Sutter Creek – The Sutter Creek City Council today will hear a staff report that foreclosures of 182 units could release enough sewer capacity for the city to promise service to Amador County’s proposed new jail in Martell. A September 16th memo to City Sanitation Engineer Grant Reynolds said 4 subdivisions “will be required to reapply” for sewer will-serve letters “due to bank foreclosure on property” and “to make room for viable projects.” City Planner Bruce Baracco sent the memo after discussion with City Manager Rob Duke and Attorney Dennis Crabb on the fate of 4 previously approved subdivisions. The foreclosures fell on Golden Hills Estates, Units Number 3 and 4, with 41 and 10 single family units respectively. Also, Powder House Estates, which had “will serves” for 53 single units and 54 townhouses; and Lincoln Mine Center, with 22 single units and 24 four-plex units. In a report for today’s meeting, Duke recommended “the council consider adopting a will-serve policy with automatic expiration upon 2 years without vesting and vertical building on a project site, and automatic expiration if a project is foreclosed upon.” Duke also recommended the council “set aside any available capacity up to 20,000 gallons per day for the proposed county jail project.” Duke said “there are several projects that have reserved sewer capacity but are experiencing financial difficulties.” The foreclosed subdivisions have will-serves for 39,130 gallons a day of sewer treatment. Duke said the jail project “is very important to the region but cannot proceed without sewer capacity,” and the county “cannot fund a major sewer plant expansion but could proceed with a will-serve letter.” Amador County Supervisors and the Amador Water Agency have come to an agreement on reservation fees for water service for the proposed jail, for which the county is seeking to purchase property. The project needs an estimated 20,000 gallons a day sewer service. Baracco’s memo showed that the city has 572 potential units of development, including existing residential lots and future development. That includes 21 units in the historic downtown area, 92 vacant lots in existing subdivisions, and 452 “potential future residential projects.” The council agenda also includes a presentation by project partner Bill Bunce, who will give “updates” on Gold Rush. The council will hear a request from Planning Commission Chairman Robin Peters seeking to ask developers of Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort to pay for transcribing minutes to some of the 27 total meetings held solely on Gold Rush. Story by Jim Reece This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it