Monday, Dec. 10, 2007

Kamilos plan now on list of priorities

Government groups decide state bond use

Gerry Kamilos' PCCP West Park LLC business park pro- posal has always hinged on a gamble: that the project can win $26 million in state bond money.

The West Park proposal would put a massive business park on 4,800 acres of land on and around the county-owned Crows Landing air facility on the county's West Side. The linchpin of the project is an inland port at the air facility, connected to the Port of Oakland by a short-haul rail line.

The project needs the transportation corridor bond money to get the rail connection up and running. The cash would come from a $2 billion bond issue approved by voters a year ago and distributed by the California Transportation Commission.

At times, the West Park gamble has looked like a long shot. In the early stages of jockeying for a slice of the cash, $50 million was floated as Northern California's share, and not much to spread beyond the Bay Area.

More recently, powerful Southern California interests were lobbying for 85 percent of the money, which would have left about $300 million for the rest of the state.

The commission decided Nov. 27 to allocate $640 million to $840 million for Northern California. That is based on the premise that the pot of money will grow to $3 billion by using state highway money, federal funding, and user fees and tolls.

That makes West Park's odds look a whole lot better, although still far from a done deal.

Any agency can submit an application for a grant, and no one knows how many projects might surface by the application deadline of Jan. 17.

But a coalition of Northern California government groups has agreed on a list of 15 priority projects.

And West Park is one of them.

The price tag for those 15 projects is $854.3 million, not far past Northern California's upper range.

"There's no guarantee that the commission is going to fund any or all of these projects," said Andrew Chesley, executive director of the San Joaquin County Council of Governments and chairman of the Regional Transportation Planning Agencies Directors. "The good news for all of us is these 15 projects help set the table for getting this much money allocated to Northern California. We agreed to put these 15 projects in front of them as a Northern California partnership.

"I think the commission's message is they appreciate the partnership, and they want to give some recognition of that. The list will be given first consideration."

'It keeps them in the hunt'

Doug Sweetland, director of economic development for the Stanislaus Economic Development and Workforce Alliance, said Northern California's fund allocation is a good sign for West Park.

"It keeps them in the hunt," he said.

D.J. Smith, West Park's transportation consultant, is cautiously optimistic.

"Who knows?" Smith said. "If Northern California had been limited to $400 million or $500 million, I would be very concerned. But with the range, you look at the low number and the total cost, it's pretty close."

A problem in trying to predict what might happen, Smith said, is that the scope of the bond money is unprecedented.

"No state has ever had this kind of money on the table for trade corridor development," he said. "The commission is learning as they go."

Smith said West Park is helped by its relatively small price tag and its link to one of the other 15 projects, the San Joaquin Rail Commission's proposed purchase of track right of way from the Union Pacific railroad between Stockton and Fremont.

The West Park rail would use those tracks, turning south near Lathrop to reach Crows Landing. But while West Park depends on the San Joaquin project, the San Joaquin project doesn't need the Crows Landing connection.