Park Place do-over

Developers of an unincorporated south Sacramento subdivision inadvertently voted against their own project moving forward last month.

Because of 1996's Proposition 218, a majority of property owners has to OK proposed service-charge increases beyond a state-set cap through a mail-in ballot process.

In this case, ballots came from two landowners of a lot south of El Paraiso Avenue. They want to divide the 206,000 square-foot property into 48 residential parcels for a planned subdivision called Park Place. Bob Davidson, an engineer with the community development department, told Sacramento County supervisors last week the applicants responded with “a surprise ‘no' vote.”

The county proposed increasing the service charge from $17.88 per parcel to $49.68 per parcel to cover street lighting for the planned subdivision. Davidson said the applicants didn't want to pay the increased fees, but also didn't realize opposition would keep their project from moving forward.

After several phone calls, Davidson said the owners are willing to work with the county. “We have to start from the beginning,” he said. “And, presumably, with the new knowledge, the outcome could be different.”

Chuckling supervisors approved the request to restart the process, which entails a 45-day waiting period and the mailing of a new notice and protest ballot.