‘The codeenforcement people said they had no idea this was going on.’ Since purchasing the land, all Dharma printing operations have been relocated from Berkeley, a move that baffles Singer, since the East Bay location provided access to industrial zones and close proximity to shipping ports. Retired attorney Curtis Caton is Ratna Ling’s legal consultant for the new permit application. He says that it shouldn’t be necessary to “indulge” the expense of a complete environmental impact report, as some neighbors are requesting, when the county has already declared a mitigated negative declaration in terms of the press’ environmental effects. “There’s never been a complaint that the press makes noise,” says Caton. “The press can’t be seen from the road. It’s out of sight and it’s out of hearing, and it doesn’t make an impact. And it’s been functioning that way under the permit since 2004.” He points out that the Permit and Resource Management Department staff studied the issue for a year, concluding with a comprehensive report that “basically endorses as appropriate use of the property everything
that we’ve asked for.” Caton notes that Ratna Ling is making concessions to the demand for less traffic on the road by limiting supply-truck trips to one per day, and by promising that trucks be no longer than 24 feet. “The overall effect,” he says, “is a reduction of the impact to the roads.” The press was moved from Berkeley in order to seamlessly link the retreat experience with the creation of the sacred texts, says Caton. A key element to the use permit is that the printing press is intrinsic to the Buddhists’ spiritual practice; according to the Resource Management report, “places of religious worship, lodges, schools . . . are uses allowed in the resource and rural development zone land use designation.” Though the center’s neighbors are aware of the religious function of the printing press, Singer says that “it’s not a hand-done process; it’s on an industrial scale. They have supporters with very deep pockets, so they’ve been able to afford this.” Jason Liles, a member of the planning commission, toured Ratna Ling and spoke with members of the Coastal Hills Rural Preservation in mid-March as part of his preparation for the permit hearing this week. “The neighbors that are most concerned live the closest,” says Liles. “I think that they’ve been feeling inundated over the last few years, mostly over the construction.” On a wider scale, locals still feel the sting over approval of the area’s first public tasting room at the Fort Ross Vineyard & Winery. Sudden attention drawn to the historically remote area of the county by Levi Leipheimer’s Granfondo, the 174-acre Artesa Vineyards development, the 19,300-acre Preservation Ranch vineyard development and the approval of a new Fort RossSeaview wine appellation has caused unease over new land-use precedents for rural development and the county’s general plan. “Folks aren’t used to having that much going on from a commercial and industrial standpoint up there on the ridge,” says Liles.
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on the number of books printed annually be lifted, since in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, a book can be a slim volume, similar to the book of Genesis in the Bible. Singer lives with her husband about a mile south of Ratna Ling, on land they purchased over 40 years ago. Their group spent six months researching the center’s operations, resulting in a twoinch binder of photos, documents and other information submitted to the county as a complaint of permit violations in 2010. “The code-enforcement people said they had no idea this was going on,” says Singer.