Amador County – The Sutter Creek City Council on Monday renamed Mayor Gary Wooten and Mayor Pro Tempore Tim for another year, then took the nearly final action to approve the Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort development project. The council approved “first readings” of a zoning amendment and a development agreement for Gold Rush, including minor revisions. Assistant City Manager Sean Rabe said changes were not significant and the “conditions of approval stayed the same.” Rabe said the “entitlements don’t take effect until the 2nd readings,” but the actions “pave the way for them to start to building.” He said “they are basically approved (but) we need to do the formal reading of those 2 ordinances, and then they will be 100 percent approved.” Opponents said the project – with 1,334 equivalent dwelling units – had too many houses and was too big. He said speakers were the same people who opposed it over dozens of meetings up to Monday. The Gold Rush Ranch “specific plan” passed on a 4-1 vote with Murphy against, while the 2 ordinances were approved unanimously, Rabe said. It could be years before Gold Rush starts building. The Development Agreement allows a hiatus of 3 years before they build. He said “they haven’t told me if they were going to be building right away or not.” In other business, the council reported that it had directed staff to “continue moving forward with the new offer to the owner” of the Knight Foundry, based on a revised offer given to the city council in closed session. He could not discuss details of negotiations, ongoing between City Manager Rob Duke and Knight Foundry LLC. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.