By Lake Tahoe News

The Georgetown Preservation Society is challenging El Dorado County Board of Supervisors’ approval of the construction of a 9,100-square-foot Dollar General store.

Attorney Donald Mooney of Davis, who is representing the West Slope organization, said his client has exhausted all other administrative remedies.

The court documents, which were filed May 6, allege that the county failed to adequately analyze the project’s environmental impacts or provide mitigation measures that would reduce such impacts to less than significant.

The writ says, “Respondents abused their discretion and failed to proceed according to law in that they failed to require the preparation of an environmental impact report for the project, despite the existence of a ‘fair argument’ based on substantial evidence in the record, that the project may have a significant effect on the environment.”

Impacts outlined in the writ include those to wetlands and biological resources, traffic and circulation, geology and soils, water resources and water quality, and aesthetics. Another impact, not specifically mentioned in the writ, but one evident throughout the entire process was the strong feeling of many area residents that a massive Dollar General store did not belong in the historic downtown of this former mining community. Dollar General revised the building design a number of times, but residents remained largely unconvinced that it fit the county’s Historic Design Guidelines which say new buildings in historic county areas like Georgetown must reflect the type of architecture typical of California’s Gold Rush period.

At the April 5 Board of Supervisors meeting Georgetown-area residents pleaded with the board to not make a decision that would forever alter the character of their home. Before the vote, Supervisor Shiva Frentzen commented, “I don’t see a single person here to support this including the Divide chamber … there are some areas where you need to honor the locals.”

This lawsuit now enters a growing stream of land use-based lawsuits filed by local residents against the board’s planning decisions.

The writ names the county, supervisors, Simon CRE Abbie LLC, and Denton and Carolyn Beam. Simon CRE Abbie is a commercial real estate company and the project applicant on behalf of Dollar General. The Beams are the current property owners of the three Main Street parcels.

Dollar General is a nationwide chain of box stores that offer a range of lower-priced merchandise and groceries.