Wineries are welcome, but where?

Origins of grapes that could be used uncork debate

With the town and county's collaboration, a winery is under construction in Leonardtown. A zoning amendment was proposed to allow others elsewhere in St. Mary's, but there is no agreement on where they should go and how many locally grown grapes they must use – or even the definition of a winery.

The St. Mary's County commissioners were scheduled to make a decision Tuesday on allowing county wineries, but once again couldn't come to agreement as one commissioner had to recuse himself and another left to attend a funeral.

Commissioner Daniel H. Raley (D) checked with the ethics commission about his participation on the winery discussion. Raley's property is one of the few zoned as a low residential transition zone next to the rural preservation district, which is an area under consideration for wineries. So Raley is sitting out, leaving two commissioners on one side of the issue and two on the other with no tie-breaker.

Besides disagreement over where wineries should go, there is also disagreement about requiring a percentage of local grapes to be used to make the wine. Commission President Francis Jack Russell (D) and Commissioner Kenny Dement (R) support requiring local grapes.

Commissioners Larry Jarboe (R) and Thomas A. Mattingly Sr. (D) do not.

Jarboe said he would like to permit wineries anywhere in the county as long as it is on 10 acres. "What's wrong with putting a nice winery in a town center? Why is this getting so complicated here?" he said.

Mattingly said it would be too expensive for a winery business to buy 10 acres in the development district.

Jarboe said requiring a business to use locally grown grapes in exchange for permission to build a winery is a "mixing of land use and commerce laws," and that brings up constitutional concerns. "That's a big concern," he said.

"I would think the free market would encourage a good local product," he said.

Regulating the percentage of local grapes used to make wine would be difficult to enforce, he said. "I don't want to have a grape inspector. We don't need government grape counters – we just don't need it," he said.

Russell said requiring local grapes gives value to the product grown locally and could be measured by acreage instead of the percentage of grapes used.

One acre of local grapes used to make 2,000 gallons of wine would easily be counted, he said. "This is driving the business to the agricultural community. When this tobacco buyout is done, it's done. D-O-N-E. This is one way of ensuring the land will stay in farming," he said.

If there is no regulation on local grapes, a winery could import all of its product from cheaper places like China, he said.

Mattingly said, "The whole idea behind the effort is to create a crop the agriculture people in the county can grow and market. The wineries are the way to get to that piece of agriculture," and it's the "closest thing so far to a cash crop to replace tobacco." He does not agree to mandating the use of local grapes. Neither does the Maryland Wineries Association. "When that fruit may not be the nearest in-state fruit, or the correct variety of fruit for the winery's use, [it] creates an untenable business environment for a small winery," wrote Kevin Atticks, executive director.

The St. Mary's County Farm Bureau wrote, "How can our growers compete if wine makers here are allowed to use no local product and buy much cheaper juice from outside the U.S.?"

Russell does not support wineries in residential areas. Mattingly said he supports wineries in the transitional zone. "You can line the roads with townhouses or you can line the road with farms that are productive," he said.

The entire debate may have had its start on a horse farm on Willows Road in Lexington Park.

Ken Korando has a hand in a winery in Solomons and has an option to buy the horse farm with the intent of starting a winery on Willows Road. It is zoned residential.

Jarboe said, "We need to adopt codes for everyone in the county, not just one person."

The zoning amendment for wineries in the county made its first formal appearance on March 24, said Phil Shire, deputy director of land use and growth management, but developing it was under way long before that.

Korando approached the St. Mary's County Department of Economic and Community Development about a year ago, said Bob Schaller, that office's director.

"This is a commercial venture, a business venture," Schaller said, and the business plan does not include local grapes.

"That was kind of the catalyst to get this text amendment going," he said; that and the Port of Leonardtown's progress toward building a winery to be run by a cooperative of grape growers.

The winery issue has taken on an urgency as the 10-year tobacco buyout, which pays farmers to switch to a new crop, starts to end.

"It's coming up at a time when people are concerned. ‘What are we going to do now?' Now that the buyout is ending, we're trying to find viable uses of farmland," Schaller said.

The Port of Leonardtown only has so much capacity to make wine and there could be a glut of local grapes if other wineries aren't established in St. Mary's, he said.

The commissioners have until Oct. 25 to make a decision on wineries. A winery as defined now needs to be located with a vineyard, but that's not feasible for a commercial winery in the development district.