Stanislaus County is proposing an environmental impact report on the entire Salida Community Plan before a large distribution center project on Kiernan Avenue is allowed to proceed.
Tuesday morning, the county Board of Supervisors is set to approve a $900,000 agreement with Sacramento-based Ascent Environmental Inc. to conduct a comprehensive environmental study on the 3,400-acre Salida development plan, which received county approval amid controversy in 2007.
The Sacramento firm also would perform a feasibility study on city incorporation of Salida.
The studies would create a 15-month delay for Scannell Properties’ 145-acre development, which calls for up to $2.5 million square feet of warehouse, distribution and manufacturing space at the northwest corner of Dale Road and Kiernan, just north of Modesto. In early May, Scannell submitted requests to the county for a general plan amendment and rezone for the seven industrial buildings.
“The county will foot the bill (for the EIR) and then recover the cost as the (Salida) plan is developed,” Supervisor Terry Withrow said last week.
Withrow, whose district includes Salida, added: “We would love to have the Scannell project as the first development (in the Salida plan) and hope it jump-starts development in the entire area.”
In February, a county public notice said an environmental study would focus on the Scannell project, but Salida residents cited an understanding that a comprehensive EIR on the entire Salida plan was required before individual projects could develop.
County planning is recommending the agreement with Ascent Environmental, without seeking a request for proposals from consultants, because the firm has conducted some environmental work for the Scannell project. “It is not time- or cost-effective to bring in another consultant that will be duplicating work already being performed,” a county staff report said.
The cost for the environmental assessment, infrastructure plans and a fee program is estimated at $899,000, plus $150,000 for county staff time. To cover the costs, the county will pull $682,785 from the general fund, $291,220 from the Salida Planning fund balance and $75,000 from the Salida Incorporation Study fund balance.
The Salida Community Plan is ambitious, including 2,000 acres for generating more than 27,000 jobs, along with land designated for 5,000 homes. About 1,260 acres are designated for industrial development, 490 acres for business parks and 280 acres of commercial uses.
The plan stretching from the Sisk Road, near the Highway 99 and Kiernan Avenue interchange, to Dale Road, mostly north of Kiernan Avenue, would place business park and industrial development next to Gregori High School.
Salida residents and other voters never had a chance to vote on the Salida Community Plan. In summer 2007, proponents clad in “Salida Now” T-shirts were collecting signatures to put the plan on the ballot when the Board of Supervisors suddenly voted 3-2 to approve the initiative.
Katherine Borges, an advocate for incorporating Salida as a city, said the Board of Supervisors’ item on Tuesday’s agenda should be tabled because it hasn’t gone before the Salida Municipal Advisory Council. The advisory council is scheduled to hear a presentation by county planners on the community plan Tuesday at 7 p.m.
“The key for Salida to incorporate is they need to give us taxes from the businesses in the Salida Community Plan area,” Borges said.
Borges asserted that a previous study related to city incorporation used a faulty method of assessing the costs of providing county services to Salida. She said she hoped the new assessment would not be based on that “fuzzy math.” It’s generally understood that Salida lacks the tax base for funding city services, but development of the Salida growth plan would generate large amounts of revenue for services.
If Salida were to become the county’s 10th municipality, it would contract with the county Sheriff’s Department to protect the community’s 14,000 residents rather than create its own police department, Borges said.
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