The battle over affordable housing is ramping up in one of the toniest corners of the Bay Area, and Wine Country’s most celebrated chef has weighed in.
Yountville is proposing to build a 120-apartment housing complex at Yountville Commons, the site of a former elementary school that the town purchased in 2020 to meet the great demand for affordable housing in a tourist-driven area where the average worker earns less than $50,000 annually.
But French Laundry chef Thomas Keller came out last week to publicly criticize the town’s plan, calling it out of touch with the needs of employees. In a Feb. 10 public statement, Keller and Ranch Market owner Arik Housley said the town was “moving too fast and at a scale that may not work for the workers it is intended to serve.”…