Whether in political debates, letters to the editor or casual conversation, in Nevada County, a tense relationship exists between past and future, between looking back and peering forward, between desire to preserve the rural pastures of the Sierra foothills and the will to provide economic development to sustain a viable community. This tension is particularly crystallized in South County, where a series of developments centered around the intersection of Highway 49 and Combie Road figure to alter the face of a community with a tradition of being devoutly pastoral. The intersection, known to locals as Higgins Corner, was named after …