County will seek $250K for land plans

Written by Sean Janssen,

The Union Democrat

March 14, 2012 12:31 pm

Calaveras County will seek $250,000 in grant funds toward completion of a traffic circulation and land use plan for Copperopolis.

The funding targeted comes from a $3 million pool administered by Caltrans for improvement of local transportation systems. A 10 percent local match of grant funds is required, which would likely be met by using personnel hours in the Planning and Public Works departments.

County supervisors approved the grant application 5-0 Tuesday in hopes of taking a significant step toward completion of a planning effort begun 20 years ago.

The board previously approved Feb. 28 a solicitation process to seek volunteer members for a panel that would review planning efforts up to this point, consider the boundaries for the area affected by the plan and consider land use designations and traffic circulation within the planning area.

The plan would also identify a historic district within the town and designate areas for bicycle and golf cart paths. Possible tasks of such a planning effort could also include reduction of motor vehicle miles traveled and fuel consumption, increase of in-fill and compact development and identification of existing infrastructure and future infrastructure needs, planning officials said.

“In Copper, we have a community with less than 5,000 people living there right now. With all the projects that have been approved and not built, we’ll probably have 20,000 to 25,000 people living in Copperopolis,” said Planning Director Rebecca Willis. “With approval of land use designations in the proposed general plan, we’re probably looking at 40,000 people in Copperopolis. That’s been our driving force.”

The stated aims of the community plan were panned by property rights activists at the meeting who believe the parameters of the grant are unlawfully restrictive and usurp local control.

“The direction of this is unhealthy for property rights in our county,” said Al Segalla, a Copperopolis resident and president of the Calaveras County Taxpayers Association.

“The transfer of choice from the individual to the state … is an inherent part of this process.”

“I would like to avoid the scam we had in Valley Springs,” said Rancho Calaveras resident Peter Racz, referring to a controversial community plan developed there almost two years ago. “When it gets down to the nitty-gritty, it’s defrauding people of their life, their liberty and their property.”

Willis said tying traffic and land use planning together is not only wise but necessary.

“Is the board committed to coordinating land use and circulation this time? I certainly hope so because that’s the lawsuit we lost last time, about 20 years ago,” she said.

Supervisor Tom Tryon, whose district includes Copperopolis, favored the planning effort.

“If you look at the objectives that were (presented), I agree with all of those. I worked very hard at making Murphys basically a walking community. We did a lot of innovative things there that became a model for other historic communities in Calaveras County,” Tryon said. “The way to do that is you don’t force people out of their cars but you get efficient road systems where you don’t have people doing a lot of idling.”

Tryon, along with Willis and Supervisor Steve Wilensky, specifically rejected the notion raised by opponents of playing into an international conspiracy.

“I don’t view what we’re applying for as having anything to do with the United Nations Agenda 21,” he said. “If we don’t get the grant, I’d still be in favor of working toward getting the things we had (proposed).”

“There is no (local) money to accomplish the planning work in the area with the most expansion … in Calaveras County,” Wilensky said. “Whether we think it through and have community involvement will be vital.”

“I find it extraordinary to think the U.N. would be funding work in Calaveras County as part of its plot to undermine the United States of America, the most powerful country in the world,” he added. “It can’t even seem to do anything effectively about major humanitarian disasters in other corners of the world.”

Read the article in it’s original form here.