Amador County – The Plymouth City Council and Planning Commission held a joint session last week and discussed Reeder/Sutherland’s two residential projects Zinfandel and Shenandoah Ridge subdivisions.

Plymouth City Manager Jeff Gardner said Tuesday the meeting showed that the Commission and Council have a lot to understand “before they decide whether or not they want to approve the developments.” That includes seeing how the projects are “fitting together with the vision of Plymouth for the future.” Gardner said a lot of good suggestions came up from the panel, and they found some things they did not like.

The two projects plan for 485 single-family homes, including 370 in the Zinfandel Subdivision, and 115 in the Shenandoah Ridge Subdivision.

Gardner said: “We’ve got many more meetings.” The Environmental Impact Report and associated issues need to be addressed, and “we don’t have to have a tax revenue sharing agreement in place but I’d like to be done with that.”

The joint meeting was continued to May 18, and “something associated with this development project will start to be incorporated into regular meetings to get the work done, he said. “Potentially at build-out these two projects could double the size of Plymouth,” he said, and the city is actually working on its first Development Agreement in 20 or 30 years, after officially lifting a decades-long building moratorium based on the city water supply.

The city has completed its $3 million sewer upgrade project, and is awaiting a new waste discharge permit approval by the Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Plymouth must still work out its Conditions of Approval for the project, and staff is also working on the a revenue sharing agreement with Amador County. Gardner said “the agreement has not even been given to the County yet,” and staff is “putting together a preliminary draft proposal.”

He has talked with Amador County Sheriff Martin Ryan’s office about expectations for service levels, and they must also address the possibility of losing “COPS” grant funding. Gardner said they “may not have money to pay for police services,” and he has “to sit and discuss some service levels with the county.”

The areas planned for annexation into Plymouth will have little or no commercial development, with right now only a very small piece of commercial property in the annexation area, right along Highway 49. As a result, he hoped the revenue sharing agreement would not address commercial development right now.

Staff have been working on the Development Agreement with Bob Reeder of Reeder/Sutherland, and staff also is working on Conditions of Approval, having started with the city attorney’s “boiler plate” document. He said “Conditions of Approval are relative to impacts,” and help mitigate impacts.

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