The issue is another aspect of the county’s land use laws, and while it doesn’t affect everyone, it affects Cardwell Hill near the unincorporated community of Wren. The Board of Supervisors directed staff on Aug. 13 to reinstate options for Dan and Nancy Chapel, who jointly own and operate Cardwell.

“They found out there was another stumbling block for us,” Dan Chapel said by phone on Tuesday, August 22.

There probably won’t be a food truck at Cardwell Hill until the winery’s summer concert series ends.

Lumos Wine Company, located less than half a mile away, is not bound by the same land-use restrictions and could rent a mobile kitchen today, even though it has a similar-sized winery on a similar-sized vineyard.

“We believe that the laws of the land should be applied equally,” said Dan Chapel. “Like establishments should be subject to like laws.”

The chapels hosted outside food trucks for years, not knowing that the Benton County Health Department licenses food trucks as restaurants.

And under Oregon state law, restaurants are not allowed on farmland.

“It’s really convenient for people to pick up a friend from work, come here, set up chairs or blankets, get something hot to eat and then have something hot to eat when the concert starts at 6 p.m.,” Dan Chapel said.

Cardwell will perform eight concerts in 2023, he said, and food trucks have shown up at some of them, typically staying on site for about four hours.

“And at 9 they’re gone. So what,” said Dan Chapel. “Why should a government get so worked up and upset about this?”

From the road below the winery, the trucks and the concert audience were barely visible, said Dan Chapel.

“It didn’t happen because there was any damage or injury,” Dan Chapel said.

But then a grocer told them that the county health department would not allow them to serve food on a farm.

In addition, the county planning board would have charged $1,153 to review zoning regulations and determine whether Chapels Winery could park a food truck in front of it.

The rules may only apply in Benton County. Visitors to Oregon wineries often find food trucks at promotional events like Cardwell’s concerts. A lobbyist for the Oregon Winegrowers Association said no wineries have raised complaints similar to those in Benton County.

“Up until that point, no one had been hurt,” Dan Chapel said. “And this year we got hurt.”

After Dan and Nancy Chapel explained to Benton’s elected officials earlier this year that local regulations prohibited them from renting a wood-fired pizza truck, a planner with the Benton County Community Development Authority consulted with land use experts from neighboring counties and the state’s zoning agency.

And then the local government changed its stance.

The planner said in July that Benton would join the rest of Oregon in allowing food trucks on land designated exclusively for agricultural use.

“We solved it,” said Dan Chapel.

But his problems were not solved.

County maps showing overlapping use restrictions and Cardwell’s bottling plant and tasting room are at the center of a roughly 2.5-acre parcel of land zoned for agricultural and industrial use.

Benton County treats agricultural-industrial land differently than land designated for agricultural use only.

“The second problem is that you can use it (exclusively for agricultural purposes), but not on an industrial site,” said Dan Chapel.

Dan Chapel had asked county planners to rezone the site back to its pre-1980s condition, thus removing Cardwell’s facilities from agricultural and industrial restrictions.

“It’s a long, arduous process,” he said.

At some point, probably in the 1980s, Benton County began requiring wineries to designate their operations as industrial zones.

“Because that’s what they were told back then, what they needed to have a winery,” said Commissioner Xan Augerot in August. “We ourselves created the conditions for that.”

Only 12 properties in Benton County are zoned agricultural-industrial, most of them in two industrial parks south of Corvallis, county maps show. But two of the dozen are wineries: Cardwell Hill and Harris Bridge Vineyard on Harris Road between Blodgett and Wren.

This means that two of the ten or so wineries in Benton County definitely cannot accommodate food trucks.

“It stinks,” said Augerot. “I agree with them and completely understand their frustration.”

Augerot and Commissioner Nancy Wyse asked staff to figure out what combination of local and state legislation would allow chapels to set up food trucks.

Wyse said in August that she left the July meeting believing the county would allow all wineries within its borders to set up food stands.

“I don’t see any reason why anyone would have a problem with having a food truck at a winery,” she said. “If there’s a rule, it should just apply equally to everyone.”

Dan Chapel purchased the land beneath the vineyard in 2000 for $205,000. County tax records show the tasting room and production facilities were built in 2004.

No one has mentioned any requirements for operating the winery on industrial sites, he said.

“Why it had to be industrial, I don’t know,” Chapel said. “You don’t know either.”

Agricultural land is the first thing the state reserves to protect against urban expansion.

Under state policy, city and county governments designate zones across land with regulations designed to curb developments whose customers would clog highways and take up agricultural land.

And wineries are subject to numerous regulations.

Wineries are licensed as producers and distributors of alcohol, and also as agricultural operations if they are attached to a vineyard. Under state law, an agricultural operation will be reviewed by the county land use agency if the owners attempt to build housing, sell products at a concession stand or manufacture something with agricultural products, such as biofuel.

Oregon lawmakers created exemptions for wineries in 2013, and the state relaxed some restrictions on agricultural-only land designated specifically for winemakers in 2017.

The sector is relatively important to Oregon’s economy.

Industry analysts estimate that wine tourism in the state is worth nearly $900 million. The Oregon Wine Board estimates that Benton County winemakers generated about $114.4 million in revenue in 2022. They paid $26.5 million in wages and $2.8 million in taxes.

Wineries are now allowed to host up to 18 concerts, dinners, wine tastings, tours or other events annually. However, these activities cannot account for more than a quarter of a winery’s on-site revenue.

“We only have two concerts left this year,” said Dan Chapel. “But we will play them.”

County officials don’t yet know if they will zone the wineries differently, if they can make exceptions to farm rules on select properties, or if Benton will allow food trucks on all parcels subject to that zone.

“The fertilizer plant down the street probably doesn’t need a food truck,” Augerot said.

However, commissioners said they wanted to support agritourism efforts such as those of wineries.

“I know the chapels talk about it with everyone who comes to visit,” Augerot said.

More reporting from producer to consumer