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Wednesday, 10 January 2007 04:20

Sutter Creek Planning Commission: Annexation Still Being Discussed

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slide17Earlier this week the Sutter Creek Planning Commission held a public hearing on the Sutter Hill East Reorganization; which would annex 56.3 acres of Sutter Hill property to the city of Sutter Creek from Amador County’s jurisdiction. The annexation had inadvertently been sent to the city council last week lacking complete environmental documents and was then redirected to the planning commission for their recommendation to the council. The annexation includes the Amador Transit Mix concrete company and 3 other major sources of tax revenue opportunities for the city. The annexation has caused a bit of controversy with some of the surrounding land owners involved because portions of the annexation were possibly going to be rezoned from Residential to Planned development.

slide20 Land owners told the commission that they felt the rezoning depreciated the value of their property and that it would be a deal breaker for them because some of the property owners cooperating are not gaining anything by the annexation but are only trying to do something good for the city. The commission responded by saying that they must be cautious in the way they zone this project. They told the land owners if the property is zoned residential, that leaves the door open for a developer to come in, by the property, and build a major monstrosity.

New City Planner Paula Daneluk then informed the council that they had the option of zoning the property residential and then developing a set of standards for any proposed development. Planning Commissioner Robin Peters stated, "We have to be smart about this. Every property changes hands at some time. Good planning is our business, if they feel politics outweigh good planning, then that is part of the very tough decision they have to make. But I don't think we should recommend any project, this one included, if it is bad planning." The commission did not make a recommendation and tabled the annexation to allow for staff to meet with the land owners and iron out details. It is expected to come back to the commission for their recommendation next month.

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