Sutter Creek – The Sutter Creek City Council subcommittee on fiscal impacts on Monday discussed who would handle fireproofing parks and wildland, and road maintenance mitigation in the Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort. A fiscal impact report under discussion included 319 acres of open space, of which about 21 acres will be passive parks, left 90 percent untouched, with all its trees. Local activist Kathy Allen asked if the “open space is ever going to be taken care of.” City Manager Rob Duke said “there is not going to be a Robin Hood type guy out caring for it.” Consultant Anders Hauge said the “irrevocable dedication” gives the city time to take control of the acreage. Planning Commissioner Mike Kirkley said as soon as wildland is annexed, it becomes the city’s responsibility. He said the city can contract with and get insurance through Calfire, “on a per-acre basis.” Kirkley said: “That does not mean we do away with the Sutter Creek Fire Protection District.” The committee also discussed the project’s 34 acres of roads. Kirkley said the city might need to consider forming a Community Facilities District to care for roads. He said it was hard to believe that the city was getting by on gas tax revenue for road maintenance. Planning Commissioner Frank Cunha said he has done “quite a bit of research” and found that city gas tax money is not always spent on road maintenance. Duke said it was, however, always spent on road projects. Duke said the city is about 5 years behind on improvements on Broad Street and Old Sutter Hill Road, waiting on approved funding to become available. He said gas tax revenue is used on major road projects – including Broad and Old Sutter – to match ACTC or Caltrans funds. Duke said: “Having a street maintenance CFD is a fairly common practice.” Gold Rush development partner John Telischak said: “We are contributing $1 million for remedial street maintenance,” and are “building new streets that don’t need maintenance” for years. Cunha said the “$1 million is at build-out,” not “up front.” Cunha said instead, “all new developments should be required to maintain streets.” Duke said he thinks the “gas tax will be a shortfall,” and “chip-seal doesn’t really work to prolong the life of the pavement.” But he would like to see if new technology has improved, as some studies indicate. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.