the majority of our Calistoga community is not hindered by Bill AB 672. We want the entire 70 acres of the Napa County Fairgrounds, including our little golf course, to stay protected as open space, become self-sustaining, and be a place for the community to use for perpetuity.
Best,
_________________