The Gold Rush Ranch subdivision and golf course project is the largest development proposed for Amador County in more than 30 years.

The project's developers propose to transform oak woodland and grazing land into a suburban subdivision with more than 3,000 residents. Gold Rush will double the population of Sutter Creek in as few as 10 years, jam local roads with more than 14,000 cars a day, consume massive amounts of water, mass-grade more than 500 acres, destroy more than 13,000 (mostly oak) trees, and drive further urban sprawl on agricultural land.

Gold Rush will not provide a new school, fire station or wastewater treatment plant, just contribute fees to help address its own impacts. It won't include a single sports field for the more than 450 children who'll live there. It won't even provide the full on-site wastewater disposal the city and Amador Regional Sanitation Authority paid $750,000 for back in 2001. And much of the "open space" is on slopes greater than 30 percent. But to hear some people tell it, you'd think Gold Rush is the best development Sutter Creek could ever hope to see.

Why? Gold Rush's developers have done a masterful sales job. They started their carefully crafted public relations campaign before anyone could counter it with facts, well before the release of the 2007 revised specific plan and this summer's environmental impact report.

Gold Rush has provided free meals for business owners, hired local residents to walk neighborhoods, given tours, conducted "workshops" at their office, distributed newsletters, and donated to community groups. They've made it look as if they're designing their project based on local concerns when they've simply stuck to their basic plan while tweaking the details.

The developers, who, aside from one Calaveras native, are from Marin County and El Dorado Hills, even call themselves "project sponsors" instead of developers - as if their entire purpose were to do good rather than make millions.

This sophisticated campaign and slick use of language aren't accidents. One seldom-seen and never-mentioned member of the Gold Rush team is Steve Glazer of Orinda, an expert in creating political messages for environmental initiative campaigns. One Web site calls Glazer "a nationally recognized political, public affairs and media consultant as well as an expert in the politics of land use." Several years ago, he helped the Gold Rush developers convert Novato's Black Point forest into a golf course subdivision.

Glazer's earned his pay with this campaign. It's clear that some people have bought what Gold Rush is selling without knowing exactly what that is.

It brings this old saw to mind: "Don't buy a pig in a poke." That's sound advice. If you don't open a closed bag to see what's inside, you may not end up with what you paid for. In other words, look before you buy.

Of course, for years there was no way to "open the poke" to see what Gold Rush was actually selling us. But now the facts are in, and they reveal the project's devastating environmental and community impacts. Fourteen thousand cars a day? Thirteen thousand trees? Three thousand people in 10 years? These are enormous numbers for Sutter Creek and Amador County.

It's time for local development "consumers" to wise up. We need to judge subdivisions that will transform our communities and affect our lives every day based on their true costs and benefits, not developer spin. We need to analyze developers' sales pitches with the same sort of careful skepticism we employ for other big decisions. If the deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Fortunately, in this case, the deal's not yet done - Gold Rush has yet to be approved. And local residents are stepping up to voice their concerns.

The city of Sutter Creek is holding public hearings on the project in August and September. If you, too, are concerned about this huge project, please attend and let your voice be heard. See the city's Web site for meeting details, www.ci.sutter-creek.ca.us, or call City Hall at 267-5647.

Katherine Evatt is president of Foothill Conservancy.