Amador County – Among the more than 100 people who attended the Amador County Joint Panel meeting Wednesday were many wearing the red of the Mother Lode Tea Party. All were invited to speak later in the meeting. During public matters not on the agenda, a few people still spoke about the matters that were on the agenda: The General Plan.

Kathy Allen said her group, Amador Citizens for Smart Growth, was unduly criticized for costing the county for making Freedom of Information Act requests, but she said her comment letters of 7 and 13 pages “were in no way monstrous.” She said Amador Business Council “submitted a much larger document.”

Terry Nielsen of Pine Grove said “we moved here to be in the open country” and are strongly against being crammed into clustered, controlled communities. He cited Senate Bill 375 as the bible for the California Environmental Quality Act, and Greenhouse Gas reduction, and said “the law is so revolutionary that California has been going through a real boom in the planning industry.”

Supervisor Ted Novelli pointed out that SB375, the “metropolitan planning” law, is specific to 7 counties, but not Amador County. But he said “certain segments of it could pertain to Amador County.”

Supervisor Chairman John Plasse read a statement from county legal counsel about a recent greenhouse gas ruling, which went against the state in San Francisco. He said AB32 created CEQA, but SB97 amended CEQA to add greeghouse gas emission, which was the basis on which then Attorney General Jerry Brown required the monitoring of greenhouse gasses to be in county General Plans. Plasse said the ruling in San Francisco was against “Cap & Trade,” and the State Resources Board will appeal, which stays the ruling on Cap & Trade, and “unfortunately, we will not be able to address the issue.”

The Panel then turned to several issues that still needed to be rectified. Among those was land use designation on a few properties around the Amador County Airport, which Planner Susan Grijalva said had inconsistencies. One of those was property purchased by the Amador Water Agency to expand its water storage. The land designation was changed to Public Service, as was a 3.26-acre parcel near West Point Bridge on Highway 26. Similarly, the Pine Grove community leach field was designated a Public Service area.

Other land near the airport was discussed, including a 20-acre ranch, whose owners had not been notified of possible designation changes. It was agreed to make a notification of all lands affected by the airport, due to “federally adopted over-flight zones.” Supervisors Louis Boitano and Novelli said they thought the family owned the property before the airport was built.

After taking public comment, the Joint Panel meeting was adjourned to resume at 1 p.m. today.

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