Saratoga winery may have to temporarily close after neighbors complain

House Family Vineyards, located in Saratoga hills, opened a decade ago as a small, family-owned winery that offered tastings to family and friends. Over the years it grew to be a popular destination for Saratogans for its open-air tasting deck with sweeping views of Silicon Valley — but it never got the necessary permits from the city.

Now, the winery is working through the lengthy permitting process, but some neighbors are speaking out against the traffic, noise and “commercialization” of their neighborhood.

“We residents, we bought homes in Saratoga and chose to live in the residential hillside area for the peace and serenity and tranquil atmosphere it provides,” hillside resident Mohilini Balakrishnan said. “We definitely were not anticipating or expecting commercial enterprise in our backyards, on our residential-zoned neighborhoods.”

The winery was granted a temporary compliance permit earlier this year so it can stay open on a modified basis while it works on its permanent city permits. But nearby residents appealed the city’s temporary permit.

Saratoga City Council is set to consider the appeal at its Oct. 5 meeting. If the appeal is granted, the winery will have to stop hosting wine tastings and events until its Conditional Use Permit goes through, which could take until early 2023.

House Family Vineyards, located at 13336 Old Oak Way, was established in 1998 but didn’t open to the public for several years.

Dave House, owner of the vineyard, started planting grapes as a hobby before teaming up with soil and weather experts throughout the early 2000s and ultimately expanding the business.

“People get engaged here all the time; they celebrate anniversaries and birthdays. It’s basically become their backyard,” said Devyani Kamdar, House’s wife and the winery’s director of marketing. “It would be a shame if a few loud objectors could take this away from so many Saratogans who love it.”

By 2010, House had 10 acres of vineyards and got licenses to sell the wine retail and wholesale in restaurants downtown.

That was also around the time the family started hosting wine tastings from their home on the property. In 2012, the city told the family that if these tastings increased in size or frequency, they may need a Conditional Use Permit.

In 2013, House Family Vineyards constructed an open-air, 1,300-square-foot tasting deck — without any city permits — to host both public and private wine tasting events, according to the city.

“Based on our understanding of our existing licenses and the advice of others, we assumed that we had all the permission we needed,” the House Family Vineyards website reads. “Once we learned that we also needed a Conditional Use Permit, we began the process to gain that approval.”

Saratoga staff found out about the tasting deck in 2016, and told the House family they needed to come up with a master plan for the property and apply for a Conditional Use Permit to keep hosting tastings.

The city is also working on an Environmental Impact Report for the project, which will include building permits for the deck and the proposed wine cave, fire access road, fire hydrant and 55 parking spaces.

Under the  temporary permit, House moved its tastings to Izumi Point, a Zen garden on the property full of stone art designed by Japanese artist Masatoshi Izumi.

“I won’t be here forever, and I’d like to pass this on to my kids and to my grandkids. I’d like to preserve this land,” House said. “Normally it would just become more houses … but my vision is to keep it in its natural, historic, heritage state with the trees.”

Still, hillside residents raised concerns about the traffic and noise it’s caused, and the threat to fire evacuations it poses.

Hillside resident Nancy Lietzke said House’s Conditional Use Permit should be denied “based on the current behavior that has occurred on the property to date, all the unpermitted structures and activities that have occurred,”

Another concern, Balakrishnan said, is that approving the permit would set a precedent for other neighbors who grow grapes to go commercial.

“That would forever change the landscape of semi-rural and serene Saratoga,” Balakrishnan added.

House said the winery adds to the community, brings in more business for the city and serves as a gathering place for everyone in town.