(SonomaNews) - A controversial plan to build a 10,000 case winery and creamery, tasting room and event facilities on a remote stretch of Sonoma Mountain Road comes before the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors Tuesday in its regular afternoon session in Santa Rosa. But more than just a wine-and-cheese permit may be under discussion, as the applicants were involved with a controversial non-permitted event earlier this month in rural Knights Valley, on Highway 128 between Healdsburg and Calistoga.

The 55-acre Sonoma property, known as Belden Barns, is located at 5561 Sonoma Mountain Road, 1.5 miles east of Sonoma Mountain-Pressley Road. The owners of the project, Nate and Lauren Belden, have been producing pinot noir and other wine grapes since they purchased the property in 2005, though they made Sonoma their full-time home only since 2012. They also produce “farmstead” food products, including vegetables, fruit, eggs and cheese.

Critics of the proposal – which include the Sonoma Ecology Center, Valley of the Moon Alliance and Friends of Sonoma Mountain Road among others – say the project “would permanently damage the environment, create and exacerbate dangerous road conditions and threaten the critical wildlife corridor that runs through the Sonoma Valley over Sonoma Mountain.” They expressed concern that approval of the project would “establish a dangerous precedent” for commerical operations on Sonoma Mountain Road, as being the first of its kind.