PATTERSON -- City Council members Tuesday night are set to give their final OK to a massive industrial park expansion that will increase the size of the city by nearly a third.
Last week, council members unanimously approved developer agreements with Jeff Arambel and KDN Enterprises for a 1,100-acre expansion to the West Patterson Business Park that would move the city's western limit to Interstate 5.
"At its buildout, it's certainly going to put Patterson on the map," Councilman Dominic Farinha said.
After negotiations over millions of dollars, last week's decision came down to a $65 per-acre difference over what the developers wanted to pay and what the city charges its other industrial park developers.
"It was only about three, four weeks ago we were talking about discrepancies of $30 million, $40 million, $50 million or more," Farinha said. "Here we have a discrepancy of $180,000."
Arambel interjected into council discussions of the matter, saying his group and KDN agreed to the higher price of $3,265.87 per acre.
Councilwoman Deborah Novelli thanked Arambel for the concession.
"I'm excited to hear that you're taking your land and you have put all this hard work into it and want to develop within Patterson," she said. "On so many levels, it will affect so many people."
Backers of the project envision 10,000 jobs, capitalizing on the success Patterson has had in recent years landing distribution centers for CVS pharmacy, Kohl's department store, Grangier office supplier and, most recently, Internet giant Amazon.
Patterson and its developers are moving full steam ahead with the proposal at the same time a massive industrial project six miles to the south has stalled. County officials could cut ties Tuesday night with Gerry Kamilos, who five years ago started a project to turn a former naval air base in Crows Landing into an inland port and industrial complex.
Assuming the Patterson council approves its project Tuesday, it moves onto the Local Agency Formation Commission, which must approve the annexation into the city.
City Manager Rod Butler said developers are hoping to get on LAFCo's October agenda, though the commission hasn't agreed to that yet. Officials are excited about the possibilities the proposal presents, and the impact it could have on the area's high unemployment rate.
"It's big stuff," Butler said. "It all kind of came together in the negotiations at the end."
The City Council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 1 Plaza Parkway.
Bee staff writer Patty Guerra can be reached at pguerra@modbee.com or (209) 578-2343.
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