What may have appeared to be a half-baked vote of the Placerville Planning Commission a couple months ago, with only two of its five members voting in favor of allowing a Sourdough & Co. restaurant to locate near the Bell Tower downtown — only two, but enough to get the issue cooking — turned into a fresh affirmation by the City Council this week after the heat was turned up by none other than those opposed to the sandwich shop.

The comments from the opposition, with particularly spicy potshots taken by their hired-gun attorney who salted his remarks with a belittling of city staff, appeared to backfire as the City Council ultimately voted in favor of the fast-food, formula restaurant.

While the mayor and other city leaders also peppered some members of the crowd over tactics used in what became a divisive, polarizing issue in the community, Sourdough & Co. ultimately was given the nod with a 3-1 vote of the four-member council (Councilwoman Kara Taylor had recused herself) to do business at 385 Main St., where Centro’s held forth for years.

The council voted to deny two appeals filed in the wake of the Planning Commission’s approval of Sourdough & Co., a 2-0-1 vote that occurred in July when a three-member quorum saw two votes in favor, one abstention. (Two other members of the commission were absent for that vote, but with three present, that constituted a legal quorum.)

Tuesday night, during a meeting that ran well to 11 p.m. and beyond, after beginning at 6 p.m. … and after a few breaks so that those appealing the commission’s action could be present at an agreed-upon 7:30 p.m. start, the vote ended up being 3-1 to deny the appeals and support the commission’s decision.

Councilwoman Taylor, who is employed at a Main Street restaurant some 300 feet distant from the old Centro’s location and so declined to participate in the matter, was seen smiling as she left around 7:30, the council’s other business having been concluded.

Three hours later, the discourse from the public, the Sourdough applicant and the City Council still was in high dudgeon, with a second appeal not having yet been discussed when the council took another, short break.

It had just given the nod to Dana LeBlanc, the man who wishes to offer Sourdough & Co.’s fare to the town he said he and his family love (“My sons were born at Marshall Hospital …. I am not an outsider, as I have heard …”) regarding one appeal, but a decision on a second filed appeal remained on the agenda; it eventually also would be denied.

The evening saw city planning staffers pummeled verbally by opponents of the fast-food, formula sandwich shop coming to the city’s Central Business District, with some of the shots coming from Patrick Soluri, attorney for Sue Taylor, Heidi Mayerhofer and Bryan Chase (Friends of Historic Hangtown) who filed one of the appeals of the Planning Commission’s decision.

Those verbal volleys were matched by members of the City Council who defended staff, with Councilman Dennis Thomas focusing on the man who filed a second appeal of the Planning Commission’s action, using the word “wacky” in describing the situation.

Referring to Kirk Smith, who filed an appeal alleging that city staff purposely “misled” the Planning Commission and even the applicant, Councilman Thomas said, “There’s a lot of people in this room who don’t know the person who said this … and don’t that he, you know … it’s kinda wacky.”

Thomas added that Smith’s “comments are just one person’s comments” and he said he firmly believes those on the council, and most of the people at Town Hall, would agree that city staff performs in stellar style.

“(Smith’s allegations are) not the going thought of our staff,” said the councilman. “I want to make that crystal-clear.”

Mayor Mark Acuna took off the gloves, too, taking a jab at an effort piloted by Heidi Mayerhofer to gather signatures of merchants against Sourdough’s plans. As he explained he felt applicant Dana LeBlanc behaved admirably, “remaining silent as someone walks up and down the street, trying to prevent him from coming in,” and when Acuna hit the word “bullying,” Mayerhofer rose from her seat in the audience at Town Hall, eyes blazing, and left the meeting.

“I don’t have to listen to this,” she said, adding, under her breath, a colorful opinion regarding the mayor.

The negativity that rose over Sourdough & Co.’s plan came as a surprise to applicant LeBlanc, who initially Tuesday night appeared as crestfallen as a baker pulling a flat loaf out of the oven.

Mentioning again that his roots locally go back 35 years, LeBlanc said the controversy has caused him to “feel like I’m in a lawsuit over something I wanted to bring to this town.”

“I just don’t get it.”

LeBlanc said he “challenges” the map and listing presented to the council by Mayerhofer, purported to indicate more than 60 merchants who she said have expressed their disapproval over Sourdough & Co. opening up by the Bell Tower.

Saying that he had been told that bullying and strong-arm tactics had been employed by those circulating the petition, LeBlanc said many merchants have added, to him, that they wish they had not signed.

“There are some very, very unhappy people in this town.” He then named three, drawing scoffs from some members of the crowd who remained opposed to the sandwich shop’s plans, scoffs apparently over the number being merely three.

Those firmly in favor of the franchise opening also spoke up during the long evening, however, with one woman saying she decided to take a Sourdough & Co. outing as a matter of research, in light of the simmering controversy.

Danica Olivo, before singing the restaurant’s praises, reminded the City Council she and her husband Nello put “lots of money into preserving the historical character” of the iconic Bee-Bennett House, now called the Sequoia, in Placerville. “The character of this town means an awful lot to us,” she said.

“I hadn’t eaten at Sourdough before,” said Olivo. “I found them to be absolutely charming … I am now addicted to their lemon cookies.”

Olivo added that she congratulates LeBlanc “for so much work and effort” in trying to do business at the old Centro building — and she added that the energy behind the campaign “by the naysayers” also is praiseworthy.

“But they’re missing the point,” Olivo added. While Sourdough & Co. is by definition a fast-food, formula restaurant (as all apparently now agree and as city staff has deemed an allowable use in the Central Business District), nonetheless it would be a welcome addition to Main Street, Placerville, she contended.

“It’s full of character … and I noticed three empty (building) spaces (near the proposed Sourdough & Co. shop),” Olivo continued. “Nothing looks worse when people take pictures of the Bell Tower than to have an empty space there.”

The location where tourists love to line up and snap photos of the iconic tower, with myriad stores in the background, has been at issue, with potential exterior signage causing worry. That has led to the only substantive “condition” of the use permit granted by the Planning Commission in July and upheld by the City Council Tuesday.

The council, in denying the two appeals and approving Sourdough & Co.’s permit and site plan review, modified that action by requiring staff approval of whatever exterior signage the restaurant comes up with. Originally, red, illuminated letters were in the mix (following corporate precedence) but LeBlanc and other representatives of the franchise have indicated they are amenable to alterations. The sign’s letters could even be built of wood, depending on what shakes out.

Once the city has OK’d its exterior face to the world, a face that is directly to the west of the Bell Tower, the sandwich shop could open as soon as next month, according to what LeBlanc earlier told city officials. He and his backers also have said creating an inside theme incorporating a “gold miner” is exciting, as sourdough fixin’s were a staple of the rugged men who are central to the local historical era so many wish to preserve: the Gold Rush of 1849.