Yesterday, in a great win for the citizens of Napa County, the private Palmaz Heliport was denied a permit by both the Airport Land Use Commission and the County Planning Commission.

Through the hard work of NV2050 and other concerned citizens, these elected and appointed officials heard the message loud and clear:  A heliport at the Palmaz vineyard is detrimental to the health and well being of Napa residents and opens the door to further heliports on private property.

The decision can still be appealed to the Board of Supervisors, so stay tuned. But “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” –Margaret Mead

It was a long road to accomplish this. It started with our Director, George Caloyannides driving down from his home up on Diamond Mountain to collect mailbox numbers from homes surrounding the proposed heliport at the end of Hagen Road. That was followed by letters to the neighbors alerting them to the project; a neighborhood meeting, petition signing, red t-shirts (courtesy of Rob Pursel), and lots of folks attending a series of hearings over many months. George was the author of a ballot initiative to ban tourist helicopter flights in Napa and has authored a new initiative for the 2018 ballot that would ban personal use heliports and landings. We’ll be contacting you soon to help us collect signatures to place this on the ballot. If you’re interested in helping collect signatures, email Iris Barrie at barrie001@comcast.net

A big thank you to the thoughtful, committed supporters of Napa Vision 2050!