By Jim Reece & Jennifer Wilson -

Home Depot USA has withdrawn its application for a store in Jackson and requested Jackson City staff to immediately stop work on the project. Consultants for Home Depot sent a letter last week to City Manager Mike Daly to inform them of the decision and to ask that the city and its consultants immediately stop work on the project. The letter, from Scott A. Mommer Consulting, Land Development Services, asked also that the city provide an accounting of any outstanding consultant fees or expenses it had incurred to date on Home Depot’s behalf. Daly said today that the consulting fees had been paid by Home Depot as they accrued over the time of the proposed project. The project was proposed to be located just off Highway 49 in Jackson, north of the Jackson Lodge. Home Depot’s decision to build in Amador County was seen to be unpopular with the general public, and spurred public protests and marches in downtown Jackson over the last several years. Kathryn Gallagher with Home Depot Public Relations said the decision to withdraw its application for a store in Jackson had nothing to do with the current economic climate. Gallagher said “The city is going through growing pains with future growth plans and hasn't determined how a use like ours will fit into the general plan. We will evaluate locating a new store in Amador county in the future, but have no current plans at this time." Kathy Allen, chairwoman for the local group Amador Citizens For Smart Growth, said hers and other groups would celebrate Home Depot’s decision to pull its application. She said Home Depot’s proposed project was “ground zero” for the formation of her organization. Allen said she was in the process of calling all of the organizations involved in the fight to let them know about the application withdrawal. Those groups included the Kennedy Mine Foundation, the Progressive Women’s Group and Main Street Theater Works. “We worked so hard to get that project out of here,” Allen said. “I’m not opposed to Home Depot, it was just a bad location and it was bad for Amador County. Those types of stores can destroy a local economy.”