A new Internet Web site touts the Angwin “eco-village” proposal by Pacific Union College and the development firm Triad Communities.

The Web site located at www.angwin-ecovillage.com features an overview of the project, addressing issues like energy, water and transportation, and a side-by-side comparison of the 380-unit eco-village with the 191-unit project that was pre-approved by county planners.

According to PUC President Richard Osborn, the Web site “has evolved through community input and in preparation for the EIR. We want the community to have accurate and detailed information, not content based on rumor and speculation.”

Osborn said the chart comparing the eco-village with the 191-unit project “demonstrates the green nature of the (eco-village) vs. a typical development.”

Triad spokesperson Peter Bartelme said the Web site also shows how the programs and principles proposed for the eco-village are already working in other parts of the country.

“The eco-village doesn’t attempt to re-invent the wheel,” said Bartelme. “Instead, it incorporates the best of the best sustainable technologies available, with the goal of being perhaps the greenest planned community in the nation.”

The site allows visitors to give feedback via e-mail. Bartelme said proponents “continue to meet with individuals and groups who are interested in discussing how to improve the eco-village, as we will do throughout the approval process.”

Bartelme said more than 1,000 first-time visitors have viewed the site in the past week.

Allen Spence, a spokesperson for the opposition group “Save Rural Angwin,” calls the Web site’s information “expensive propaganda.”

“It avoids reality by not mentioning 43 percent growth and the 480 simultaneous acre development in Mill Valley,” Spence said. “It blackmails Napa County with a 20 percent growth alternative that would ‘neither fund the college’s endowment, nor provide any benefits to the community beyond housing units, the majority of which would be low-income units.’”

St. Helena Star staff contributed to this report.

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