The Sutter Creek City Council this week made some headway on the Sutter Hill East Storm Drain and Sewer Project. Sutter Creek Administrators last visited this project about a year ago, when the east annexation of Sutter Hill into the City of Sutter Creek was postponed due to the lack of a traffic study.At Monday evening’s City Council meeting, council members heard a presentation from Tim Chamberlain, a development and city planning consultant, regarding the installation of storm drains in Sutter Hill, as well as plans to connect five Sutter Hill Residences to Sutter Creek’s Sewer System. Chamberlain noted that three potential developments outside Sutter Creek are what initiated this extension of water infrastructure, which will occur in the area between Old Ridge Road, Sutter Hill Road, and Highway 49.

The developers will pay for the extension, and the five landowners will be compensated for the right-of-ways through their property with hook ups to the sewer system. Sutter Creek officials were delighted to have the project moving again, but heeded Planning Commissioner Mike Kirkley’s warning to proceed with annexation simultaneously with the sewer line project. “If the property owners get the connections and build before you annex it, you have the potential to loose revenue,” he warned. In the end, the Council voted to approve a resolution for a mitigated negative declaration for the storm drain and sewer project, and also instructed staff to proceed with the necessary steps for the annexation. City officials expect to find out this week whether the scope of the Gold Rush Ranch and Golf Resort’s DEIR Traffic Study will cover Sutter Hill East. If it does not, an independent traffic study will have to be conducted for the area, an item that is imperative to the annexation process.