October 13, 2010
Stockton City Council
425 N. Eldorado Street
Stockton, CA 95202
Honorable Mayor, Vice-Mayor and City Council Members:
Campaign for Common Ground supports approval of the A.G. Spanos Co.’s Delta Cove Planned Development for Atlas Tract, as approved last month by the Planning Commission and to be presented for City Council approval on October 19, 2010.
The Delta Cove plan—with the inclusion of a commercial center, transit stops, bus turnouts, traffic-calming features, bike trails, wetlands, higher density housing, more varied housing types and with a more walkable neighborhood street plan—is a vast improvement over the plan that was approved for Atlas Tract in 2008.
It is very important that the City Council hold this project to the very highest environmental standards, since it may be the first that is actually built since the Settlement Agreement was signed.
While we support the site plan for the Delta Cove project, our CCG members did bring up two major concerns when we discussed the project with David Nelson of the Spanos Co. on October 4. We would request that the City Council address both of these important issues.
1. Lack of planned transit connections to the project and funding for future BRT.
The Delta Cove project includes bus turnouts for future transit service, including bus rapid transit (BRT), but contributes nothing to ensure that the buses will actually reach the project. The project cannot be considered a truly “green” project that will mitigate its greenhouse gas emissions unless a direct transit link is guaranteed so that project residents have an alternative to commuting by car to jobs in central Stockton.
We have discussed this with David Nelson, and he has agreed to advocate for the initiation of serious talks between the City, the Regional Transit District (RTD), the development and environmental communities, and other parties to come up with a solution to this major gap. We must find a mechanism to formalize a funding relationship between RTD, the City, existing residents, and new development to assist with the capital and operating costs of a future BRT link between central Stockton and new development that is approved in northwest Stockton. It is the responsibility of the City to ensure this occurs, and not just hope that RTD does the right thing.
If the City Council agrees, please refer this issue to the Planning Commission, or create a Council subcommittee, to initiate discussions between the parties on how to implement and fund the future transit needs, many of which have already been identified in the Transit Gap Study prepared to comply with the Settlement Agreement.
2. How can we make sure that the good site plans for Delta Cove are actually carried out and not watered down, so that the project just becomes more typical sprawl?
This second issue that was raised by our members is more difficult to address. The Spanos Co. will not build this project and may not even be the master developer overseeing the completion of the project. Our members want assurances that the master developer and the individual home builders follow this plan and do not attempt to modify it significantly. Of course, we cannot control decisions by future Planning Commissions and City Councils. But we have asked whether it would be better if this and future large projects were approved with a “specific plan” (as defined by State law) and/or a development agreement to give more assurances that the project will be built as it is now planned and approved. Any help the City Council can give to address this issue would be appreciated.
In summary, we commend the Spanos Company’s efforts to join the trend toward “smart growth” and environmentally responsible development. We hope the developer and the city will hold true to these efforts when the project is actually constructed. And we hope that the Council agrees that the future of BRT and transit service must be directly addressed by this and other future development projects.
Sincerely,
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Trevor H. Atkinson
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Eric Parfrey
