Amador County - The Upcountry Community Council celebrated its two year anniversary Thursday night by finishing up its recommendations for upcountry residential land use designation in the Amador County General Plan. The recommendations were the end product of a series of meetings based mainly on topics raised during a Q & A with County Planning Director Susan Grijalva four months ago. “This was a chance for over 12,000 upcountry people to finally be heard. We’re finally getting a voice,” said UCC Co-Chair Bob Currall. Topics were addressed as they pertain to each community. Buckhorn, Mace Meadows, Volcano, Pioneer, Pine Grove and Rabb Park all had separate visions for community designation. Amador Pines agreed upon recommending a redesignation as agricultural transition. This would keep current 5 to 20 acre parcels from being divided into smaller 1 to 2 acre parcels, thus limiting development. “We’d like to keep things more rural and in larger units,” said Currall. There are approximately 800 home sites in the Amador Pines area, including tracts. Attendees from the Rabb Park/Sierra Highlands area decided to recommend a non-agricultural designation for there smaller parcels to eliminate livestock. According to Currall, at least 90 percent of the 75 or so attendees wanted to keep their local service centers in Pine Grove. Local service centers are part of a statewide mandate that requires different areas within counties to create town centers in an attempt to keep communities from travelling far for goods and services. These “town centers” include commercial business, medium to high density residential, and other services like food markets and school. Although different communities differed on their own specific designations, they all agreed that keeping things rural was to their benefit. Currall, an ex-fire fighter, said he was also “concerned with overdeveloping the upcountry because if there is a major fire we wouldn’t be able to egress quickly enough.” Currall said fire response in the upcountry area is limited and can sometimes take 30 minutes or more. The UCC Council was the brainchild of Supervisor Ted Novelli. Curall and Chair Debbie Dunn plan on presenting their recommendations to the planning department and Board of Supervisors within the month. Last night was a great conclusion to a lot of ground work, said Currall, adding, “we have an idea of what we need for the next 20 years.” Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).