Both sides waved placards at the Sutter Creek Planning Commission meeting Monday night. Photo by: Roger Phelps

Gold Rush Ranch developers Monday dumped in the laps of Sutter Creek planning commissioners a list of objections to city-crafted strictures, sat back and watched while the board wrestled for two hours with the objections, and then walked out early Tuesday morning with a 3-2 commission approval of a city-written plan that would allow the development to move forward if approved by the City Council.

Developer Bill Bunce said after the meeting he believed it wasn't clear to the public why the presentation was made on the additional requirements installed by the city in its plan.

"We were legally committed to comment on the Planning Commission changes," Bunce said.

Developers Monday expressed desire to get some of those mandates removed.

The matter will go to the City Council next month, with the Sept. 8 meeting the earliest it could be heard.

Planning commissioners initially expressed mystification and frustration at the remarks of Gold Rush consultants Jim Harnish and Greg Bardini, which appeared at first glance to amount to a drawing-back by developers from long-understood commitments, including early completion of an 18-hole golf course. Sutter Creek officials have said they want the course done early to form a large new irrigation outlet for the town's treated wastewater.

"(The city's plan calls for) the golf course to be completed prior to the 300th home," Bardini said. "We think that's a little too soon. We request to build nine holes by the 300th home."

Commissioner Frank Cunha's response was, "a nine-hole golf course? That's the first we've heard of this. If there isn't going to be an 18-hole golf course, we don't need another single house in this city."

Bunce after the meeting said he believed Bardini's remarks were unclear and could be misinterpreted as a backing-off from an originally stated intent, which still holds, to build 18 holes coterminous with a project first phase.

Ultimately, commissioners seemed swayed by the fact that some 112 acres of developer Greenrock Holdings LLC's 945-acre project is zoned for apartments, which Gold Rush developers currently do not propose. Commissioners observed that if the presently proposed Gold Rush Ranch project is disallowed, the possibility exists of apartments arising on the 112 acres.

Kirkley and Vice Chairman Cort Strandberg dissented on the vote to approve the city-written specific plan for the project.

"The best way to control this is to pass it up to the City Council and do what we can to preserve the specific plan we've hammered out," said Commissioner Robert Olson.

Previous to the vote, numerous commenters from the public had stood to make points that for the most part have been well-aired in the years'-long history of the project. Project opponents protested expected significant harm to the natural and aesthetic environments, feared traffic jams and a predicted drain on public services. Proponents cited hoped-for benefits to the town's economy, recreational opportunities and land promised for siting new public-service facilities.

Ben Klotz, former Amador County superintendent of schools, said, "Schools will gain - you've made this a win-win situation for the city and the developer."

Kathy Allen, chairwoman of the Amador Citizens for Smart Growth non-profit, said, "The economic benefits are pure speculation."

Tom Infusino, attorney for the Foothill Conservancy non-profit, said, "Mitigations only get you even - they are not to be considered benefits."

Strictures in the city-authored specific plan that Harnish and Bardini asked to be removed included the following:

- some grading restrictions, including those termed "overly restrictive grading limitations for hilltops and ridgelines"

- a ban on gated neighborhoods

- planting of large, 48-inch-boxed trees along major subdivision streets, and

- widening of State Route 104, Ridge Road, to four lanes, combined with other road and intersection improvements worth more than $7 million.

Commissioners granted requests for more flexibility around street alignments and contours, and for reliance on geotechnical studies to determine suitability of development near seismic faults.

Developers and planning commissioners have been struggling for nine years to cement the details of the Gold Rush Ranch and Golf Resort plan. It is estimated that developers have spent millions of dollars on an Environmental Impact Report, public outreach and other costs associated with efforts so far.