The Placer Conservation Authority voted March 12 to approve a land dedication agreement with Brookfield California Land Holdings LLC for the Amoruso Ranch project, accepting approximately 235.7 acres as land-in-lieu to offset the land-acquisition portion of mitigation fees.

Real Estate Services Manager Jeremy Sutter told the board the property would be valued at $13,500 per acre, producing land-credit value of $3,000,105. He said the north side of the stream contains most of the wetlands — a total of about 11.287 acres broken into roughly 1.5 acres of seasonal wetlands, 0.9 acres of seasonal swales and 8.7 acres of vernal pools — and the entire parcel is considered valuable to the PCCP reserve system.

Sutter explained that Brookfield will receive credits toward the land-acquisition portion of their land conversion fees but will still owe other portions of the land conversion fee that fund operations, maintenance and endowment. He said any use or transfer of excess credits would require PCA approval. “They will still be paying the remainder of the rest of the land conversion fee, which accounts for operation and maintenance, endowment,” Sutter said.

John Norman of Brookfield thanked staff for their work on the multiple transactions and said the company supports the dedication. The board adopted the resolution as read, finding the action exempt from CEQA Guidelines sections 15308 and 15313, and authorized staff to finalize documents and the board chair to execute final agreements.

The dedication structure allows Brookfield to apply the land credits against phases 2 and 3 of Amoruso; staff noted the credits may exceed what Brookfield needs for those phases and could be used for other covered activities subject to PCA approval.