Luxury Residential and Vineyard Landrush
Economic factors of land scarcity for upscale residential development and for premium wine grape cultivation led to an explosion of land values in Bennett Valley starting generally in the 1980s. This trend is shaped by policies of the County of Sonoma, which discourage small lot residential development in Bennett Valley. These effects have led to a decrease in available natural habitat as well as decreased area available for hay farming and pasture usage. Some of the grapes are used locally for wine production such as in the case of the Matanzas Creek Winery, while some are sold to production facilities elsewhere in Sonoma County. As a result of this recognition of the Bennett Valley AVA as a premium wine-grape subregion, a new American Viticultural Area named Bennett Valley has been recently approved.
Residential development has emphasized new construction of custom homes typically built on parcels ranging from five to 40 acres (160,000 m2). Most of these homes are of the size range greater than 3,500 square feet (330 m²) and characteristic values of these newer homes as of 2007 are in the range of $1.5 to 3.0 million. Most of the Bennett Valley housing stock is nevertheless of more modest pre-1980 characteristics, and in many of these cases valuations are dominated simply by land value.
Read more about this topic: Bennett Valley
Famous quotes containing the words luxury, residential and/or vineyard:
“But how do the poor minority fare? Perhaps it will be found that just in proportion as some have been placed in outward circumstances above the savage, others have been degraded below him. The luxury of one class is counterbalanced by the indigence of another. On the one side is the palace, on the other are the almshouse and “silent poor.””
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“[The Republicans] offer ... a detailed agenda for national renewal.... [On] reducing illegitimacy ... the state will use ... funds for programs to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies, to promote adoption, to establish and operate children’s group homes, to establish and operate residential group homes for unwed mothers, or for any purpose the state deems appropriate. None of the taxpayer funds may be used for abortion services or abortion counseling.”
—Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)
“The television critic, whatever his pretensions, does not labour in the same vineyard as those he criticizes; his grapes are all sour.”
—Frederic Raphael (b. 1931)