Sutter Creek – The Sutter Creek City Council nearly split on the size of the Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort Wednesday, then agreed to have staff gather numbers for an evaluation of its size. The council talked about sending the plan back to developers for a revision of the total 1,334 housing units. Councilman Pat Crosby moved to “reject it without prejudice, then have the developer come back with something smaller.” Mayor Gary Wooten said he didn’t believe what he was hearing: “You sit around for 8 years and suddenly we’re going to gut the project.” Wooten said: “What you’re saying is ‘kill the project.’ That’s what’s going to happen.” Mayor Pro Tem Tim Murphy said: “Insisting on thirteen hundred units is going to kill the project, and downsizing will make it unfeasible.” Crosby said “the critical thing is to come up with the right size of the project” and “find the right number. Maybe it’s 2,000 and maybe it’s 500.” Wooten said the “project is in the perfect location, and when it is built out, most people in this room will be dead.” Wooten and Councilwoman Linda Rianda supported the project having 1,334 units. Murphy and Crosby were against it and Councilwoman Sandy Anderson was undecided. Wooten said he supported it because the 935 acres equaled 1 unit per 1.4 acres, and was “not really going into a city mode.” He said it consisted of 4-and-a-half square miles. Murphy said “we haven’t successfully sold 300 units in the history of Sutter Creek,” and the city would “go bankrupt trying to sell 300 units over 50 years.” Murphy said: “My thought is it’s got about twice too many residential units.” Anderson said “a lot of people think it’s too big,” but “the developers say if you want to have these amenities, you have to have this many units.” She also asked about alternative plans. Consultant Anders Hauge (HOW-GHEE) said the planning commission only put alternatives in the Environmental Impact Report. Rianda said “if you want 500 units, there goes the wastewater treatment plant and the golf course.” Murphy said the planning commission brought up the issue that it was too many units, “and the developer said nothing.” He said he did not believe the impacts from 1,334 units would be mitigated. Murphy said “we’ve talked about this all along and it’s just been rolled over. We’ve never had a serious conversation.” Crosby said they should send it back to the developer, because “we can’t redesign it but he can.” The council agreed to have staff get numbers together, so the council can “evaluate the size of the project” at its October 19th meeting. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.