Vineyard owners plan as many as 57 estates

By: CHRIS BAGLEY - Staff Writer | Saturday, August 13, 2005 7:42 PM PDT ∞

WINE COUNTRY ---- Landowners are planning to divide two large vineyards into 57 lots where homes could be built, according to county planners and documents.

Graperoad LLC has applied to subdivide a 221-acre tract into 38 home lots at 31444 Rancho California, according to Chris Stamps of the Riverside County Planning Department. The 5-acre lots would occupy a total of 190 acres. Another 30 acres would be divided into three 10-acre lots for wineries, Stamps said.

State records show the company as registered to Claudio Ponte, whose family owns the Ponte Family Estate Winery. Family members couldn't be reached Friday afternoon to discuss plans for the land.

In a separate but related venture, the new owner of Callaway Winery is applying to subdivide a 95-acre tract near the Ponte estate into 19 lots of 5 acres each, Stamps said.

The Riverside County Planning Commission will review the two applications at an Aug. 31 meeting, Stamps said.

Patricia Lin bought the 95 acres from the Ponte family through PDM Temecula LLC, a company she formed last year specifically for the purchase. Lin said the Ponte family had already filed the application to subdivide the land.

Lin and her family purchased another 140-acre tract around the same time.

"Whatever we do, we'll try to preserve the vineyards," Lin said in an interview Friday.

Lin said she had no specific plans for those 140 acres. The 95-acre former Ponte tract is now zoned for 10- and 20-acre lots, though the application before county planners is requesting smaller lot sizes, Stamps said.

It isn't completely clear who exactly is behind the two applications. Though Stamps and Lin both said Ponte's company is the one applying for the zoning changes on the 221-acre site, a staff report in the county's planning agenda listed the applicant as "PMD Temecula LLC," an apparent reference to PDM Temecula. No company called "PMD Temecula LLC" exists, according to a search of state records.

The "M" in the company's name is an apparent reference to Matthew Lin, Patricia Lin's brother. The two work out of the Del Mar offices of Euston Homes LLC, which is registered to Patricia Lin. In an interview, Patricia Lin said Euston homes is one of several real-estate ventures her family operates in Riverside and San Diego counties.

Stamps said Lin and Ponte had met with him together several times to discuss both projects.

Regardless of the applicants, the plans to subdivide the 221-acre tract and the 95-acre tract raised hackles in Wine Country and in the office of 3rd District Supervisor Jeff Stone. The two tracts are covered by the county's special "citrus-vineyard" zoning designation, which allows 5-acre home sites, but requires that 75 percent of any plot be kept for agricultural use.

"This was a shock to all of us," said Ron Roberts, a member of Stone's staff. "This could be a detriment to the citrus-and-vineyard district if we don't keep the vineyards."

Much of the 235 acres Lin acquired last year has lain fallow since 2000, when Pierce's disease began to choke the grapevines there. Lin said Friday that she anticipated replanting some of the land according to her winery's needs, but didn't rule out homes or other uses for part of the tract.

Lin plans to close by October on her purchase of Callaway Winery and the surrounding 35-acre estate. The current owner, Allied Domecq Wines USA, announced the sale to Lin late last month. Lin said she plans to replant the estate.

Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2615, or cbagley@californian.com.