Sawmill Lake struck down in a 5-0 vote

By Kristine Williams | Posted: Friday, March 1, 2013 10:30 am

Supervisors deny Copper develoment

Castle and Cooke’s contentious Copperopolis Sawmill Lake project was voted down in a 5-0 vote Tuesday. Calaveras County supervisors upheld the Planning Department’s Dec. 21 recommendation of denial without prejudice.

Planning staff’s main hang-up with the proposed 243-acre project – which features two hotels, 10 miles of walking trails and a scaled back 580 developable residential units from an initially proposed 800 – was its inconsistency with the county’s current General Plan, specifically the intent to develop 187 acres of unincorporated land currently zoned as a Natural Resource/Agricultural Preserve.

The amount of 187 acres was recently revised after the Planning Department reviewed Castle and Cooke’s project documentation – which noted that only 150 acres were to be converted from its current designation – and determined there was an error in developer calculations.

“We found that the natural resource acreage is not what we thought it was. It was higher,” said county Planning Director Rebecca Willis who, alongside Planner Debra Lewis, presented supervisors with the department’s formal staff presentation.

Willis noted that state general plan guidelines reference a previous 1984 court decision involving Calaveras County to illustrate the point of project consistency with a General Plan.

“We (county) were an example of what not to do. We’re entering the same path and we already know where that leads us,” Willis said.

The PowerPoint presentation highlighted myriad other problems identified with the project, including an incomplete environmental impact report carried out by Castle and Cooke, the issue of removing thousands of oak trees, what entity – developer or county – would be responsible for the development of road and traffic infrastructure and ambiguity surrounding ensuring adequate water supply and the location of water lines.

Copperopolis has a current water allocation of 6,000 acre-feet through Calaveras County Water District and planning staff noted that already existing lots associated with other developments already exceed the limit, adding up to 7, 200 acre-feet – meaning that Sawmill Lake’s addition of 650 acre-feet would only continue to exacerbate the problem.

For Dave Haley, vice president and division manager for Castle and Cooke, blame rests with county incompetence regarding updating the current general plan.

“The primary reason for the delay is the county’s inability to complete the General Plan update. They’ve been in the update process since 2007,” he said, continuing to emphasize that the Sawmill Lake project was an example of responsible development.

“The Sierra Business Council encourages growth to occur in rural town centers,” said Haley, noting that Copperopolis’ Town Square – also developed by Castle and Cooke – meets such standards by being low-density and removed from any major population center.

He also described the Copperopolis area as being “prime” for receiving the growth pressure in a responsible manner from nearby metropolitan centers like the San Francisco Bay Area and South Lake Tahoe.

Public comment on the issue was mixed. Many speakers expressed support for the project, believing that Sawmill Lake would bring jobs to the county and spur economic development.

“Let’s show that Calaveras County is open for business again,” said Angels Camp resident Bruce McClenahan. “We want to see some growth and if this project isn’t good enough for you I don’t know what is.”

Still others argued that Castle and Cooke took its own risk in preparing the project’s EIR and that the county should not be faulted for being unable to approve the project and that updating the General Plan was the true litmus test regarding the county being “open for business.”

For Copperopolis resident Eva Keyzer, Copperopolis Town Square was reason enough to deny the project. “The majority of businesses are vacant. There are seven developments in Copper and not one is built out. Please consider what our county needs before you approve a project that jeopardizes what we have to offer,” she said.

Julia Stephens, representing the Twain Harte-based Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, noted that 17,000 vacant lots still have yet to be built in Copperopolis and that the county as a whole is only projected to increase by about 10,000 residents by 2035, thus supporting the point made by Colleen Platt of My Valley Springs, an advocacy group, that “paper subdivisions are not economic development.”

John Buckley, also of CSERC, warned supervisors that the county was opening itself up to potential serious litigation if the project was approved, commenting that there were many more legal issues surrounding Sawmill than the Planning Department had identified.

Others vouched for Haley’s personal character and ability to follow through on previous projects. Mike Fullaway of Calaveras Lumber said that working with developers can occasionally be a mixed bag but that Haley has consistently “done what he said he would.”

The positive sentiments regarding Haley were shared by supervisors but not extended to the Sawmill Lake development as each supervisor voted to deny the project without prejudice.

“I’ve been studying this for a month straight,” said District 1 Supervisor Cliff Edson. “I’m for economic growth in Calaveras County. My intention is to make sure that when we move forward things are done correctly. This is a very difficult decision either way but I can’t support it based on what I’ve read and seen. I want this project to happen, but in a way that’s right. I’m sorry. I really am,” he said.

Edson’s sentiments were shared by his fellow supervisors. District 4’s Debbie Ponte commented that she felt “embarrassed” at what she perceived to be a lack of leadership within the county regarding the project.

“This project is not perfect and it certainly has its flaws but I’m embarrassed that we’re here today. We don’t have our act together at the county level. We’ve had many years to get our General Plan going,” said Ponte before casting her vote.

The board’s vote of denial without prejudice allows Castle and Cooke to resubmit the project once the General Plan update is complete, estimated to be sometime later this year after a draft is released in September. Meanwhile, planning staff will now be able to devote much more time to completing the General Plan update, a “big relief” according to Willis.

“The Sawmill Lake Project was an unusual circumstance,” she said after the vote. “It was a six-year-old project. … I was astounded at how many loose ends of a critical nature still needed to be addressed. The board priority was to protect the county and the taxpayers from hidden costs that they should not bear.”

Dave Haley did not return calls for comment as of press time Thursday.

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