When Stanislaus County leaders in March gave Gerry Kamilos 15 more months to produce a solid plan for an industrial complex near Crows Landing, they made abundantly clear that he should do something to calm the concerns on the county's West Side.
Three days later, Kamilos sat down with Patterson's mayor, city manager and key city staff in the first of 16 meetings with West Side residents.
It's about time, said several people involved in those give-and-take chats.
"I like to hear somebody out; till they burn me, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt," said Patterson Mayor Luis Molina, whose predecessor helped launch a lawsuit challenging Kamilos and his West Park project.
Kamilos hopes to turn a former naval air base and surrounding farmland into a 2,800-acre industrial hub with 17,000 jobs and a rail link to the Port of Oakland. A 3-2 Board of Supervisors majority is keeping the dream alive, but West Side groups and residents have presented near-unanimous opposition over the past four years.
West Park's first quarterly report since the milestone March vote outlines Kamilos' recent march through enemy territory, indicating attempts to turn catcalls into tacit support.
Newman Mayor Ed Katen, who has been critical of West Park, said a recent face-to-face talk left him "cautiously optimistic," but still cynical.
"Mr. Kamilos and his team are reaching out to just about everyone who will listen, in the private and public sectors," said Keith Boggs, a county deputy executive officer. "It's refreshing to see. Honestly, it would have been nice for that to happen several years ago."
People's questions, summarized in the recent report, suggest concerns ranging from night trains to controlling exotic pests in shipments from Asia. Some were reassured that Crows Landing's aging wells and septic tanks would be replaced with municipal systems, while others asked whether West Park might address the water needs of Patterson and Newman.
"All options are on the table," Kamilos said. A water and sewer specialist on his team is exploring those issues, he said.
The report also refers to a recent California Transportation Commission decision to withhold a $22.4 million grant. Funding pressures are dropping projects around the state that don't have firm plans from "tier 1" status, a potentially disastrous blow for West Park.
Meetings with state officials give the county confidence that the promised money would come through when the county signs a "baseline funding agreement" with Union Pacific Railroad, which would run railcars between Crows Landing and the Port of Oakland. That can't happen until supervisors affirm support in about a year.
The quarterly report was prepared before legislators last week adopted a state budget that appears to doom redevelopment programs. The latest West Park version relied on $36 million of redevelopment money; Kamilos on Wednesday called that an "insignificant percentage" of the total and said his team will reduce costs or find more revenue.
The report firms up, for the first time, various deadlines. For example, Kamilos must submit a formal application by early October, technical analyses by
Nov. 30, a draft specific plan by Dec. 31 and a draft environmental impact report well before a showdown Board of Supervisors meeting scheduled for June 26.
First, however, West Park must hold two "notice of preparation" community meetings with West Siders in early August, the report says.
Boggs, who wrote the quarterly report, said he senses that Kamilos' March decision to downsize his previous plan by 2,000 acres "is resonating better than his initial approach. People are civil" in recent private meetings, Boggs said.
Said Kamilos, "We want to sort out an optimum solution for all stakeholders."
Bee staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at (209) 578-2390.
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