Bid in Napa County to restrict vineyards on pace for defeat

A measure that pitted the wine industry against preservationists by attempting to restrict vineyard development in Napa County appeared headed for defeat on Thursday.

An election report released Wednesday night showed Measure C trailing, with about 51 percent of voters against it and 49 percent in favor, with 100 percent of precincts counted.

Called the Watershed and Oak Woodland Protection Initiative, the measure sought to reserve large swaths of land for existing trees. Only 795 acres of oak trees could be chopped down on those areas designated as agricultural watershed. After that, anyone wanting to remove an oak tree would need a permit. That, in turn, would prevent grapes from being planted.

Those provisions incited a battle in the Napa Valley, where the county’s general plan prizes agriculture as the “highest and best use” of its land.

“If Measure C were to pass, it would be very difficult to plant a (new) vineyard,” said Ryan Klobas, policy director for the Napa County Farm Bureau, which opposed the measure. The farmers and vintners that the bureau represents feared the initiative would allow housing and other types of development — which would be exempt from the permitting process — to supersede vineyards.

Klobas was encouraged by Wednesday’s results, which were not quite definitive. A thousand votes still need to be counted, mostly from ballots that were damaged or people who registered on election day.

Supporters of Measure C say that too many trees have been felled to make way for grapes.

“This is totally an environmental issue because we’re worried about the long-term sustainability of our water and the trees are what retain water,” said Mike Hackett, co-chair of the Measure C campaign.

On Thursday, he took down what he thought was the last “Yes on C” sign in Napa County, at the To Kalon Vineyard on Highway 29.

Hackett bridled at the opposition’s claims and insisted that the ballot initiative had “nothing to do with housing.”

Some vintners took Hackett’s side, saying they want to prioritize a healthy watershed and woodlands over wine industry expansion. Several of them published a letter in the Napa Valley Register newspaper in February, championing Measure C.

Sitting on the sidelines were wine lovers, who might have seen prices go up if the measure had passed. It may have caused land values to balloon by curbing development in the hillsides — which some consider to be Napa’s last area of plantable land — and that increase would inevitably be passed on to consumers.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan