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| Supes approve airfield staff report |
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| Written by Jonathan Partridge / Patterson Irrigator / | |
| Wednesday, 29 August 2007 | |
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“I’m not concerned that they don’t have all the answers
 PI Photo File MODESTO — The Crows Landing Air Facility will remain in county hands and not be sold or granted to another party, Stanislaus County supervisors decided Tuesday. With a 5-0 vote, the board approved a decision to keep the former U.S. Navy airfield property and lease it out to potential industrial park users. It also accepted a progress report from the group that is negotiating with the county to develop the airfield into a business park.
Though county supervisors and air facility ad-hoc committee members Dick Monteith and Jim DeMartini have strongly disagreed about the merits of that project, they had no arguments about who should own the airfield.
“The county would like to retain the facility and not sell it, and that’s really what’s before us today,” DeMartini said.
PCCP West Park is partway through negotiations with the county to come up with a full project proposal that supervisors will consider in April.
The development group hopes to turn the airfield and surrounding land into a 4,800-acre industrial park, with a rail link to the Port of Oakland to ship containers back and forth between the port and Crows Landing.
Supervisors on Tuesday approved a quarterly report from the developer, in addition to deciding on what to do with the airfield property.
DeMartini, a constant critic of West Park’s plans, continued to show skepticism about the project. He expressed doubts that businesses would be interested in the project and asked what would happen if state bond money did not come through. He also questioned the feasibility of West Park’s hope to get water from the California Aqueduct and expressed concern about pests from other countries coming into the county by latching on to shipping containers.
West Park developer Gerry Kamilos said he has always been able to get water sources for all of his projects and noted that the project must have a water source for supervisors to approve it.
In terms of financing, Kamilos asked for patience as developers work with other groups to seek state infrastructure bond money for the project. He said DeMartini should save the question about what would happen if money doesn’t come through for a later date.
“I can tell you this,” Kamilos said, “we’re not programmed for failure.”
The state assembly is working on a bill that would provide money for improvements to the Altamont rail corridor, among other state rail projects. However, it may be as late as summer 2008 before bond money is allocated, in part because of delays in approving the state budget this year.
As for fears about pests, Kamilos said empty containers already pass through the Central Valley. If anything, he said, risks involving foreign pests could be reduced with local control over inspections.
Monteith praised West Park for its innovation and said he didn’t mind that Kamilos still did not have all aspects of the project figured out.
“I’m not concerned that they don’t have all the answers to all the questions,” he said.
“If they did, I would be concerned.”
In addition to discussion from supervisors, four people spoke in favor of West Park’s proposal and no one spoke against it, though leaders of the West Park opposition group West Side-Patterson Alliance for Community & Environment were present.
Newman resident Laroy McDonald said growth on the West Side is coming and the county needs to prepare by having jobs available for residents. Otherwise, he said, the West Side could face problems other urban areas have faced. He gave kudos to the project, which West Park has said will provide 37,000 jobs at full buildout.
McDonald, who helped run a mayoral campaign in Oakland, said after the meeting that he specializes in fulfilling contractors’ obligations to use local workers, and he hopes to be involved in the West Park
Mean-while, WS-PACE Vice President Claude Delphia said no one from the group spoke because there was nothing new to say.
“As usual, (Kamilos) didn’t have answers and talked all around the issues,” Delphia said. “That’s the one complaint everyone has that goes to these meetings.”
Despite different opinions about West Park’s concept, everyone agreed that the county should own the 1,527-acre former airbase property and lease it out. Ownership would ensure the county controls what happens there and let the county continually generate money from the property, according to a county staff report.
Kamilos said after the meeting that county ownership would not affect his project one way or the other.
“It gives the county a higher stake in the project,” he said.
Super-visors agreed that West Park had done everything the county asked of the developer during the past three months. That included completing technical studies, offering public outreach workshops and coming up with detailed land-use plans. Irrigator reporter John Saiz contributed to this report. To reach Jonathan Partridge at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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Part of the article said: “Officials at the Port of Oakland, a key player in the Crows Landing project, are pushing improvements for their long-haul Cla*s I rail partners, the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads.”
Then on official said: “While port officials support short-haul rail in concept, they aren't ready to commit money to Crows Landing or any other potential inland port.”
Doesn't this tell us that there is only a small chance of a short haul rail going to Crows Landing? The fact that Crows Landing is 25 miles south of the nearest potential rail intersection would seem to have an impact on that prospect as would the $10m cost just to make that intersection work.