Bunch Creek Success!

Time to celebrate!
Bunch Creek Rezone was denied by the Placer County Board of Supervisors on August 24, 2010 by a 3 to 2 vote. Holmes, Montgomery and Weygandt voted to deny rezone. Rockholm and Uhler voted in favor of rezone. If approved, the Board's action would have resulted in the conversion of 600 acres near Yankee Jim's Road from Timber Production (TPZ) to Residential/Forestry and allowed the construction of 7 homes on the canyon rim. This important decision helps preserve the scenic integrity of the North Fork Canyon.

North Fork American River Alliance, Protect American River Canyons, Friends of the North Fork, Sierra Club and adjacent TPZ property owner Allen Edwards have been working to stop this rezone for over two years. All submitted written comments and verbal testimony at the public hearing urging the Board of Supervisors to reject the rezone request. NFARA Board members Rick Ramos, Jim Ricker and Bob Suter spoke at the hearing.

Earlier this year, both the Agriculture Commission and Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend denial of project to Supervisors. This rezone would be contrary to the Placer County General Plan and the commitment to preserving timber production agriculture land. This rezone would have resulted in damaging impacts to the NF watershed and wildlife and increased the fire hazard risks to the area. Worst of all, the rezone would have created a precedent by encouraging the speculative purchase of timber producing land for conversion to residential development.

The 600 acres was logged in the mid 1990s but was never replanted. A brush field grew up. Two thirds of the property burned in 2001 in the Ponderosa Fire. Additional timber was harvested in a salvage operation. No attempt was made to reforest the site even though there was grant money available. A large brush field grew up. Property was sold to current owners in 2004 at cut-over timberland price. To date there has been no reinvestment in the land; grant money is still available.

Rezone proponents argued that there is no timber, it is too expensive to reforest, it would take years to recover costs, and the soils are marginal to boot. The best thing to do is rezone land so homes can be built, but forestry operations allowed. An additional benefit, it was argued, was that developing the land would reduce the fire hazard risks to the community of Colfax.

Opponents of the rezone successfully argued that the area traditionally had trees and with proper management will again. The growing of trees takes an investment and it may take 70 years for them to mature. The current owners knew the zoning and condition of the property and bought it on speculation in hopes of making a huge profit. CALFIRE’s policies regarding homes in the wildland-urban interface rebutted the reduced fire hazard claims.

This is a big victory! Maybe it indicates a new day where a majority of the Supervisors don't automatically rubber stamp rezoning requests, but keep timberland for timber production and open space for open space and not see them simply as another place to build homes. On the other hand, the closeness of the vote by the Supervisors serves as a reminder that private holdings in the NF remain at risk for development and we must be ever vigilant.

Join us today in preserving the North Fork for tomorrow

For more information go to: http://www.nfara.org NFARA is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation and contributions are tax deductible

Updated 3/6/11