Some counties are trying to sort out government's role. Napa adopted its version of the hillside planting ordinance in 1991 and is currently embroiled in a battle over updating it. And the county recently became the first in California to adopt an ordinance restricting ground water pumping in some areas, though it has drawn sharp criticism from environmentalists because it is aimed at residential rather than agricultural use. They go the comfortable road. They regulate houses and they don't regulate agriculture.
Agriculture is the big user and they're regulating houses.
Napa is working on a proposal to prohibit buildings on ridges and hillsides that appears to have support from both the agricultural and environmental communities. Activists, meanwhile, are discussing an initiative to prohibit cutting large trees to clear space for agricultural projects. And the Sierra Club, one of California's largest conservation groups, recently filed a lawsuit seeking to force Napa County to require full-blown environmental impact reports on practically any hillside vineyard project. If the lawsuit succeeds, many new Napa vineyards would have to comply with the state's sweeping environmental quality law, the same law that governs major residential and commercial projects and frequently is the source of litigation itself. Santa Barbara County supervisors are looking at a similar proposal of their own.