Sutter Creek – Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort developer Bill Bunce and Planning Commission Chairman Robin Peters this week explained their sides before the opening of a public hearing on Gold Rush’s 900-acre development in Sutter Creek. The Sutter Creek City Council heard presentations from the 2 on Tuesday, beginning with Peters, who outlined the commission’s work and told about points of disagreement with the developer on the commission’s recommended project modifications. Those include that the developer is requesting “unrestricted grading and virtually unrestricted oak tree removal,” which he said “allows for mass grading” and “wholesale oak tree removal on approximately 600 acres.” Bunce said: “we do not seek to mass grade 600 acres.” He said the commission wanted to “limit grading to roads, driveways and house foundations.” He said developers wanted to pattern Gold Rush after Greenhorn Creek, in Angels Camp, and Bunce brought to the podium, Barden Stevenot, General Manager of development at Kirkwood Meadows and Greenhorn Creek. The latter is a golf course community that was used as a model by the Sutter Creek Planning Commission, because of its tree retention and grading practices. Stevenot said he is a local guy who lucked out with the Kirkwood and Greenhorn projects. A resident of Angels Camp, he agreed with its city manager on getting a balance between new homes and old ones, whose owners did not want to remodel. He brought in great land planners and engineers. Stevenot told the city council that he is “amazed that you still have a developer in today’s economic world, during the biggest market sag in our lifetime.” Bunce’s finance analyst Chris Austin said “with custom grading, you’ve added cost to the buyer,” a 50 to 60 percent increase, because it would limit the project to custom builders, who can develop 1 to 4 properties at a time. Bunce said: “that’s not what we want to do. There is a happy medium between full custom lots and 600 acres of mass grading and tree denuding.” He said Gold Rush “will not look like the sea of rooftops in Elk Grove.” He said the commission’s suggestion to have minimum lot sizes of 7,000 square feet would “make Gold Rush an expensive, high-end project.” Bunce said they “only created the 3,500 square foot lot size to answer affordable housing” requirements, and the project’s family lot minimum size would be 7,000 square feet. The city council resumed the public hearing Thursday, and was scheduled to meet again on Tuesday, starting at 6 p.m. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.