Board Says No to Economic Development Element in General Plan

Written by Sean Janssen,
The Union Democrat
December 14, 2011 03:50 pm

The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors Tuesday directed staff working to complete a land-use document for planning through 2035 to forgo an economic development element in the final draft of the plan.

The economic development element once championed by business interests did not live up to expectations as generated in an incomplete form by former consultants Mintier Harnish and county staff working to conclude the general plan suggested to the board that a distinct element is not the best way to tackle a path to economic growth.

“We’re missing a body to implement this,” said Planning Director Rebecca Willis. “These concepts can be reformatted so that they can be a stand-alone policy.”

Indeed, the final direction from supervisors was to re-work the element to become a policy document that is consistent with, but not a part of, the general plan.

Some key policies outlined in the economic element can be interspersed within other parts of the general plan, such as land use and conservation elements, Willis said.

Supervisor Steve Wilensky said the deficiency of the draft economic element does not mean there is no need for one. A proper element could avoid future conflicts by identifying the buffer zones necessary to accommodate industrial-type uses, Wilensky said.

However, once three votes for the element’s demise were voiced, Wilensky reluctantly went along.

“Practically, I guess there’s no other option,” he said.

Even business leaders in attendance Tuesday had soured on an economic element.

“The document produced was not what we expected, either,” said Diane Gray, executive director of the Calaveras County Chamber of Commerce, which originally helped push for an element.

Gray instead asked the county to consider hiring an economic guru, such as Tuolumne County has in Economic Development Authority Director Larry Cope, if and when such a position can be funded.

The county economic profile developed earlier this year by the private Calaveras County Economic Development Company is a strong tool for economic development, Willis said, and more immediate efforts like it are preferable compared with an economic element of the general plan that looks more than two decades into the future.

Not everyone agreed the element needs to go.

“It just seems like it keeps getting put off and it just keeps falling further and further behind,” West Point resident Holly Mines said of the county’s economic development plans.

“There is no industry right now. We need to have production of some sort,” said David Silva, who has been involved with attempts to bring the Coe Center, with an industrial park and community college satellite campus to Valley Springs. “We have what some others don’t have and that’s the ability to start fresh.”