Board OKs Sutter Pointe plan

The broad brushstrokes of a future city now have Sutter County's blessing.

An outline plan to develop the Sutter Pointe community won the Board of Supervisors' approval Tuesday night, the first major landmark toward creating a town with as many as 17,500 homes among the farm fields north of Sacramento.

The 13 ordinances passed by the board confirmed standards for land use, neighborhood design and master plans for groundwater, sewer and drainage utilities.

Supervisors green-lighted the development's specific plan after assurances by project planners — including representatives of Lennar Corp. and local landholders — the new town will bring the county more property tax and sales revenue and put the burden of paying for improvements on the developers, not taxpayers.

Development charges paid by builders will go toward road construction, two new schools and levee improvements — the last funded at $2 per square foot of new housing.

"Sutter Pointe has great potential to bring economic development and revenue we haven't seen before," said Supervisor James Gallagher, whose 5th District includes the site. "My main concern is that the promises of Measure M would be kept."

Voters' passage in 2004 of Measure M made possible the zoning of more than 7,500 acres for Sutter Pointe in the south county, off Highway 99/70 and Riego Road. A full build-out is expected to last three decades.

More approvals and studies await the Sutter Pointe project before any homes, stores or warehouses can be built — mainly upgrades, due by the end of 2011, to 46 miles of levees within the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency. The fixes are meant to shield the low-lying south county against a once-in-a-century peak flood and are required for any large-scale building to begin.

Supervisors also left other loose ends to settle later, such as who will control water delivery into Sutter Pointe. The county and Golden State Water Co. have disputed which agency has the right to bring surface water supplies to the area, and the state Public Utilities Commission is expected to settle the issue.

A financing plan, environmental studies, and road, parks and school plans will take about three more years, according to George Carpenter, project manager for Sutter Pointe.

Though no groundbreaking is expected until well into the next decade, board members showed apparent relief at avoiding the strife and division caused by earlier plans to build out the rural floodplain — such as Sutter Bay, proposed and then derailed in the 1990s.

"What happened with Sutter Bay and Sutter Pointe are two different things entirely," said Supervisor Larry Montna. "There's been much more openness, more discussion, than before."