A voting deadlock Wednesday by Placer County Transportation Planning Agency commissioners has left the Auburn Boys & Girls Club quest to relocate to Regional Park in limbo.

The commission voted 4-4 on whether the planned 15,000-foot clubhouse and gymnasium fitted in with safety policies for new buildings in the Auburn Municipal Airport flight path.

After two tie votes, commissioners – sitting as the Airport Land Use Commission – voted 5-3 to accept the stalemate, not vote again, and refer the matter to the Placer County Board of Supervisors.

With the safety of children the defining issue, arguments were emotional on both sides. The club’s nearest facility is located in portables at Rock Creek School. About 120 children attend after-school club activities.

The Boys & Girls Club’s stance is that chances of a crash are minimal, the building will be constructed to prevent a plane from punching through it, and the site is ideally located for club purposes.

The arguments against the club locating at the park site were based around the possibility of a crash into a building filled with children and the cumulative threat the approval of one more non-conforming use in the flight zone would have on the future of the airport.

Speaking for locating the Boys & Girls Club at the park, Sheriff Ed Bonner cited Hispanic gang recruitment in the residential area around the park and how the club provides a safe environment for youth.

“It’s something for them to join other than a gang,” he said.

Tom Cosgrove, who represents the city of Lincoln on the commission, cited the 1972 jet crash into Sacramento’s Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor that killed 22 people as an example of what was considered a “one in a million, maybe zillion” occurrence.

Cosgrove, a pilot whose city also has an airport, said that while people could quibble over whether the clubhouse is a school or a community center, a report by airport land use consultant Meade & Hunt commissioned by the agency did say it was not an ideal location.

“There are other locations for the community to look at to not put children in the path of airplanes,” Cosgrove said.

The missing ninth commissioner – Roseville City Councilwoman Gina Garbolino – had informed the board the day before that she would be out of town for the meeting. The board could have waited until its September meeting for a recast of the vote with Garbolino present but commissioner Kathy Lund, a Rocklin councilmember, said that she would be out of town at that time.

Supervisors will now be asked to make the ultimate ruling on the club’s attempt to build its new facility a mile from the airport runway.

The Airport Land Use Commission’s staff report recommended a finding Wednesday that the proposal is not consistent with the airport land use plan. But the report by Santa Rosa consultant Meade & Hunt concluded that while not ideal from an aviation standpoint, the clubhouse “represents an acceptable risk.”

Two of the commission members voting Wednesday will also be voting as supervisors when the matter is heard by the county board. Supervisors Kirk Uhler of Granite Bay and Jim Holmes of North Auburn voted with commissioners Russ Kelley of Loomis and citizen representative Ron McIntyre in favor of a “compatible” determination. Cosgrove voted with Lund, Colfax Councilmember Sherrie Blackmun and Auburn City Councilman Keith Nesbitt.

Nesbitt’s comment before voting against the club plan was indicative of how close and contentious the issue is.

“My mind says inconsistent (with the Placer County Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan) but my heart prays the Board of Supervisors overturns the decision,” Nesbitt said.

The Journal’s Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.