Ione – The Ione Planning Commission added a series of changes to its recommendation for the draft city General Plan Wednesday, including a land swap for the Q Ranch development. The swap of Q Ranch “policy area” property gives a parcel from Rancho Arroyo Seco to Q Ranch, in exchange for one there. The properties were on opposite sides of Irish Hill Road from the rest of their respective properties. City Planner Christopher Jordan is a report said the 2 parties, the Toma family and Rancho Arroyo Seco, “have agreed to the principles for the transfer of property. The swap is subject to approval of a Boundary Line Adjustment by Amador County and execution of exchange documents.” Jordan said staff reviewed the agreement and recommended the swap be included in the final General Plan. Jordan gave the commission an e-mail in which Ciro Toma said he met with Bill Bunce and Tom Swett of Rancho Arroyo Seco and said he “agreed in principal” to the swap. A map approved to be recommended with the draft General Plan listed the former Arroyo Seco property would have “Open Space” and “Low Density Residential” land use designations. The commission also accepted recommendations form Jordan and General Plan Project Manager Daniel Hamilton for replies to comments from Mintier Harnish Planning Consultants on behalf of Amador Ranch Associates. Replies included mostly notes that questions raised had been address in the General Plan. Staff did not agree with Mintier Harnish’s comments that a Conservation & Open Space Element “action” was “too rigid,” and suggested a change. Jordan and Hamilton also recommended making no changes addressing comments from the Foothill Conservancy’s Thomas Infusino. In the letter, Infusino said the Conservancy is “encouraged by some language and state goals” in Ione’s draft General Plan, but said the “overall growth of the Ione area seems extremely high,” and noted the current population, 3,500, including Mule Creek. He said “it is assumed 2030 the development capacity of the proposed General Plan would be … a population of 18,182.” He said the “mitigation recipe lacks some key ingredients.” Infusino said in “many cases there are no established quantified objectives to guide policy implementation.” He said: “When deferring mitigation to some time in the future, key necessary ingredients are the sorts of quantified standards to which the city and the development community can be held accountable in the future.” He also said it was urgent to get development standards in place, before the approval of other projects. The public hearing on the General Plan was continued to August 26th, when the city council will convene. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.