Sutter Creek Residents Fights Pro-Development City Council Vote with Ballot Initiative

Will Elk Grove Need to Follow Suit?

The foothill community of Sutter Creek is in the middle of a battle that will determine the future of the historic Gold Rush city.

The story includes a pro-development vote by the city council seemingly done against the will of the residents, an active community group determined to put a halt to the development that will nearly double the size of the city and the use of Elk Grove as a poster child against the development.

At the heart of the matter is a real estate development that the Sutter Creek City Council approved last January by a 4-1 vote. The proposed development called the Gold Rush would open up 945 acres to development of housing units, hotel/time-share resort.

The people of Sutter Creek did not take the vote as the final word though and decided to put the question of whether or not the development to proceed to the voters. The vote was decided on January 10 and members of the locally-based Preserve Sutter Creek had thirty days to gather the required signatures to get the measure on the June ballot.

Although the group faced several administrative, governmental and weather related challenges in the 30 day period, they were able to greatly exceed the 10% requirement of registered voters in the last gubernatorial election. In fact the group was able to gather almost triple of the required voters signatures in a mere six day.

“We had an 11 day delay getting from the city the information which was needed in order gather the signatures,” Preserve Sutter Creek representative Liz Tone said. “Of the 15 days left to us, 11 had weather ranging from rainy to storming. We gathered 468 signatures in about 6 days.”

Because of their efforts, Sutter Creek voter will be able to give thumbs up or down on the Gold Rush development. The measure has been designated Measure N on the June 8 ballot.

Organizers are also holding a No on N rally this Saturday morning in Sutter Creek at 9:00 a.m.

How does this relate to Elk Grove?

There are two things that are connecting the Sutter Creek struggle with Elk Grove. Regular EGN readers may have seen an earlier posting of the campaign literature the No on N proponents are circulating.

First, they have used ‘Elk Grove’s Decade of Development’ (will the next 10 years be the Elk Grove’s ‘Decade of Downsizing’?) as a poster child to illustrate the excesses of unbridled growth. We certainly hope the people of Sutter Creek consider Elk Grove’s experience over the last decade as the vote on Measure N.

The second thing that Elk Grove voters should take out of Sutter Creek’s experience is that while their city council voted for a development, they didn’t take that as the final word. They fought back and decided to gather signatures and despite of some government foot-dragging, they gathered the required signatures to put the question on the ballot.

Although many Elk Grove and other non-Elk Grove residents cheered the recent decision by the Elk Grove City Council to remove the Cosumnes River 100 year floodplain from its sphere of influence application, according to information obtained by EGN, the matter may have not entirely ended with the April 14 vote.

According to Elk Grove City Planner Taro Echiburu in an e-mail correspondence, the city council can technically vote to make further amendments to the SOI. While it is unlikely the current council would vote to reverse it, it is possible under a few different scenarios.

For instance, what happens if Jim Cooper wins his race for Sheriff this June or November. Could Cooper’s replacement be amenable to amend the SOI to include the floodplain?

After all, it will take only one vote to swing the vote back to a 3-2 margin in favor of the including the floodplain in the SOI. Conversely, with the proper alignment of the political stars, any further vote could swing that vote to an even stronger 4-1 margin with the ouster of the SOI's main proponent this November.

Perhaps the time has come for the people of Elk Grove to organize and take Sutter Creek’s lead and put the entire SOI question to the voters of Elk Grove. As one EGN reader has written, “If Sutter Creek Can do it then why not the City of Elk Grove...Don’t let Devloper dollars increase your tax liability for increased services!”

In any case, one would have to suspect that while the first battle of the Cosumnes River SOI War was won on April 18, there will be several more battles and skirmished fought over this matter before it is finally resolved.