Amador County – Jackson City Council on Tuesday approved sending a letter to Amador County urging it to follow its own design guidelines to preserve historical building designs, after its planning commission OK’d a remodel of McDonald’s in Martell.

Jackson Vice Mayor Keith Sweet, who is appealing the McDonald’s variance approval with eight other county citizens, brought the issue to the council seeking approval of a support letter similar to one sent by Sutter Creek City Council.

Councilman Wayne Garibaldi said he supported Sweet personally 100 percent, but did not attend the Amador Planning Commission, did not hear the arguments and how it made the McDonald’s decision. He said he supported a letter, but not a resolution, as was approved by Sutter Creek.

Councilman Pat Crew agreed, saying he also did not attend the meeting, and did not see how the decision was reached. He said a council resolution “would be stepping into an issue that we don’t belong in.”

Garibaldi favored a letter structured much more simply, because the restaurant is located outside city limits and Sphere of Influence. He said it was jumping in on something that doesn’t impact us, and he would rather see a letter urging local governments to follow their design guidelines, and build “something that fits.”

Supervisor Chairman John Plasse said Supervisors at a recent meeting made individual comments on county’s design guidelines, and asked staff and the Planning Commission to “hopefully integrate them into the design guidelines.” He said design zoning areas were a good idea, while “one size fits all is very difficult to do.”

Plasse said he agreed with Crew and Garibaldi that it is “uncomfortable to get into the operations of other governing” bodies and was not right to weigh in, in a formal manner, with a resolution.

Sweet “for the record, I did not ask for a resolution, just a letter.” He didn’t disagree with a word Plasse said, but was not pleased the County Planning Commission worked on design guidelines, voted 5-0 to recommend them to Supervisors, and then chose to ignore the guidelines when it approved the McDonald’s remodel.

Sweet said if council members were uncomfortable, he would pull the issue. Garibaldi said he was not uncomfortable, but just did not know the methodology behind the decision. He suggested authorizing City Manager Mike Daly to send a letter with much less detail, encouraging local government to follow their own guidelines preserving historic designs.

The letter passed 3-0-1, with Sweet abstaining, and Councilwoman Marilyn Lewis abstaining.

Sweet said he and some appellants met Monday with McDonald’s officials, and are working on a compromise, and hopefully the appeal hearing won’t have to happen.

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