STOMPING GROUND FOR WINERY

Zoning panel rejects neighbors’ appeals

North Valley operation gets zoning approval

A $15 million North Valley winery will move forward, despite opposition from a small group of neighboring property owners.

Bernalillo County’s zoning committee on Tuesday rejected two appeals arguing against a special-use permit for the project.

“The committee found that the project met the criteria for a special-use permit, and that the County Planning Commission acted appropriately (in approving the permits),” said Nicholas Hamm, the county’s zoning administrator.

The permit allows the 11-acre property, on Fourth Street NW near Sandia Lakes, to be zoned for multiple uses. The site includes a 32,000-square-foot winery and event center, three bed-and-breakfast structures, an office, and a six-acre vineyard.

The company behind the project, Native Grown LLC, doing business as Vara Wines, declined to comment or confirm any information about the company. Thaddeus Lucero, a former Bernalillo County manager who represented the project in front of the county, also declined to comment.

According to documents filed with the planning commission, once completed, the winery will employ 10 full-time and five part-time workers, with an expected visitor attendance of 20 to 25 people on weekdays and 45 to 65 visitors on weekends. The plans also say the company will be “producing the only Spanishstyle brandy in the U.S., as well as other fine liquors and liqueurs.”

Among the concerns from nearby property owners: water usage, an easement that would be a point of access for the site and the additional traffic and noise that could be generated once the winery is in operation, according to county filings. Lucero argued those concerns had been appropriately addressed and that the majority of nearby property owners supported the project.

The Vara Wines website describes Doug Diefenthaler and Xavier Zamarripa as co-owners of the company. In 2014, the county denied Zamarripa a permit for a winery and art gallery on his property off of Alameda Boulevard in the North Valley.

Chris Goblet, executive director of the industry group New Mexico Wine, showed the renderings of the winery to attendees of the Albuquerque Economic Forum breakfast on Wednesday. He described the project as a reflection of the state’s growing wine sector, which includes 52 wineries with 62 locations throughout New Mexico.