Amador County - The Sutter Creek Planning Commission approved the Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort’s Environmental Impact Report on Monday, sending the project’s developers to work on the Final EIR. Commissioner Cort Strandberg said he still had unanswered questions to traffic and economic mitigations, but commissioners Frank Cunha and Chairman Robin Peters convinced him that there were steps left in the process that still allowed the city to pause the process for answers to any questions that were known or unforeseen. Assistant City Manager Sean Rabe said that Gold Rush was working on an update of its Economic Impact Study. He said the city was still working with Gold Rush to find a solution to wastewater, which the developers will fund. Gold Rush staff said that they expected to have the Final Environmental Impact Report out by January 19th. Cunha suggested a 3-to-1 ratio of oak tree mitigation in areas outside of a 2-mile radius of the Sutter Creek “Sphere of Influence,” but also limited to preserving trees in western Amador County. That would mean the preservation of three oak trees for every one lost in the project.

Cunha said he was “trying to encourage the retention of trees in the county.” City Consultant Anders Hauge said it was “setting policy” and “we haven’t really looked at the implications of having that policy.” Standberg supported keeping tree mitigation in Amador County, but Hauge said the nexus for oak “habitat mitigation” was a 2-to-1 ratio. Cunha said the EIR preserving 10 percent of oak trees was not enough, noting that 60 trees per acre could be trimmed by developers to 6 trees per acre. And in any given acre with 6 trees, they could cut down 5 trees. Peters said it was up to the city to see that it is achievable. The commissioners decided to omit the 3-to-1 ratio, in lieu of further study, but raised the overall preservation of oak trees to 20 percent. The Planning Commission passed a resolution saying the Draft EIR fit into the city General Plan and next will start to explore the Gold Rush Ranch Specific Plan, starting 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3rd. The meeting will open with a presentation by developer Greg Bardini. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).