Amador County Tuesday formally reserved the right to require a General Plan Amendment for any land division on the 25-square-mile Howard Ranch tract near Ione.

Supervisors heard some audience members call on developer Bill Bunce to submit a project application for a proposed Rancho Arroyo Seco subdivision on the land before the county took any action.

"I submit that now is not the time to discuss the merits of any future plans," Bunce said. "The county retains full discretion to approve or disapprove future projects."

Susan Grijalva, county planning director, noted that agricultural zoning currently allowed a land split into 40-acre parcels. Bunce and his partners in Greenrock Holdings LLC have said they don't intend to split any of the land into 40-acre parcels, but rather want some as-yet unspecified residential development on an unspecified portion of the acreage at a higher density.

In declaring the tract a "Restricted Planning Area," supervisors removed the right to split into 40-acre parcels or any other split without the gaining of a General Plan Amendment for a specific project.

"We forsake the ability to checkerboard the ranch into 40-acre lots," Bunce said.

In an e-mail to the Ledger Dispatch, Chris Wright, executive director of the non-profit Foothill Conservancy, likened the move to "buying a pig in a poke."

District 2 Supervisor Richard Forster said, "I don't want the assumption we're giving a green light. We need to make it planned. We need to build language in (for control). But, you don't spend $95 million without intending to develop something."