Property Zoning Dispute

On Thursday, June 10, 1993 the County responded (Appendix A) to an alleged letter which was never located, dated Monday, June 7, 1993 from the landowner, requesting the status of his offer to donate 10 acres of his land to be used for a park in exchange for rezoning the remainder of his land to Industrial. The County is unable to produce a copy of the alleged letter. The landowner states that he did not write the cited letter nor did he receive the County’s response. The Grand Jury could not locate this alleged letter in the myriad of documents provided by the County and the landowner.

The County rezoned a portion of the landowner’s property from Residential Agricultural to Open Space, which effectively devalued his property. The Grand Jury interviewed Placer County Assessors that stated property in this area zoned Residential Agricultural would be valued at least ten times greater than property zoned Open Space.

After a thorough investigation of all available documents and by conducting interviews with parties having direct knowledge of the facts surrounding this issue, the Grand Jury is unable to substantiate any fraud by the County or any participant in this dispute. Property Zoning Dispute 38 2010 -2011 Placer County Grand Jury Conclusion The Grand Jury has found no intentional wrongdoing by any of the parties during its investigation of this issue. The history of this undeveloped land covers a period of nearly 40 years. The landowner states that the County has taken actions that have impeded his ability to develop this property in a way that would allow him to profit from his investment. The County has offered several solutions to the landowner and he has not followed through on any of these offerings. If the landowner would follow up on any of his offers with a formal submission of appropriate documents to the County and the County gives them due consideration in light of current law and policies, this issue would be resolved.