(PD) - Sebastopol winemaker Paul Hobbs will pay $100,000 to settle a civil lawsuit brought by Sonoma County prosecutors last year that alleged environmental and land-use violations in three vineyard conversion projects, his company said Friday.

Among other things, Hobbs was accused of causing soil erosion into a stream in a 2013 vineyard project off Watertrough Road and of bulldozing a Christmas tree farm off Vine Hill Road without a permit, starting in 2011.

Also, the lawsuit alleged land-use violations connected to a 2011 timber- clearing operation on a 10-acre ridgetop property off Pocket Canyon Road in Forestville.

The alleged breaches carried the potential for millions of dollars in penalties, but a settlement was reached recently after several weeks of negotiation, said Christopher O’Gorman, the winemaker’s spokesman.

It was signed Friday by Judge Nancy Shaffer, he said.

In addition to the fine, Hobbs agrees that all of his future vineyard development will comply with the law, O’Gorman said.

“We’re just happy to put it behind us,” O’Gorman said. “Now we can go on to farming and making great wine.”

A spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office could not be reached Friday.

Thomas Cooper, who opposed the Watertrough Road conversion because of its proximity to his son’s elementary school, said the settlement won’t fix environmental damage that already has been done. He said the fine is “just a cost of doing business” for Hobbs.

“It’s his business model,” Cooper said. “I don’t think $100,000 will be a deterrent whatsoever.”