Important Meeting on Monday – Moke Hill Community Plan

On Monday, February 9th from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m, the County will host an open house at the Town Hall to provide information on the Draft General Plan.  Staff and consultants will be available to answer questions on the draft general plan.

The Mokelumne Hill Community Plan Task Force met to review and discuss the manychanges the County has made to the Mokelumne Hill Community in this Draft General Plan.  A summary of these changes include:

• The Mokelumne Hill Community Plan Final Draft submitted to Calaveras County in May 2012 (after 6 long years of community input and consensus) has been eliminated
• The Community Plan boundaries are diminished in size
• The land use designations for many parcels have been changed from what was submitted to the County in the 2012 Final Draft of the Mokelumne Hill Community Plan.  Most significant is:
  • The near complete elimination of the Community Center Local (mixed use) land use designation in our Gateways
  • The wholesale application of the Community Center Historic land use designation for parcels in and near the Historic District
• Missing policy statements pertaining to the adopted Mokelumne Hill Design Review Guidelines that protect and enhance our historic assets.  The Design Review Guidelines were adopted by the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors by Resolution 2012-163 on November 13, 2012
• Doesn’t adequately address the community’s policy of: “Existing roads within the planning area shall not be widened or altered except to correct serious safety problems.”

Please come to the meeting on Monday at 5:00 to voice your concerns, issues, suggestions and recommendations.

The 2014 Draft General Plan is now available for public review and comment.  The draft plan consists of three primary components: the land use map that depicts the density and intensity of uses on all lands within the unincorporated portions of Calaveras County; the policy document, consisting of a brief discussion of each element of the Plan and the goals, policies, and implementation programs; and a Background Report, that provides some of the more detailed information that led to the development of the goals and policies document.  All documents can be viewed and downloaded from the County website at:  http://planning.calaverasgov.us/GeneralPlanUpdate.aspx

Of keen interest to the citizens of Mokelumne Hill, the Executive Summary states:“One of the most controversial and complex aspects of this draft plan was dealing with the desire of many in the community to incorporate existing and proposed community plans. On January 28, 2014, the Board of Supervisors held a workshop where this issue was discussed with the Planning Department. While no vote was taken, the general direction (although not everyone agreed) was that including the community plans into the General Plan update would take too much time, and could potentially create internal conflicts with the plan. However, Planning staff recognizes the huge effort by citizens in the various communities that went into developing those draft plans, and did not want to waste that planning effort. While independent community plans are not included as a part of this draft plan, many of the policies and land use designations have been incorporated. Staff found, while reviewing the draft community plans and existing community plans, that there was a common thread to many of them, and that policies that a community wanted to have applied just to that community actually was appropriate county-wide. Where there were community-specific policies, these are included in a special section of the Land Use Element, Community Planning Policies. Staff has generated a cross reference table (Attachment 2) that identifies where each community plan policy is covered by a general plan policy. The text of the policy is not identical, but staff believes that the intent of the policy is met.”

The release of the Draft General Plan on December 18, 2014 begins a 90-day public review and comment period. During this time a series of community workshops and other public meetings will be held. Staff encourages the citizens of Calaveras County to review the draft, and provide written comments. Comments can be submitted to Planning in writing, by e-mail, or through the Department’s website. At the end of the comment period, near the end of March, the Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission will hold a series of hearings to consider public comment, and make any changes to the draft plan that the Board feels is appropriate.

It is important for interested citizens to review the draft and prepare written comments in advance of the public workshops to be held within the next 90 days.

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