EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. — The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors voted Oct. 28 to return the proposed Town & Country Village El Dorado development to the Planning Commission for further review, delaying any final approval of entitlements for the 60-acre mixed-use project.
The project — proposed by landowner Mohanna Development and submitted by Josh Pane — would convert roughly 26.6 acres into a development core including two 150-room hotels, retail, restaurants, an event center/museum and 112 cottage units intended for employees and short-term stays; an adjacent 30-acre program study area would remain available for potential future uses under revised zoning.
Board members and a flood of public commenters cited unresolved infrastructure, traffic and land-use consistency problems as reasons to pause. County staff and neighbors raised concerns about water and sewer capacity and the need for significant road improvements on Bass Lake Road — including possible widening — before the county should approve a rezoning that shifts the site from low-density residential to community commercial and multi-unit residential.
Supporters argue the project would create jobs and new tourism capacity, and county staff noted the applicant projects roughly $2.6 million a year in revenue to the county, a point that has gained weight amid a reported county budget shortfall. Opponents counter that the scale of the proposed land-use change would set a precedent for further development and would strain public services.
“It’s like the Constitution. It doesn’t go away just because it’s 30 years old … One project creates a ripple effect to the next project,”
a resident told KCRA during public comment, capturing the sentiment of many opponents who worry about incremental urban sprawl.
The county’s environmental review process for the project is already underway: a Draft Environmental Impact Report was prepared and posted for public review, and the proposal requires multiple discretionary approvals — a General Plan amendment, specific plan revision, rezones, a planned development permit, tentative subdivision map and conditional use permit — before construction could begin. Those CEQA and entitlement steps must be completed before supervisors can act on final approvals.
By remanding the matter to the Planning Commission, supervisors have signaled they want either more technical study, stronger mitigation commitments, or clearer cost-sharing assurances for infrastructure improvements before taking a final vote. County meeting records show the project was placed on the board’s Oct. 28 agenda following a Planning Commission recommendation and a number of community submissions.
Next steps: the Planning Commission will reconsider the project and the record — including public comments and staff reports — and may forward a revised recommendation back to the Board of Supervisors, who would then decide whether to approve, modify or reject the project. The county’s public notices list a follow-up hearing schedule and the county’s project webpage hosts the DEIR and supporting documents for public review.
