Amador County – The front lawn of Castle Oaks Golf Course on Highway 104 in Ione could be the new home to 70,000- square feet of retail, and 153 single-family homes, the Ione City Council learned Wednesday. A special joint session of the council and Planning Commission heard a very preliminary plan from JTS Communities and new partners, Studio 81. Rob Aragon of JTS said this is the 20th year of the incarnation of the development that is Castle Oaks, which was started as a 10-year build-out project. The hotel or motel is removed from that site, near the existing office building, and may be placed elsewhere. He said the market climate has changed drastically since 2005, and it is a bad market. He said he was at the special workshop Wednesday to find out city leaders’ reaction to the new project, with 153 single-family homes, 70,000 square feet of retail space, and 7 buildings to house 9 units each, for a total of 63 multi-family housing units. He was there, he said, to see if the city council and the planning commission of Ione “would be offended” by those proposals. Aragon said JTS got involved with the Castle Oaks project in 2004, and “millions of dollars have been invested to fix that (Community Facilities District) bond drama.” In 2 years, they have sold more than 100 homes in Castle Oaks, or about 50 a year. This year they have “pulled about 30 building permits,” and now he was before them, with Studio 81’s Bill Crump and Karen West. He said “we are very much at the conceptual stage of this project.” He was there to get input from city leaders, in order to “deliver the best project for the city.” He said the project would likely begin with buildings for potential medical offices, next to the existing building at the corner of Castle Oaks Drive and Fairway Drive. The 70,000 square feet of retail could house such things as outdoor dining, a deli, dry cleaning, and retail, “depending on what demand is for each of those services.” About 24,000 square feet would be for medical offices, and he had spoken with Mule Creek Prison medical staff, who do not have office space of their own. Story by Jim Reece.
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Amador County – The front lawn of Castle Oaks Golf Course on Highway 104 in Ione could be the new home to 70,000- square feet of retail, and 153 single-family homes, the Ione City Council learned Wednesday. A special joint session of the council and Planning Commission heard a very preliminary plan from JTS Communities and new partners, Studio 81. Rob Aragon of JTS said this is the 20th year of the incarnation of the development that is Castle Oaks, which was started as a 10-year build-out project. The hotel or motel is removed from that site, near the existing office building, and may be placed elsewhere. He said the market climate has changed drastically since 2005, and it is a bad market. He said he was at the special workshop Wednesday to find out city leaders’ reaction to the new project, with 153 single-family homes, 70,000 square feet of retail space, and 7 buildings to house 9 units each, for a total of 63 multi-family housing units. He was there, he said, to see if the city council and the planning commission of Ione “would be offended” by those proposals. Aragon said JTS got involved with the Castle Oaks project in 2004, and “millions of dollars have been invested to fix that (Community Facilities District) bond drama.” In 2 years, they have sold more than 100 homes in Castle Oaks, or about 50 a year. This year they have “pulled about 30 building permits,” and now he was before them, with Studio 81’s Bill Crump and Karen West. He said “we are very much at the conceptual stage of this project.” He was there to get input from city leaders, in order to “deliver the best project for the city.” He said the project would likely begin with buildings for potential medical offices, next to the existing building at the corner of Castle Oaks Drive and Fairway Drive. The 70,000 square feet of retail could house such things as outdoor dining, a deli, dry cleaning, and retail, “depending on what demand is for each of those services.” About 24,000 square feet would be for medical offices, and he had spoken with Mule Creek Prison medical staff, who do not have office space of their own. Story by Jim Reece.
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