The unveiling of the plans came at a press conference held in the Sutter Creek Firehouse last week. Several members of local media were in attendance, as well as members of the Sutter Creek business community and representatives of the development firm, Sutter Creek Partners LLC.

All told, the development will contain an 18-hole championship-level golf course, a 300 unit resort/timeshare complex, a 60 room hotel, tennis facilities, a new police sub-station, a new city fire station site, two neighborhood park sites of at least two acres each and permanent open space and over 300 acres have been designated as permanent conservation areas.

The project will also include 1,334 new single family homes, of which 938 homes will be located on the 833-acre Noble Ranch property and 396 homes on the 112-acre Allen Ranch. There will be provisions included in the housing element of the project to include specific amounts of workforce housing as well. The residential units are slated to be dispersed throughout 12 new neighborhoods.

The eastern boundary of the project is located on Ridge Road, which would see the project’s main entrance. The project would reach to Highway 88 at its southern tip and would have a second entrance located on Valley View Drive in Sutter Hill.

Sutter Creek City Planner Bruce Baracco explained that the project submitted by Gold Rush is considered a master planned project. The city has already won approval to annex into the city limits a smaller portion of the Noble Ranch and Allen Ranch - 500 acres and 112 acres, respectively - but no work was started on that project. The new plans include the previously approved annexation and contain numerous revisions to the overall project.

During the press conference, representatives of Sutter Creek Partners LLC provided details into the project’s features through a computer-aided presentation.

Through a series of open forums held earlier this year, the development included several requests made by the public. Those requests include:

• Dedication of a site for a new fire station • Dedication of a site for a new police station • The creation of a network of public walking, bicycling and nature trails • The creation of small neighborhood parks including off-street parking and trail system connections

Additionally, input was taken from several public agencies including the city’s fire and police departments and the Amador County Recreation Authority, which played an instrumental role on the creation of the parks and trail system.

Additionally, the golf course will be used as a disposal site for tertiary treated water from the city’s wastewater treatment plant. The project will contribute significant amounts of money for the building of the plant as well, according to the project description supplied to the city.

The project is intended to be built in phases spanning several years, the developers said.

Baracco said the next step for the project is to begin the environmental review process. The city is currently considering two consultants to prepare an Environmental Impact Report for the project, which could take up to a year.