Planners OK Placer Vineyards

By Art Campos, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Jan. 26–The Placer County Planning Commission has recommended the development of Placer Vineyards, a 5,230-acre community proposed west of Roseville.

The upscale, master-planned project would include 14,132 homes and increase the county’s population by 38,000 residents.

The commission’s 6-0 vote Thursday in Auburn means the project will be sent to the Board of Supervisors for possible approval. The panel rejected a plan that would have increased the housing units to 21,000 and the population by nearly 52,000.

The Placer Vineyards plan calls for commercial centers, 700 acres of open space and 217 acres of parks. It also sets aside sites for nine schools and 11 churches.

The project is bounded by Baseline Road on the north, the Sacramento County line on the south, the Sutter County line on the west and by Dry Creek and Walerga Road on the east.

The Vineyards project is in an area set aside for possible development on maps being considered by the proposed Placer County Conservation Plan, a 50-year plan to conserve about 60,000 acres in the western part of the county.

Tim Taron, an attorney representing the Vineyards’ 20-person ownership group, said the owners have agreed to spend $235 million to build the infrastructure.

Several speakers were critical of the plan. George Brown, a member of the West Placer Advisory Council, said his panel sought more buffers within the project and a second high school.

He also warned that putting more than 14,000 residences in an area lacking adequate roads would “create disaster.”

Terry Davis of the Sierra Club Mother Lode Chapter said the project’s environmental impact report failed to provide sufficient mitigation for the potential loss of vernal pools.

Taron said the property owners group filed a permit with environmental protection agencies and will buy and preserve land in other areas to make up for loss of environmentally sensitive areas.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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