For Immediate Release!

! Subject: ! Contact: ! ! !

Residents Appeal Expansion of Printing Factory in Coastal Hills! Michael Singer, 707.847.3368; Sonoma Coastal Hills Rural Preservation! sonomachrp@gmail.com, sonomacoastalhillsruralpreservation.org!

Many residents in northwestern Sonoma County are calling for the removal of a printing factory in the wooded, rolling hills west of Cazadero. Once the subject of idyllic Ansel Adams photographs, these forested coastal hills now host the printing factory and publishing operations of Dharma Press, previously located for 37 years in a heavily industrial neighborhood of Berkeley.! Sonoma County Permit and Resource Management ofcials originally allowed a printing operation in 2004not to exceed one press, 27 workers, and 18,750 square feetas an ancillary, or secondary function of a new religious retreat, Ratna Ling. Designated in the General Plan as a Resource and Rural Development area, unrelated industry should not be permitted here without a General Plan Amendment, followed up with the required Environmental Impact Report. Without either, by 2007 Dharma Publishing had relocated its entire manufacturing plant and sales distribution operations to the religious retreat. It has now applied for acceptance of those permit violations and approval of expansion of its printing operations to over 60,000 square feet, six presses running six days a week, non-re codesafe tent storage for hundreds of thousands of books and inventory items, and housing for 93 workers in the middle of a coastal forest. Rather than being minutes from suppliers and the Port of Oakland, Dharma Press now trucks all materials and labor to the remote site and trucks all products back again to the Bay Area for shipping.!

! ! ! ! !

The Sonoma County Board of Zoning Adjustments recommended the expansion of Dharma Press operations in 2012 (Sonoma County Use Permit PLP08-0021). A group of residents and supporters called Sonoma Coastal Hills Rural Preservation, now over 300 strong and growing, has appealed that recommendation to the Board of Supervisors.! After repeated delays by the owner of Dharma Press, Coastal Hills Rural Preservation was nally given a hearing date in August, 2013, which was cancelled by the request of the same owners. Coastal Hills Rural Preservation was busy preparing for the new hearing date, January 28, 2014, when they received notice on December 24, 2013, that this hearing was also cancelled. No explanation was given and no new date has been set.! It has now been six years since this use permit application was led and subsequently appealed. Meanwhile Ratna Ling and Dharma Press continue to violate their 2004 permit with impunity, operating a multi-million dollar commercial industry from Ratna Ling Retreat.! CHRP has summarized its position and provides photo documentation on its website: sonomacoastalhillsruralpreservation.org.! ###