By Moira Jacobs BVCA President

January, 2026

Last year already seems far in the rear-view mirror! It’s worth reviewing the important work our BVCA accomplished for our community in 2025 and provide an update on plans going forward.

First, as a reminder of our BVCA’s mission, especially for anyone new to our beautiful valley:

The primary purposes of the Bennett Valley Community Association (BVCA) are:

• To promote and preserve the rural residential character and natural environment of Bennett Valley, as outlined in the Bennett Valley Area Plan (BVAP);

• To serve as an open forum for Bennett Valley community participation; and

• To provide a bridge for communication between government agencies and the Bennett Valley community.

We also pride ourselves on being a very welcoming community, with friendly neighbors looking out for each other. We encourage recent arrivals and long-term residents alike to get involved with the BVCA to learn more about our special historic community and meet your neighbors. We have many opportunities to volunteer in almost any area of interest and hobbies. Whether you can dedicate two hours per year helping at an event, or wish to serve on our board, everyone’s energy and ideas are welcome. Please contact me if you’re interested to learn more or have feedback for our board at moiraajacobs@comcast.net or 415-367-5957.

Year in Review: 2025 was a Very Busy Year--it Takes A Community!

Your BVCA team was tireless in advocating for Bennett Valley in many areas throughout 2025. Here is a partial list, and special shout-out of thanks is in order to our many neighbors volunteering their time and talent to all of this. Special thanks go to all our board members and neighbors who led these many efforts in 2025 and for many years before:

• Ensuring safe and maintained roadways, thanks to SOSRoads led by Craig Harrison, Ken Adelson, Bill Finkelstein and Kevin Schuh. Without the dedicated efforts of our neighbor volunteers like Craig, Ken, Bill and Kevin, we’d still be suffering the moonscape potholes many of us well remember! There is more to do, of course (please support these efforts by donating time or funds to at https://sosroads.org);

• The Well Monitoring and Water Resource Study project led by BVCA Vice President Chris Gralapp and crew, along with many well-owners;

• The March public meeting with county officials at the Bennett Valley Grange regarding the General Plan update process impacting our BVAP;

• The May Emergency Preparedness Open House with first responders at the Grange;

• Our ongoing partnership with our historic Bennett Valley Grange, our community event and meeting hub and site of the 152nd annual Grange BBQ/Picnic in June and annual Holiday Faire in December. A special shout out to all the Grange members, especially to JaneAnn and Dave Magnasco, for ensuring our annual BBQ happened the past four years and the Pisenti family for providing the live music in 2025;

• Ongoing efforts to address illegal dumping on our roads. Special thanks to Robert Stephens.

• Our website operations, great post card campaigns and the many technical/management “man behind the current” solutions making BVCA hum - we all owe a special Thank You! to past President Robert Stephens for the many operational solutions that make it all possible!

• Much more was done! Reading every Voice issue this is best way to keep up with it all.

Finally, our Voice Editor/Website designer and Vice President Chris Gralapp deserves a big round of applause for her fantastic work producing The Voice which connects our community with a very professional and exquisitely designed newsletter. You can peruse the many fascinating topics covered on our history, environment, wildlife, archeology, past Native American inhabitants, and much more at our homepage bennettvalley.org. 

The Cannabis Issue, updated 

A group of BVCA board members and community volunteers were very active throughout 2025 advocating for the protection of our Bennett Valley Area Plan (BVAP). You can access and read the BVAP at: 

Bennett Valley Area Plan

BVCA organized and attended six+ meetings with various Sonoma County officials, including:

• Two meetings with Supervisor Hermosillo (District 1)

• One meeting with District 1 Planning Commissioner Tim Freeman

• One meeting with Permit Sonoma Director Scott Orr (unelected staff)

We corresponded with both Supervisor Hermosillo and PC Freeman many times, as well as with Permit Sonoma staff. This included multiple Public Records requests uncovering important information for our community.

 Attendance at five+ Board of Supervisors’ and Planning Commission meetings, where we:

• Presented data and written briefs

• Made numerous public comments for the public record 

 These efforts focused on urging the County to designate Bennett Valley as an exclusion zone for large-scale commercial cannabis operations being placed here in face of the new updated ordinance voted on in December 2025.

 Why This Matters

BVCA’s position is clear: large commercial or industrial-scale cannabis operations violate the Bennett Valley Area Plan (BVAP).

The BVAP prohibits commercial and retail activity in Bennett Valley — which is why we do not have strip malls, gas stations, or manufacturing facilities here! Large cannabis operations conflict with multiple BVAP protections, including those related to:

• Viewshed preservation

• Traffic circulation and roadway safety

• Wildfire evacuation and emergency access

• Water resources and wells

• Matanzas Creek environmental protections

• Light pollution affecting wildlife and flyways

• Air quality impacts, worsened by Bennett Valley’s bowl-shaped geography

To support this position, a committed group of residents worked with professional legal services to hold the County accountable to state environmental laws, County regulations, and BVAP policies.

What Changed — and What Didn’t

Our advocacy resulted in some important success:

The County adopted 1,000-foot setbacks (up from the 300 feet in an earlier ordinance)  for commercial cannabis operations from:

• Rural Residential (RR) parcels

• Agricultural Residential (AR) parcels
  
  

However, this was not the 2,000 ft+ minimum most of us wanted. Also:

• Did not create a clear exclusion-zone process for Area-Specific Plans like BVAP

• Did not extend the same setbacks to the many rural agricultural parcels in Bennett Valley that serve as family home sites 

• Many residents remain vulnerable to industrial-scale operations located as close as 500 feet from their homes, for parcels zoned LIA, LEA, DA, or RRD--bringing noise, hazardous fumes, heavy truck traffic, and large hoop-house structures.

Residents can check their parcel designation here:
https://parcelsearch.permitsonoma.org/ParcelSearch

What’s Next 

This fight is not over as we intend to continue pressing our case and we’ll never give up. More to come on this later. The best way to stay informed on this issue is to visit our partner Neighborhood Coalition’s website and support their work at: https://www.neighborhoodcoalitionsonomacounty.com 

We thank all our neighbors who very generously donated funds towards the legal costs of this effort. We also thank all our neighbors who dedicated countless hours to writing letters, making phone calls and attending meetings throughout 2025 and for years past. Without these efforts we surely would have been rolled over with much worse conditions in the latest ordinance. We are forever grateful especially to our past President Craig Harrison for his continued leadership and volunteerism of his many talents and time to all these efforts.

Onward and Upward!

As for 2026, we will continue with all efforts outlined above and welcome any new ideas for new projects in support of our mission. As long as we have volunteers dedicated to make it happen, we can do anything for our community.

As you can see, your BVCA is keeping busy but we need help! The operative word is YOUR - this is your community organization and we’d be delighted to hear from you and welcome your ideas, any volunteer time you can provide or even join the board someday. From firsthand experience I can say any level of community involvement is the best way to connect with your neighbors and help protect your community. Let’s keep Bennett Valley Strong, Safe and Beautiful together!