The Sutter Creek City Council last week voted to approve a set of  traffic impact study guidelines drafted by the  Amador County Transportation Commission. The goal of the guidelines is to provide a mode for standard traffic data collection and analysis throughout Amador County, with the ultimate goal of a uniform system for implementing standardized funding mechanisms. Since November, ACTC staff has been taking the guidelines to each city planning commission in order to receive comments and direction. At the meeting Monday night, ACTC director Charles Fields told the Sutter Creek City Council that it was really necessary for all of the cities and the county to adopt the guidelines for them to be effective. “We all need to address traffic in the same way,” Fields said. “If one jurisdiction does not adopt these guidelines, it will impact the whole playing field.”

The city council did have some concerns about the guidelines, and questioned the nature of their authority. City Manager Rob Duke stated that he felt the guidelines should be advisory, and not legally binding. The guidelines include a set of “Statements of Overriding Consideration,” which provide an avenue for developments with traffic impacts that cannot be mitigated, if developers can meet 5 of 8 of criteria.Assistant City Manager Sean Rabe, who was previously employed by ACTC and worked to draft the guidelines, explained that the statements were not a requirement, but a recommendation designed to reduce the number of miles traveled. At the end of the discussion, the Council voted unanimously to approve the guidelines as an advisory tool for standardizing Amador’s traffic impact studies.