Napa County supervisors approve minor boundary adjustment with Sonoma County

The Napa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved the first reading of an ordinance that will allow the county to take about an acre of land from Sonoma County.

The land swap — about 1.41 acres of Sonoma County land would go to Napa County and Sonoma County would receive about 0.02 acres from Napa County — is moving forward to correct a situation where the county line cuts through an existing winery.

The Napa County supervisors started the process in November 2023 at the request of Sheldon Richards, owner of Paloma Vineyard near St. Helena.

Richards’ family has owned the property since 1983, and has paid property taxes, cast ballots and acquired use permits with the assumption that the property is in Napa County.

But the boundary issue was discovered when Richards applied for a use permit at his winery. A civil engineer found, during a required survey of the land, that several acres of the 17-acre property were actually in Sonoma County.

Ryan FitzGerald, Napa County’s deputy county counsel, said at the meeting Tuesday the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors will need to adopt a similar ordinance to allow the land swap to proceed. That’s scheduled for Jan. 23, according to FitzGerald.

The Napa County board is set to fully adopt the ordinance the same day, while the Sonoma County board will fully adopt the matter Jan. 30, he said.

Following successful approvals, FitzGerald said Napa County Clerk of the Board Neha Hoskins will then be tasked with sending a legal description and a map of the boundary change to the California State Board of Equalization by Dec. 1.

You can reach Staff Writer Edward Booth at 707-521-5281 or edward.booth@pressdemocrat.com.