Amador County – The Plymouth City Council in September dropped the “Interim” from City Manager Jeff Garnder’s title recently, offering him the permanent position.
Gardner accepted and will remain the city finance director, until they get the money to pay someone else to do it, he said. He held both positions since taking over for former City Manager Dixon Flynn last December.
Gardner said the next big projects, Zinfandel and Shenandoah Ridge residential developments, six years in the making, may be two years away from starting.
The Plymouth City Council last week closed a workshop after finalizing issues on the developments including potential easements on properties, offsetting pipeline debt with the development agreement, and answering council members’ concerns. The council set an Oct. 13 public hearing on the Reeder projects.
The engineering on streets as it relates to the rural setting, versus curb and gutter on standard city streets was to be discussed. He said Reeder Sutherland partners Bob Reeder and Stefan Horstschraer and their partners did not want to use curbs and gutters because of his marketing preference. Gardner said people want to move up here for the rural setting. It creates natural swales and keeps water to reuse.
Gardner said the projects “will be engineered properly,” as there seem to be issues cropping up in other developments Reeder Sutherland has done around Amador County. He said “we have road standards in our city design guidelines on the conditions of approval.”
At the workshop last week, it was decided to have a combination of curb & gutter areas, and those with the non-guttered and non-curbed rural areas. Planning Clerk Suzon Hatley said it was discussed to have it be determined by the city engineer, depending on terrain and drainage by area. Off-street parking also would be expanded, depending on a case-by-case basis.
Gardner said the city is still waiting on a state waste discharge permit for its new wastewater treatment plant, and he hopes to get on the Regional Water Quality Control Board calendar for its next meeting in January. He said Reeder Sutherland’s project is not going to start for at least a couple years. He said they still need master plans, water lines, sewer lines and a lot of infrastructure done. He said that would probably be done by the developer through private financing by a group of investors they put together.
He said Community Facilities Districts for public safety and for maintenance, landscaping and lighting will be created in the two new developments, which will be annexed into city limits.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
