Napa County supervisors have signed off on wiping out $5 million in outstanding loans to the Napa Berryessa Resort Improvement District, a move county staff say is meant to clear the logjam blocking state and federal grant money for badly needed water and sewer fixes in the Berryessa Highlands. By scrubbing the county debt, officials say they are easing strict budget and debt rules that often shut distressed districts out of grant programs. District leaders and supervisors cast the decision as the realistic alternative to slamming a small, already stretched community with steep rate hikes. The vote follows a local special tax measure that residents approved earlier this year to stabilize day-to-day operations.
The waiver appeared on the Board of Supervisors’ June 2 agenda as an item authorizing the chair to request repayment relief and consider a resolution waiving the loans under state law. County staff told the board that making the district repay the loans would create an economic hardship for district property owners, and that forgiving the debt is a discretionary choice that carries a $5 million fiscal hit to county funds. The agenda and meeting recap show staff presented the loan-waiver request on behalf of the Napa Berryessa Resort Improvement District and recommended approval as a way to help the district compete for outside funding, per Napa County.
District and county officials have repeatedly stressed that the point of forgiveness is to clear a key barrier to grant eligibility. “They, to my knowledge, cannot receive grants while they have debt,” Napa Berryessa board chair Amber Manfree told reporters in recent coverage of the request. That reporting also notes the district serves roughly 250 households and that earlier this year residents backed a parcel tax meant to balance the books while staff chase capital funding, rather than leaving the community to fend for itself with big rate spikes, as reported by The Press Democrat.
The local ballot measure, Measure A, was a mail election held Jan. 20 that approved a 10-year special tax on improved parcels to steady NBRID’s budget. Coverage and district materials put the levy at $1,560 per improved parcel each fiscal year for a decade, with the revenue intended to shore up operations and build the reserves many grant programs look for before cutting checks. The county later accepted the certified election results and treated that certification as routine board business while it took up the separate loan-waiver request, per Maven's Notebook.
The scramble for outside dollars has a long backstory. The 2020 LNU Lightning Complex destroyed and damaged many homes in the Berryessa area and left behind persistent worries about infrastructure and water quality, complicating both recovery and upgrades. That wildfire history, combined with earlier housing losses tied to resort closures and other shifts, has thinned the local tax base and made long-term financing for major repairs a heavy lift for such a tiny district. For reporting on wildfire impacts to rural water systems, see CalMatters, and for background on the district’s finances and local housing losses, see the county and reporting linked above and in local coverage.
What Comes Next
County staff and district officials are clear that debt forgiveness does not fix a single pipe by itself. Instead, the goal is to let NBRID submit stronger applications for state and federal grants that require balanced operations and no unsecured county debt hanging over the district. The board’s agenda materials and staff report frame the move as a way to boost the district’s odds for larger capital grants and call for a coordinated grant-hunting push now that the books are cleaner. District engineers and the county plan to keep working on design and permitting while pursuing grant and loan packages for treatment-plant upgrades, along with pipeline and collection-system repairs.
Legal Note
State law gives counties the power to waive repayment of loans to resort improvement districts when there is a demonstrated economic or fiscal hardship, and county staff leaned on that provision in their recommendation to the board. The agenda materials flag that the waiver is discretionary, carries a direct fiscal impact to county funds, and, under the guidance staff used, can require a supermajority when applied to certain loan instruments. For more on the legal framework and regional context, see the Lake Berryessa studies and related county staff reports, per Napa LAFCO.
