Amador County – Consultants inched the city of Ione closer to a new General Plan with about 50 people attending a workshop on the subject Wednesday night in Evalynn Bishop Hall. Those in attendance used hand-held electronic voting clickers to interact with Rancho Cordova consultant Daniel Hamilton of PMC. Hamilton said 250 people had responded to a survey on the General Plan, and he went through the survey results. More than half of respondents have lived in Ione for less than 10 years and the majority own their homes. Major community concerns were increased traffic, a lack of shopping, the disrepair of the downtown, development pressures and a lack of community resources. Hamilton said “what we heard from surveys is that people want somewhere to shop -- they want more job opportunities and they want more shopping opportunities.” After discussions in small groups, attendees voted on different issues, including picking Alternative 2 as the preferred scheme to work with. It included having housing in the area of Waterman and Highway 124, including low-density residential, plus 10 acres of affordable housing along the eastern edge of town. Commercial growth in Alternative 2 focused on expansion of the downtown district, while Q Ranch remained open space. On separate issues, the people voted to have a future growth area in the “Triangle” formed by Highways 124, 104 and 88. One attendee pointed out seemingly contradictory results in the voting. For Q Ranch, 50 percent voted for Rural Residential or “Ranchette Style” housing, and 43 percent voted for no development at all at Q Ranch. 58 percent voted to have low-density housing at Waterman and Highway 124 and 71 percent voted to have higher-density affordable housing apartments at Highway 124 on the east edge of town. 29 percent voted to have those apartments at the entrance to Mule Creek Prison and Highway 104. 64 percent of attendees voted to expand the downtown to be larger by adding side streets to it. City Planner Christopher Jordan said the Planning Commission will consider the General Plan at its December 9th meeting, and if approved by them, the General Plan would then be brought before the Ione City Council at its January 6th meeting. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
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Amador County – Consultants inched the city of Ione closer to a new General Plan with about 50 people attending a workshop on the subject Wednesday night in Evalynn Bishop Hall. Those in attendance used hand-held electronic voting clickers to interact with Rancho Cordova consultant Daniel Hamilton of PMC. Hamilton said 250 people had responded to a survey on the General Plan, and he went through the survey results. More than half of respondents have lived in Ione for less than 10 years and the majority own their homes. Major community concerns were increased traffic, a lack of shopping, the disrepair of the downtown, development pressures and a lack of community resources. Hamilton said “what we heard from surveys is that people want somewhere to shop -- they want more job opportunities and they want more shopping opportunities.” After discussions in small groups, attendees voted on different issues, including picking Alternative 2 as the preferred scheme to work with. It included having housing in the area of Waterman and Highway 124, including low-density residential, plus 10 acres of affordable housing along the eastern edge of town. Commercial growth in Alternative 2 focused on expansion of the downtown district, while Q Ranch remained open space. On separate issues, the people voted to have a future growth area in the “Triangle” formed by Highways 124, 104 and 88. One attendee pointed out seemingly contradictory results in the voting. For Q Ranch, 50 percent voted for Rural Residential or “Ranchette Style” housing, and 43 percent voted for no development at all at Q Ranch. 58 percent voted to have low-density housing at Waterman and Highway 124 and 71 percent voted to have higher-density affordable housing apartments at Highway 124 on the east edge of town. 29 percent voted to have those apartments at the entrance to Mule Creek Prison and Highway 104. 64 percent of attendees voted to expand the downtown to be larger by adding side streets to it. City Planner Christopher Jordan said the Planning Commission will consider the General Plan at its December 9th meeting, and if approved by them, the General Plan would then be brought before the Ione City Council at its January 6th meeting. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
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