Trees, Food And Spirits

Columbia, CA — A café expansion and trees top the agenda for the Tuolumne County Planning Commission at its meeting next week.

Commissioners will decide whether to approve a conditional use permit for the Garden Café at Columbia Nursery and Florist on Parrotts Ferry Road in Columbia.  The owners want to expand the business to allow for outdoor entertainment with music and alcohol for birthday parties, etc.

Tuolumne County Community Resources Agency Deputy Director Mike Laird says staff is recommending some conditions.  “There will be limitations on the hours when they can have the music and they have to have food when they are serving alcoholic beverages, things like that.”

The commission will also decide whether to recommend a zoning change and tentative subdivision map to KOR Sonora Investors to modify a 19-lot single-family residential subdivision.  The five-acre property is located at 10834 Racetrack Road in Sonora.  Laird says the decision also calls for the removal of four or five oak trees, and, instead of replanting, a negative mitigation fee payment of $1,575.

The planning commission meeting starts at 6 p.m. on December 17 in the Board of Supervisors Chambers in Sonora.