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Rainbow MWD approves Monserate Winery sewer service agreement

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

What is now the Monserate Winery was once the site of the Fallbrook Golf Club. The winery will be supplemented by a tasting room and event facilities and, on March 22, the Rainbow Municipal Water District board approved a sewer service agreement with Gird Valley, Inc., for the winery site.

“The district has decided to help this great new facility in our service area, and the sewer agreement will help their facility get up and running and discharge to our wastewater system,” said Rainbow general manager Tom Kennedy.

In February 2020, the county's Planning Commission granted a Major Use Permit modification to allow Monserate Winery to have a tasting room and event facilities. (The initial Major Use Permit for a golf course was issued in 1961 and was modified three times between 1964 and 1975, and the 2020 modification covers 23.7 acres of the 116-acre site on the west side of Gird Road.)

The structures approved will total 59,527 square feet and include a tasting room and restaurant, three event venues with supporting facilities, patios and terraces, walkways, and administrative space. In addition to the tasting room and restaurant, the main building will include a commercial catering kitchen, a staff lounge, a meat curing room, a dish washing room, restrooms, offices, and storage areas including a janitor storage room.

One of the venue buildings will include both wine production facilities and wedding facilities, and a central courtyard will separate the wine production area from bridal and groom suites which will include lockers and restrooms for the bride, groom, and other wedding personnel; the winery portion of that building will include a wine production area, a bottle storage room, a barrel room, crushing rooms, a laboratory, offices, a break room, a restroom, and storage areas.

The golf course use (including restrooms, a pro shop, and a restaurant) justified 22.6 sewer capacity equivalent dwelling units, and Rainbow approved an application for 1.0 equivalent dwelling units in 1982 and for 21.6 additional EDUs in 1991. The change in use required an analysis to determine if Rainbow needed to issue additional capacity. Dexter Wilson Engineering, Inc., submitted a final report on Feb. 18. The analysis calculated a total requirement of 29.4 EDUs, and Rainbow staff concurred with Dexter Wilson’s figure.

The additional 6.8 EDUs have a capacity fee of $96,056.80 to be paid by Gird Valley, Inc. The 2020 Planning Commission approval of the Major Use Permit modification also adopted an environmental Mitigated Negative Declaration for the facilities, and the Rainbow board action found that the granting of sewer capacity was not subject to California Environmental Quality Act review.

 

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