In case you missed it last week-- and you know what? I almost did! A bill to allow wineries in Howard County was approved last week by the County Council, and the County Executive is sure to enact the legislation. If you want to see the article about it you need to go here to read all about it.
I've long supported the idea of having wineries in Howard County, and all in all, I'm very happy the bill has finally been passed. But, to be honest, I think too much was done to satisfy the residents out there in the all-powerful "rural West" of the county-- which really is only about 1.3 of those two adjectives. Meaning that it is West, but it really is not all that rural.
Specifically, I have problems with the restrictions on the types of roads wineries can be accessed from, and the limits on the number of visitors wineries can have for events. There shouldn't be any restrictions on either, IMHO. The only restriction the vast majority of businesses have in this county on the number of customers they can serve is called fire code. And that's what it should be in this case.
Of course, the irony is, that very likely, most of the visitors to any Howard County winery event will be from the "rural West". Although I'm sure some out there would love to see the rest of us banned.
Actually, I can kind of understand the restrictions. I've been to wineries with terrible access roads - traffic backups during an event, etc - that would affect any residential areas nearby. I'm curious what will end up taking root (I think that's a farming joke) in the HoCo.
But thanks for mentioning, I missed this. I did see the wine-shipping bill was approved, though.
Posted by: Mo | May 11, 2011 at 06:05 AM