GMO ban, library tax appear to pass

County hotel tax increase, city separators pass; parks tax appears to fail|

Petaluma-area voters joined with thousands in the region to help decide a number of countywide issues on the ballot Tuesday, measures that stood to shape the future of development, agriculture, parks and more for years to come.

Countywide, voters approved a ban on the cultivation of genetically modified crops in unincorporated areas, a continuance of rural separators between cities, an increased tax on hotel stays in unincorporated areas and a new sales tax to fund libraries. A new sales tax to fund a bevy of projects for county parks, meanwhile, did not pass.

Approved with a narrow margin as of Wednesday was the GMO cultivation ban, Measure M, with 56 percent of the vote and all precincts reporting. The measure would make it a violation of county code to cultivate genetically modified crops in unincorporated areas, an offence punishable by fines and, ultimately, corrective action by county agriculture officials.

The passage would make Sonoma County the latest California county to ban GMO cultivation, joining Marin, Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity and Santa Cruz.

Like a similar measure that failed in 2005, Measure M pitted traditional agriculture interests like the 3,000-member Sonoma County Farm Bureau against grassroots supporters who said they represented small farms and environmental interests. Nearly $255,000 was reported to have poured into the campaigns, compared to the combined $850,000 spent on the measure that failed about 10 years ago.

Proponents of Measure M described it as a needed buffer for organic farmers against cross pollination from nearby genetically modified crops, arguing that the region’s reputation as a premium and high-margin agricultural producer was on the line. Critics argued the measure featured shaky and alarmist language with loose scientific basis, and that it would tie farmers’ hands in the event of unknown future threats.

David Rabbitt, the county supervisor representing the Petaluma region, said he viewed Measure M as a move by outsider interests and not the voice of the county’s farming community. He also questioned whether such a policy was necessary in a region where informal accounts suggest GMO cultivation is extremely rare.

“That being said, it’s not really surprising that it won,” Rabbitt said. “The long-term consequences, we’ll see. It could be very benign at the end of the day.”

Other countywide measures were passing with wider margins Wednesday. Measure K, which renewed rules that require voter approval to build in certain areas between cities, had the greatest margin at more than 81 percent approval.

The measure is meant to limit sprawl seen in some other parts of the Bay Area. Around Petaluma, the separators include a wide ribbon of land down to the Marin County line and areas east of Adobe Road, as well as swaths along Stony Point and Petaluma Hill roads toward Rohnert Park.

Measure Y, the one-eighth-cent sales tax increase to fund improvements to the county library system, had 71 percent approval early Wednesday. The 10-year tax is estimated to generate around $12 million annually.

The hotel tax, Measure L, was passing at 68.3 percent. The measure increased a tax on room rates for hotels in unincorporated Sonoma County from 9 percent to 12 percent, and is expected to generate $4.8 million annually to offset impacts of tourism.

“I believe we can take $1 million off the top and use it for roads,” Rabbitt said, with other money going toward areas like the county’s rural firefighting agencies.

Measure J, the half-cent regional parks tax, was falling short of the two-thirds approval it needed, 63.8 percent. Also pegged at 10 years, the tax would generate a cumulative $95 million for work that includes improvements to Helen Putnam and Tolay Lake regional parks around Petaluma.

Contact Eric Gneckow at eric.gneckow@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @Eric_Reports.)

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