Board of Supervisors return to the General Plan

Calaveras County supervisors will consider paying $300,000 in general plan consulting fees next week, part of a renewed effort that’s also seen the hiring of a new county planner in the past month. A new general plan has been in the works since 2008.

Supervisors are being asked to award a $299,919 contract to Sacramento-based Raney Planning & Management for “consultant services to prepare portions of the General Plan Update” including work on the update’s environmental impact report.

MintierHarnish – the last board-approved consultants to work on the general plan at a cost of around $1 million – became a favorite target of board critics after presiding over a fruitless recent stretch of the several-year-long effort to bring the plan into compliance with legal standards.

The latest move, if approved, would cut into of the Planning Department’s slice of general funds set aside as part of September’s fiscal year budget.

Also Tuesday, some $185,000 in paving and road improvement funds make later appearances on a light post-election agenda.

The Public Works Department hopes to put more than half of those dollars toward capital improvement contracts with Murphys-based Veras Resources and will look to put the rest toward a paving materials tab owed to George Reed Construction.

A resolution opposing the state Assembly’s oft-maligned fire fee rounds out Tuesday’s agenda. Thousands have joined a class-action lawsuit to stop the measure, one that looks to collect fees, generally of $150 per parcel, from more than a half-million Californians in an effort to offset costs associated with rural fire prevention efforts.

The board, which has spoken out against the move in the past, is expected to adopt an item allowing Board Chairman Gary Tofanelli to sign a letter expressing the county’s formal disapproval for the fee.

Posted: Friday, November 9, 2012 9:06 Calaveras Enterprise