Sawmill Project makes headlines once again

Unfinished general plan stalls housing project - Calaveras Enterprise reporter James DeHaven
Advocates and opponents of Copperopolis’ long-in-the-works Sawmill Lake housing development will square-off for a second planning commission hearing this week, renewing a raucous four-hour back-and-forth between developers and county staff at Sawmill’s first commission hearing in September.

That meeting saw Sawmill developers win a 90-day continuance for further deliberation on the project, one commissioners issued while hoping to broker a compromise between county planners and project developer Castle and Cooke Calaveras.
Three months on, the yawning gap between the two sides has only widened, according to area Sierra Club representative Steve Elias.
Elias, one of several Sawmill opponents organized under the Calaveras Planning Coalition, has joined county Planning Director Rebecca Willis in asking commissioners to deny the proposal “without prejudice,” a decision that would leave the door open to future development once planners complete an overhaul of the county’s decades-old general plan.
He, like Willis, fears the general plan amendment currently sought by developers to finish the 800-home subdivision could slow already creaky progress on the county land use map.
To read the full Calaveras Enterprise story by reporter James DeHaven CLICK HERE