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| General plan meeting fills Town Hall By Sarah Lunsford |
| The Town Hall in San Andreas was filled Monday afternoon when Calaveras County supervisors had the second in a series of discussions about the county general plan. 'This is a very complex process that we?re going to be working through,' said Robert Sellman, interim director of planning. A possible timeframe for completion of a general plan update is three years and could cost a minimum of $800,000. Dick Wells, a member of the Lake Tulloch Alliance, a group advocating smart growth and intelligent management, emphasized that the time to control the county's growth is now. He told the board that various community groups from all over the county have been coming together to address the growth issues. '(The) Objective (of the groups meeting) is to slow down the developmental hemorrhaging,' said Wells. Sellman emphasized that the county is at the very beginning of the general plan process. A first step is the hiring of an outside consultant to review the current general plan and develop a plan of action as to what to do with it. This would include reviewing each element of the general plan and make recommendations about updates and revisions in each of the elements. |
| The cost of this consultant would be no more than $30,000 and would give the county a baseline as to what direction it needs to take to update its general plan. Colleen Platt of Valley Springs emphasized that the county needs to work with the citizens to design the general plan, and, there needs to be a planning baseline to grow from. 'We can plan effectively where we want to go,' said Platt. Community members with the Community Action Project, a recently formed public interest group, agreed. |
| 'Citizen participation is the key for a comprehensive update of the general plan,' said Ward LaValley of CAP. Community support and involvement through the process helps with the long-term community support for the general plan, La Valley said, because it reduces future conflict when the community and the county participate in the process. 'We'd all be better if we grow according to a plan,' said La Valley. Cities and counties are required by state law to have general plans in place as a roadmap of development in their area of influence. In theory, it guides and controls growth by requiring that there is a long-term plan for growth and development in a particular local jurisdiction. The present plan was drawn up in the 1980s and last updated in the mid-1990s. The idea of a countywide moratorium on developments that requires a general plan amendment was brought up during the public comment period. 'Moratorium has never been discussed by this board,' said Supervisor Merita Callaway at the outset of the meeting. Kathi Bachelor, president of the Calaveras County Association of Realtors, said she and her organization were not in favor of a moratorium because of its negative impacts on the economy, especially the trickle down effect on every aspect of the local economy. 'Growth and change are inevitable,' said Bachelor, who pointed out that growth must include elements that give 'our residents (opportunities) to live and work in our own county.'
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