In one of Napa Valley's priciest ZIP codes, a fight is brewing over where, and how, its workers should live. Chef Thomas Keller, whose French Laundry tasting menu can top $1,000 a head, has joined other business owners in Yountville, California, in urging the town to hit pause on a planned housing complex called Yountville Commons, reports SFGate. In a Feb. 10 news release first cited by the Press Democrat, Keller and Ranch Market owner Arik Housley said officials are moving too quickly on the mixed-income project without fully vetting its design, cost, and impact on local businesses.
"We support workforce housing and we support the Commons," Keller said in the release, but he argued that the plan's "studio-heavy, dormitory-style approach" and limited parking don't match the needs of local employees. "It is moving too fast and at a scale that may not work for the workers it is intended to serve," Keller and Housley noted in their statement, per the Napa Valley Register. Current concepts call for roughly 150 units—many around 300 square feet—at the site of the former Yountville Elementary School, which the town bought in 2024 for $11 million using funds from a voter-approved hotel tax hike dedicated to affordable housing for workers, per SFGate.
The total project tab is estimated at $40 million to $60 million, a price that Housley warned could expose residents and businesses to financial risk, with the town acting as developer. Town Manager Brad Raulston countered that officials have already held 23 public meetings and don't want to slow a project aimed at a workforce that largely commutes into the affluent community, per the Press Democrat. He said unit types and a new workforce demographics analysis will be reviewed at a Tuesday study session, with the next Town Council meeting slated for March 3.
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