Western Howard County Wants Wine, Not Parties

Based on testimony at Monday night’s public hearing, there is plenty of support for rolling vineyards and small wineries in Howard County.

Parties, however, are a different story.

The council is considering legislation (.PDF) that would allow wineries to operate on land designated for "rural conservation" or "rural residential" use and would allow special events of up to 500 to be held at certain wineries. 

Speaking last night, several opponents of the bill said although they welcomed vineyards in the bucolic west, such events did not fit in with the character of their communities.

“Being Italian-American, I’ve been drinking wine for 75 years,” said Theodore Mariani, testifying on behalf the Concerned Citizens of Howard County.

Nonetheless, he asked that the legislation be withdrawn from consideration, saying entertainment activities like that would be “totally inconsistent” with the character of the rural west and would be “devastating to nearby residential communities.”

Warren Phillips, former vice president for academics at UMBC, expressed similar concerns, saying the notion that this legislation would create more agriculture was misleading.

The legislation would require a landowner to cultivate at least two acres of grapes or other fruit on the property. 

“If you grow acres of apples,” the self professed wine-lover said, “you can import tons of grapes."

In addition to the tenuous support, several people did give more robustly supporting testimony, including Columbia resident Matthew Kircher, who publishes www.vinotrip.com, a blog dedicated to Maryland wines.

“Me and my readers are ready to promote new wineries,” he testified.

And while several wine enthusiasts testified in favor of the legislation and the jobs and recreation they thought it would create, some supporters of wineries said the legislation was simply too restrictive.

Kevin Atticks, executive director of the Maryland Wineries Association, said that it was one of the “most restrictive winery allowances” he had heard of, particularly when it came to where the operations could be located and the maximum number of allowed visitors.

The legislation is so restrictive, he said, “one of our members … said that this bill, as written, provides no pathway for him to open a winery; he’s now opening one in Carroll County.”

That one member was Michael Cook, who later testified that, under the proposed legislation, it would be difficult to open a winery in Howard County as anything other than an expensive hobby.

“You’re missing the boat,” he told the council. “That’s all there is to it.”