Wine magnate Jess Jackson's controversial request to change the long-standing name of Black Mountain has been postponed another six months.
The obscure state board that makes recommendations on geographic name changes delayed the matter last week, citing the need to get more information on how it could affect emergency responders in case of fires or other events on the mountain.
"We haven't talked to fire, or search and rescue," said Barbara Wanish, chair of the California Advisory Committee on Geographic Names. "We want to check on any public safety issues there might be with changing the name."
She said there could be potential confusion if the 3,128-foot-high peak in northeast Sonoma County is changed to Alexander Mountain, per Jackson's request, after being known as Black Mountain for more than a century.
The proposed name change has been criticized as a commercial move -- a branding strategy intended to bolster Jackson's wines and his separate bid to establish a new wine-growing appellation known as "Alexander Mountain."
Jackson, who lives on a 5,400-acre estate below the peak of Black Mountain, grows ultra-premium grapes there, some of which are bottled under the name Alexander Mountain.
His representatives say the name change is intended to honor the legacy of pioneer settler Cyrus Alexander, as well as distinguish the peak from three other "Black" mountains in Sonoma County.
The peak itself is on land belonging to adjacent property owners who oppose the name switch.
The controversy has been taken up at various times by city councils whose towns are within eyesight of the long, ridgelike mountain adjacent to the more prominent Geyser Peak.
The Healdsburg and Windsor councils opposed the name change; the Cloverdale City Council supported it. The county Board of Supervisors decided to stay neutral.
Jackson's company is the biggest wine group in Sonoma County, with about 30 brands, including the widely recognized Kendall-Jackson.
This is the second time the state committee that will weigh in on the name change has delayed the matter for six months.
"Changing a name is a very serious thing and we need to talk to everybody," Wanish said.
She explained the question that needs to be addressed is potential confusion "if fire-response people know the mountain as one thing and you change the name, they don't know where to go."
She said the committee also wants more information on whether there is confusion now between "multiple Black Mountains" in the county.
The committee, made up of volunteers from various state agencies, meets twice a year, so they won't take up the matter again until July 13. And whatever they decide is only a recommendation to the final arbiter, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.
Pete Downs, vice president for Jackson Family Wines and the official applicant for the name change, said Friday the committee's delay "is not a problem."
"Some are delayed even more," he said of applications to change geographic names.
Downs said he addressed the committee in Sacramento at its meeting last week, but "there was nothing new in the comments. I thanked them for their diligence and listened to what they had to say."
Gary Wilson, an adamant opponent of the name change, and whose whose family has owned property on Black Mountain for generations, said Friday, "you're creating a safety issue if you change it."
He said topographic maps, aviation maps, history books and other documents identify it as Black mountain.
In the event of a fire, plane crash or an injured hiker, for example, emergency responders could be delayed because of the confusion of a name change, he said.
He suggested that if Jackson needs to identify a physical feature to support the naming of a viticultural area, he should change the name of a smaller peak on his own property.
"There are two or three little peaks they can apply for, including an unnamed one," he said.
You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com
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