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Comment Letter St Jorge Winery "Site Approval Application"PA-1200063 This April they got caught. County staff initiated an enforcement action against them for their illegal construction and commercial use of public service facilities"without benefit of proper permits." These are public health and safety matters,and the government is supposed to inspect and permit these types of business activities to protect the public. A week and a day later the Vierras turned in an application for County approval of what they had already built and have commercially operated for years. In fact,the Vierras have been committing fraud against the County ever since they first hired the contractors that designed and built the facilities as described above without benefit of County knowledge or oversight, let alone permitting. For years they have engaged in planning, contracting,building,advertising, and then operating these unpermitted facilities by making them accessible to the paying public,all without ever intending to get County approval until caught. The scope of the illegal development to date is well beyond the activity represented in the 2005 application, as well as the terms of the 2005 permit as granted and the San Joaquin County Code. The St.Jorge Winery"events'are"marketing events"in county-permit applications and in name only. To anyone with money,they are marketed as'full service events." A"full service event'with St.Jorge staff providing"all the necessary attention to detail" is not a"marketing event"which is"accessory and subordinate to the primary agricultural use" as required by the San Joaquin County Code. Nor is such a'full service event'compatible"with the ambiance of an agricultural area and the production of wine"as required by the Code. The St. Jorge Winery Expansion Application seeks to legitimize its currently-illegal build-out by applying for a permit-after-the-fact. The project applicants ask the San Joaquin Planning Commission to ignore their blatant and illegal conduct and instead approve of what they have done and allow them to continue to do it without sanction. Approval of this application would be bad government policy,sending a very wrong message to San Joaquin County's law-abiding winery community and its citizenry generally. The message would be that the government is not concerned with enforcing its own laws. Further,approval would notify all business owners that the San Joaquin County Planning Commission will knowingly sanction,forgive and approve large-scale violations of its own permits. Absent appropriate action,the logical conclusion of this is the ultimate failure of San Joaquin businesses operating legitimately under County laws. Given the facts' and violations'breadth,appropriate action by the Planning Commission includes any and all of the following: • Continuing any consideration of this 2012 Expansion Application until all the pertinent facts of the applicants' conduct under their current permit have been completely and appropriately investigated,reported, and considered; • Denial of the applicants' 2012 request for expansion; • Revocation of the 2005 permit now in place; and 22