At its Tuesday, Oct. 20, meeting, the Lompoc City Council passed a resolution stating: “The City Council does not consent to the inclusion of the city of Lompoc in the BID.” This was in response to a petition from 32 Lompoc wineries opposing the Santa Barbara Vintners’ Wine Business Improvement District (BID). The petition signers are a number of Lompoc’s and Santa Barbara wine country wine pioneers and well-known wineries.
The Santa Barbara Vintners has been working on a BID for more than two years. Their fourth wine BID proposes to tax 1 percent of all California direct to consumer Santa Barbara wine sales. According to the Vintners’ website, this would raise $1 million, of which $465,000 would be spent on “salaries, overhead, and reserves.” The Vintners’ website states BID No. 4 will be brought to the Board of Supervisors in November/December to be effective in January. The Vintners contends the wine BID will promote “the entire wine region.”
If the Board of Supervisors approves the wine BID, each incorporated city in the county must affirmatively vote to be included in the wine BID for it to be effective in each city. At a meeting of the Lompoc wineries in February, in response to being asked what the Vintners would do if a city voted not to opt in to the wine BID, the Vintners’ executive director replied the Vintners would “cut out” that city’s wineries and tasting rooms from the wine BID’s marketing programs. Cutting out the Lompoc wineries and their tasting rooms is antithetical to the justification and purpose of the wine BID—to promote the “entire” Santa Barbara wine country and its wines.
We anticipate that after the elections, the city councils of Buellton, Solvang, and Santa Barbara will have the opportunity to express their views on this important issue.
Stephen Pepe
Lompoc
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2020.