Storage Yard Appeal Denied: Board Grants Permit to Contractor on Casino Interchange.

By Cathy Locke, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Nov. 8–Foes of a Highway 50 interchange to serve an Indian casino in Shingle Springs lost their bid to prevent the contractor from setting up a temporary construction storage yard off Shingle Springs Drive.

The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 last week to deny the appeal by the citizens group Voices for Rural Living and uphold the Planning Commission and planning staff’s decision to issue a temporary use permit to Rancho Cordova-based contractor C.C. Myers.

Supervisor Ron Briggs, an outspoken opponent of the interchange and casino projects, cast the dissenting vote after his motion to grant the appeal failed. Supervisor Norma Santiago was absent.

Voices for Rural Living, which is involved in litigation to block the interchange, maintained that the county was obligated to do a preliminary environmental analysis to determine whether the storage yard would have any effect on special status plants or animals. Area residents also argued that a construction storage yard is inappropriate in a rural residential area and would result in increased noise and traffic on Shingle Springs Drive.

Stephan Volker, an attorney representing Voices for Rural Living, said temporary use permits are intended for projects that require no exercise of judgment or deliberation. The fact that the Planning Commission imposed conditions — regarding lighting at the yard, hours of operation, materials that can be stored there and the duration of use — indicates that a special use permit and environmental review are required, he said.

Howard Zabell, project manager with C.C. Myers, said the site is the logical spot for storing wood panels, beams, diesel fuel and hydraulic fluid needed for the construction project, which he said extends east along Highway 50 from the Shingle Springs Drive interchange to the site of the new Foothill Oaks Boulevard interchange. “What we’re asking to do here is really pretty innocuous,” Zabell said.

The real issue is that some people oppose the interchange and casino projects, he said. “I see this as a long-winded smokescreen that needs to come to an end.”

C.C. Myers applied for the permit in June and is nearing a point in the project where the storage yard will become critical, Zabell said.

Area residents said they found it hard to believe that no suitable location was available on the 160-acre Shingle Springs Rancheria, where the Foothill Oaks Casino is under construction. At the Planning Commission’s direction, Zabell said, he tried to find a site on the rancheria, but options were limited by existing residences and topography. “We’ve never been through what we’ve been through in this county,” he said.

Supervisor Jack Sweeney noted that C.C. Myers is known for emergency repair jobs, such as one following the collapse of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge freeway connector earlier this year.

“In most areas where you’ve gone, you have been on a rescue mission to people with open arms,” Sweeney said, but that’s not the case with the interchange project.

Briggs urged his colleagues to grant the appeal and advise the contractor to pursue a special use permit.

The board, however, upheld the Planning Commission’s decision and specified that the storage yard will be limited to a fenced two-acre site, one acre of which will be covered with rock to allow access for equipment. The use is to end by October 2008.

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