Amador County – The Plymouth City Council on Thursday hosts a special meeting and workshop to address its expected growth and planning issues, with presentations by four city staffers. City Manager Dixon Flynn will review the city’s strategic plan and city objectives, while Consultant Richard Prima and City Planner Darcy Goulart will speak about growth management. Goulart will also give an update on the city’s General Plan update and its related Environmental Impact Report. Finance Director Jeff Gardner talk about budget amendments for fiscal year 2008-2009. The council last week heard a presentation from Goulart on city design guidelines, and received a report from City Planner Paula Daneluk detailing some of the draft amendments to the city’s zoning code. Daneluk said planning staff has been working with the planning commission and city council since last year on the downtown area design guidelines. She said “over a 2-month period, each section of the draft design guidelines was workshopped with the planning commission.” At the time, the commission discussed extending the “downtown corridor” of guidelines eastward across Highway 49, and last Thursday, the council discussed that as well. Mayor Jon Colburn asked if there was “any drawback” for having the same design guidelines that apply to downtown also apply to commercial development. Flynn said he did not see a problem in doing so. Prima said if the guidelines were applied to all commercial buildings in the city, the ordinance would require some wording changes. Colburn suggested moving the boundary to align with the city boundary line. Flynn asked if they wanted to include the Fiddletown Road area. Councilman Greg Baldwin said they should include that, at least until they can add a “Scenic Corridor” to the design guidelines and zoning. Goulart asked if they council wanted the same standards all around the city and Flynn said the council wanted the same look all around the city. The council sent the guidelines back to the planning commission for the changes to the boundary and to apply the downtown look to commercial and new development. The city council special workshop meeting is 5 p.m. Thursday and precedes the Planning Commission’s meeting at 7 p.m., during which the commission will discuss the city General Plan update. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.