Buttes housing in talks

Sutter County supervisors plan to hold a public hearing tonight on a controversial proposal for a housing development at the edge of the Sutter Buttes.

The hearing will be part of a regular board meeting starting at 7 p.m. at the Hall of Records, 466 Second St., Yuba City.

The Le Baron Family Trust is proposing rezoning 60 acres at the southwest corner of Acacia Avenue and Pass Road, just north of the town of Sutter, from general agriculture to single-family residential.

County planners said that would allow as many as 494 homes. Bill Walker, an engineer who represented the Le Baron family at a Dec. 7 Planning Commission meeting, said the number would be less.

Walker asked commissioners to defeat the proposal and send it to the supervisors for a final decision, thereby avoiding an expensive environmental report. The commission complied, defeating it 5-0.

The commission meeting attracted a number of Sutter residents who predicted the development would create

traffic problems. Resident Robert Ripley said Brittan Elementary School classes that already are overcrowded would become more so.

In a later interview, school Superintendent Earnie Graham denied Ripley's comments about current class sizes.

The county's General Plan puts the land within the Buttes Overlay Zone, which was established to preserve the cultural, historic, geologic and visual values of the Buttes.

Mike Darnell, a Sutter resident and executive director of the Middle Mountain Foundation, said the foundation supports the commission's unanimous decision that the development does not fit the General Plan. He urged the board to follow suit.

Houses in the development would need septic tanks because the area has no sewage treatment plant.

Public Hearing: