Napa County eyes former school for farmworker housing

Napa County is pondering whether to try to buy the vacant Carneros/Stone Bridge school in the rural Carneros area and turn the site into a farmworkers' housing center with 60 beds.

The county Board of Supervisors is getting advice from Carneros Cares, a group of about 50 residents — to find another site. This area of rural homes and vineyards has groundwater problems, and neighbors said increased water demand from a farmworker center would harm their wells.

"Sixty people (at a farmworker center) using one well is a big impact," neighbor Cassandra Walker said.

Supervisors are also receiving advice from various wine industry figures — give this site a try. Farmworkers need more housing and the former school campus, up for sale by the Napa Valley Unified School District, might work out, they said.

"We have a demonstrated need for another farmworker center," said Rex Stults of Napa Valley Vintners. "We have a unique opportunity in front of us. I think we owe it to the farmworkers to investigate it, look into it."

The Board of Supervisors agreed Sept. 13 to ask NVUSD not to sell the former school to somebody else while the county decides whether farmworker housing might work there. In the meantime, the county will gather more information.

"I want to make sure we do this right," Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza said. "I want to make sure we're respectful of the neighborhood. But we also have to stand up for that (farmworker) community that is doing so much."

The 10-acre site at 1680 Los Carneros Ave. was home to Carneros Elementary School from 1950 to 2010. When the original Carneros school closed, Stone Bridge School, a charter academy teaching kindergarten to eighth grade, moved in from Salvador Avenue in north Napa.

The Napa school district in 2021 moved Stone Bridge from the Carneros site to the former campus of Mt. George Elementary School in Coombsville, which it had closed a year earlier due to low enrollment. Part of the Carneros property, which was damaged in the August 2014 earthquake, is on a fault line and a natural gas transmission line runs below the north side. The district balked at spending as much as $55 million to upgrade the campus to modern school safety standards.

NVUSD has offered the property for sale as a prospective vineyard and/or winery or some other use. Now the county has stepped into the picture.

Most of the school buildings are too near the earthquake fault and gas transmission pipeline to likely be usable for dormitory-style farmworker housing. Building structures on other parts of the property could cost of $7 million to $10 million, a county report said.

Operating a Carneros farmworker housing center would cost about $600,000 annually, according to the report.

Napa County already runs three farmworker housing centers in Napa Valley, each dorm-style and housing 60 people. Vintner Mike Swanton said there is a wait list of about 140 people.

Renters pay $15 a night and vineyard owners pay a $12-per-acre annual assessment to fund operations. Adding a fourth center in Carneros would require raising those amounts to $18 a night and $15 an acre, a county report said.

In addition, a $250,000 annual state grant shared by the three existing centers would need to double.

Creating a farmworker housing center at Carneros/Stone Bridge won't be a turnkey operation of reusing existing buildings, said Mark English of Carneros Cares. The architect said estimates of $7 million to $10 million for the project are impossible. For example, he said, expansive soils in the area require extensive foundation preparation.

"This is not the place to be overly optimistic," English said.

Supervisor Belia Ramos voted to explore the Carneros/Stone Bridge school site for farmworker housing. But she also expressed doubt about building more of the dorm-style dwellings, given the need for farmworker family housing.

She recounted her own experiences growing up in private Napa County farmworker housing. "I had a house. I had a yard. I had a swing. I had a place where I could feel like everyone else," said Ramos.

Pat Garvey of Flora Springs winery urged supervisors to consider the Carneros/Stonebridge site.

"My gut tells me this may be a historic opportunity to provide farmworker housing in Carneros," he said. "We can make this work. Let's look at our options and be thorough and creative in our research."

Kaitlin Ager and Carneros Cares offered a different view, suggesting other properties they thought didn't have water issues as options.

"One thing our group and your board agree on is there's a significant need for farmworker housing," Ager told supervisors. "However, unlike the board, we are positive the former Carneros Elementary School is not the site for it."