(PD) - The Napa County Board of Supervisors began grappling Tuesday with the politically contentious issue of how to better regulate winery expansion to limit the congestion that critics contend has turned this agricultural valley into an overrun tourist playground.

The board started to debate proposals put forth by a 17-member citizen advisory committee, further recommendations by the county’s Planning Commission as well as an analysis of the items by county staff. Overall, 22 public hearings have been held in the past nine months.

Board members did not vote on any regulations, but instructed staff to further work on the proposals. Supervisors hope to adopt new rules in the next year that will bring some clarity to the future of the wine industry, which generated $1.6 billion in visitor spending last year while snarling the county’s planning process in time-consuming arguments over winery permits. It will continue the debate on Jan. 5.

The controversy in Napa echoes an ongoing debate across California’s Wine Country. Sonoma County has formed a task force to study the problems associated with winery development and events, while other counties, such as Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, are also tackling related issues on wine tourism.

Napa supervisors heard from 73 speakers, part of a crowd that spilled into four overflow rooms to discuss the topic, arguably the most hotly debated issue in the county of about 140,000 residents.

Community activists contend that winery growth has clogged main arteries such as Highway 29 and Silverado Trail and drawn an influx of tourists that has changed the nature of the agrarian county. One critic called it “binge tourism,” citing a news report on high rates of traffic accidents compared to other Bay Area counties.

Wine industry critics contend that wineries are not held accountable, noting that eight out of 20 wineries audited by the county exceeded their production or visitor limits in 2013. Last year, three out of 18 had violations.

“We need to move away from the honor system that this industry was built on here. It’s clearly no longer being honored,” said Geoff Ellsworth, an art gallery owner in St. Helena.

But the wine industry is the dominant economic force in the county and its organizations and allies came out Tuesday to fight against what they termed as burdensome regulations, arguing that such curbs could harm a booming economy where the unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in October — the fifth-lowest in California.

Stuart Smith, winemaker at Smith-Madrone Vineyards in St. Helena, said that some of the Planning Commission’s recommendations “are intended to punish our industry.”

Smith called the opponents “a small, well-organized vocal group of critics who are mean-spirited.” He further added, “They are driven by emotion rather than fact.”