Amador County – Motherlode Taxed Enough Already Party members asked the Amador County Board of Supervisors Tuesday for a chance to comment on a draft county General Plan that was released earlier this month and will be subject of an April joint meeting of supervisors and Planning Commissioners.

Board Chairman John Plasse said he would “take the fire on this,” saying it was his idea to limit public comment at the April meeting so the Board of Supervisors could make sure staff had followed through on directions given them by the board. He said the board has “heard from lots of you” and also heard lots of criticism asking when the General Plan would be done. He said “there were 27 to 29 General Plan advisory committee meetings,” with discussion on what should and should not go into the plan. They had individual meetings on seven elements, and four joint meetings of Supervisors and Commissioners.

Plasse said “we were hoping to avoid rehashing the same issues over and over again,” but rather to see that staff had followed through on direction given.

TEA Party member Virginia Manner said they “did not have the time or take the time to attend the meetings.” She and others asked for more time to read the new pages in the General Plan.

Manner said they were “not familiar with the language,” and a TEA Party speaker explained the faults of language in the General Plan, specifically regarding property rights.

Supervisor Richard Forster said they recognize not everyone has been able to attend, but they would like to get it done so it will not cost the county more money than it already has. Forster said the county has been “fairly thorough” about getting the public involved.

Plasse said a full public comment period was intended to follow at a later meeting on the draft plan.

One TEA Party member said “socialists are taking over this country.” He criticized the term “sustainable” in the General Plan and said the county did not need affordable housing in the plan. He said: “We don’t really need this. We need to take a better look at it before we head down that road, the road to socialism.”

Sherry Curtis said she had asked that a definition of sustainability be included in the glossary. Plasse said “it’s in there,” and the glossary is one of the things they would be going over, because they “have not had ample time for public comment” on that.

Supervisor Brian Oneto said the “whole General Plan is a work in flux.” He said he did not speak for the whole board, but he thought people would get a chance to speak at the next meeting.

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