We met on Friday, May 4 for a bittersweet day, as it was our last official Program Element Day. We met for Planning and Development Day with our leader for the day, Jeri Gill. Jeri is the CEO for Sustainable Napa County and serves on the Planning Commission as well. Jeri started off the day with a quick catch up on the plans for the day and then we were broken up into groups to hear about planning from those in various agencies and businesses throughout the county who are responsible for planning and development functions.

The groups met with Kate Miller, Executive Director of NVTA, Robin Klingbeil, Senior Development Project Coordinator from the City of Napa, Phil Miller, Napa County Deputy Director of Public Works for Flood Control and Water, Hugh Linn with RSA+, Howard Siegel, Former Director Napa County Housing and Government Affairs, Andrew Mazotti, Acquisitions Director, Zapolski Real Estate, Mike Basayne, Napa County Planning Commissioner and Brian Bordona, Supervising Planner, County of Napa. All were able to share development, planning and policy from their own perspective and experience. It was a great opportunity to view the challenging land use issues from local professionals.

The highlight of the day was our own chance to view a site (the old Cinedome property) and bring a development plan before the planning commissioners as a body. To help guide us and give us a foundation for that task, we had Rick Tooker the Community Development Director for the City of Napa. Rick gave us some very helpful materials and guidance in the development and planning process. In the end, though there were five different groups presenting, each group brought forward a mix of housing, parking, and retail for that beautiful site on the river.

This was the culmination of many months of similar tasks with similar deadlines that helped us prepare for the final delivery. We all felt well prepared and enjoyed our final Element Day with Leadership Napa Valley Class 30 (Best Class Ever)! A big thanks to all of those who volunteered their time to lead us on our last day !

Submitted by members of Class 30.