Amador County – After a few months’ break, the serial meeting of the Amador County General Plan Update resumed Tuesday with scores of people in attendance. Amador County Transportation Commission Executive Director Charles Field gave a presentation on the “U-Plan” computer program that will eventually read traffic in the county. Katherine Evatt, of the Foothill Conservancy, asked about omission of smaller roads in U-Plan modeling, and several members of the panel of Amador County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission agreed. Planner Andy Byrne asked about the constraints, the so-called “minor road.” County Planner Susan Grijalva said “minor roads are construction standards. If they do not meet minor roads standards, they are not in (the U-Plan).” In the panel’s concern, Field said he saw the need to add small local roads to U-Plan. Upcountry Community Council Traffic Safety Committee Chair Sherry Curtis asked if there is “any modeling available for mountainous communities and regions.” She said the Upcountry could be a model community for such a plan. Field said “there are a lot of models out there, but U-Plan is the best one. It’s the easiest to use.” He said there is a “good set of examples or guidelines” for mountainous area development of roads, but the U-Plan system is “more transparent.” Curtis said she has been in land-use planning for over 30 years, and has seen the designs drawn up, but they don’t apply to the terrain in the Sierras, and “planners only have what they can use.” Field said the “constraints can be defined by land use type,” and U-Plan models can “notch up the slopes by 5-degree increments.” He said taking a 40-acrea area, there must be an area technically flat enough to build on, if there is enough money and allowable zoning to do so. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.