The Plymouth City Council hosted a public hearing last week on its General Plan update, and heard that the city’s projected growth rate can be handled by county schools. Superintendent Richard Glock said told Plymouth City Planner Paula Daneluk previously that Amador County Unified School District could handle the impacts of Plymouth’s housing developments. Since then, he heard 4,000 homes and 10,000 people could be in Plymouth’s growth future. That’s why he went to the meeting last Thursday, he said. Then he heard from Daneluk that the growth would be about “40 homes a year, for 20 years.” Glock said that would be an increase of about 12 students a year, noting: “We can handle that.” He said he was part of a school district in Temeculah that built 18 schools in 10 years, and he heard the same questions and answers as he heard in Plymouth. Mayor Jon Colburn asked if existing facilities would serve those new students. Glock said the new students, about 130 to 140, or 12 a year, in 20 years, could be accommodated in current facilities. He said the city could look at options of keeping the Kindergarten to 6th grade school in Plymouth, or moving the school. He said if a developer wanted to give the city a site, they would have to be able to consider building, at a point when the district could afford it. He said district student enrollment has stabilized, and actually went up 37 students last year, which meant $187,000 dollars for the district. But student numbers are low and they have room at the schools. Joyce Stone of Amador Childcare Council urged the importance of services for pre-kindergarten aged children. She said overall, only 27 percent of children who have parents in the workforce have licensed childcare available. Stone said the median age in Plymouth is expected to go down because developments will attract younger families. Art Marinaccio of Amador Citizens For Responsible Government told the council that its General Plan needs to reflect the city council’s policies. And he warned against flowering up the document by the planners. He urged that they should try to tie annexations to municipal service reviews. Marinaccio said he thought “not doing so is inconsistent with the properties of” the Local Agency Formation Commission. Plymouth will resume the public hearing July 9th, and look at further staff work. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.