Heritage Partner's ‘Gateway' project on hold

Plans for a community of several thousand homes in southwest Colusa County are on hold, at least for now.

Pacific Cascade Group, the Orange County developer that had planned the South Colusa Gateway Community, on Friday withdrew its application for a general plan amendment to allow the project.

South Colusa, announced in 2004, originally called for as many as 6,500 new homes on more than 3,500 acres of farmland 6 miles south of Arbuckle, along the Yolo County border.

Earlier this month, Pacific Cascade and its local wing, Colusa Heritage Partners, announced a scaled-down version with 3,160 homes, meant to attract some 9,000 newcomers to a 1,000-acre site over three decades.

Project supporters said the development would bring new money to a county desperately short on cash. Opponents said a new city would cost the county its unique agricultural heritage.

In a letter dated Sept. 26, the project’s director, Bruce Bonfield, said developers decided to set aside their zoning application “for the time being.”

Bonfield wrote that two days earlier, Pacific Cascade requested a 60-day delay before Tuesday’s meeting with the Colusa County Board of Supervisors but was rebuffed.

Supervisor Kim Dolbow Vann, whose 1st District includes the South Colusa site, said her colleague Thomas A. Indrieri refused the delay because the meeting had been scheduled for nearly a month. She added that withdrawing the application means the developers have essentially scrapped the project in its current form.

“It means they would have to start over from scratch if they want consideration for anything,” Vann said Friday.

Vann expressed frustration with what she called the developers’ unwillingness to listen to local leadership about the plan.

“The county of Colusa is not going to be bullied into anything, period,” she said.

Contact Colusa County Sun-Herald reporter Rob Parsons at 458-2121 or rparsons@tcnpress.com.