The city adopted its housing element in January. The California Department of Housing and Community Development told the city to modify zoning to support higher housing densities.
The latest version of Napaâs planned playbook for the next 20 years of growth includes the possibility of zones with heavily restricted development, sought by the residents of scenic neighborhoods on the cityâs western and southern flanks.
A draft land-use plan reviewed Monday by the cityâs General Plan Advisory Committee includes areas marked as âgreenbeltsâ near Timberhill Park in the Browns Valley section of west Napa, as well as on a hilly Old Sonoma Road tract where the Napa Oaks housing subdivision project has aroused intense opposition and two City Council vetoes over the past two decades.
Earlier drafts of the next Napa general plan, intended to guide city growth and zoning through about 2040, had marked those areas for âvery low densityâ for up to two homes per acre, alarming residents worried about encroaching into some of the cityâs largest remaining open spaces â sloped and wooded areas that neighbors describe as prone to ear