Amador County – The gravity of the Rollingwood Estates public hearing last week was noted by several attendees in different ways. First was the stepping down of two Jackson Planning Commissioners, due to conflict of interest.

Kathryn Devlin, Vice Chair, stepped down because she owns a residence and business interest within 500 feet of the mobile home park. And Commissioner Darek Selman stepped down because a relative of his lives there. City Manager Mike Daly has called it a kind of “common law” conflict.

The three remaining Commissioners, Chairman Walt Hoeser and Commissioners Joe Assereto and Dave Butow voted 3-0 to deny an application to subdivide Rollingwood into 219 mobile home lots and seven common area lots. ¶ Earlier, Mike Kirkley, a Sutter Creek resident spoke for his mother, who could not be there because she was on oxygen, after taking a fall and breaking her pelvis, which he called a typical situation at Rollingwood.

Kirkley said as Chairman of the Sutter Creek Planning Commission, he knew what the Commission was going through. Kirkley said “I never had to go into closed session with an attorney as a Planning Commissioner, so I know where you’re at here.”

The Commission started the meeting with a closed session conference with its attorney about “anticipated litigation” related to Rollingwood.

Kirkely said as a Commissioner, he likes to leave with people knowing they worked hard. He said they must follow government code, because “somehow this process got hijacked by the park owners.”

Kirkley said lot prices – $85,000 to $100,000 – assumed by the owners were arbitrary, and trailer court lots at Sutter Terrace were currently listed at $32,000, without a house. Kirkley said use of surveys in mobile home park subdivision decisions has won in superior court, and the Commission should deny the application “based on the survey alone.”

He asked if the “equity rights” of 260 people count, and said the results of an approval would be “in your face for the next 10 years,” as Rollingwood people become “destitute,” with the “stealing of the money in this community.”

Butow said the City Attorney Andy Morris gave the Commission “very narrow things” on which to base a decision, and he “sifted through the paper from the attorneys and individuals and came back constantly to the code.”

Commissioner Joe Assereto said he had been on the board 6 or 7 months and never seen a Supervisor at their meetings. On cue, District 1 Supervisor John Plasse waved from a chair in the back of the room, in the third hour of the meeting.

About 110 people attended the meeting, though about a third of them were gone when the Commission made its decision.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.