Friday, May. 16, 2008

Megadevelopment hits snag on way to county approval

Commission's vote on Villages of Laguna San Luis delayed.

Nearly 20 years after they were proposed, plans for the largest housing development in Merced County's history hit another delay Wednesday.

Dubbed the Villages of Laguna San Luis, the 16,000-home development could eventually bring 45,000 people - or more than half the population of the city of Merced - to the county's Westside.

The Merced County Planning Commission was slated to vote Wednesday on whether to recommend Laguna San Luis for approval. After decades of work, developers behind the proposal had hoped the vote would finally mean a step forward for their plans, which include 6,200 acres of unincorporated land just west of Los Baños and south of Santa Nella.

Instead, the commission delayed its vote to allow the county more time to consider new input from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency submitted a letter Tuesday afternoon raising concerns about how Laguna San Luis could affect the Westside's endangered San Joaquin kit fox population.

"(This) project, as currently proposed, is likely to preclude the survival and recovery of the kit fox," the letter states.

A consultant for developers behind the Laguna San Luis proposal, Ellen Berryman, dismissed the concerns raised in the letter. "I don't really see anything new in that letter," she told the commission. "Their concerns have more to do with the existing conditions there than with future development."

But county officials said the concerns have to be considered before the proposal can move forward. That could take anywhere from six weeks to longer than six months, said Bobby Lewis, the county's planning director. "It's hard to say exactly how long of a delay it will be, since we just got this letter yesterday," Lewis said. "We need to take a good look at it and figure out what (environmental) law requires us to do now."

The Planning Commission's vote would have only served as a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors, which has the final say over whether the proposal can move forward. Before Wednesday's delay, planning officials estimated Laguna San Luis would go to the board by July. Now they say there's no telling when that vote might come.

Besides the sheer scope of the proposal, concerns over the Westside's water supply and its kit fox population have already caused delays for Laguna San Luis.

If it's ultimately approved, the plan would take decades to reach full build-out. It's one of four massive housing developments in the works on the county's Westside, though only one has broken ground. Two have been approved by the Board of Supervisors. One other besides Laguna San Luis is still under review.

If all goes as developers plan, those projects would add about 80,000 people over the next 30 years to the region just west of Los Baños, now home to just a few thousand.

At Wednesday's meeting, a handful of people spoke against Laguna San Luis. Most cited concerns about wildlife, water and the excess housing that already exists in Merced County.

"We have a surplus on the market right now that will take us 15 years to get out of," said Maureen McCorry of the Valley Land Alliance. "We don't need this. It's a recipe for sprawl, not a solution."

Marilyn Wright, a farmer who's lived on the Westside for 16 years, said water is her biggest worry. "We're already facing restrictions on our water - when we can irrigate and when we can't," she said. "Where will the water come from? When it runs out, our farmland will go fallow."

Officials in Los Baños have also raised concerns about how Laguna San Luis would affect traffic, the city's job market and the area's water supply.

Bryan Vale of River West Investments, one of the largest stakeholders in the Laguna San Luis proposal, said he and the other developers involved have already addressed objections about water and wildlife. "We've been working on this for 15 years now, and I think we've worked out all the concerns that were raised today," he said.

To ensure an adequate water supply for future Laguna San Luis residents, developers plan to recycle water and to buy and transport water from outside the county, said William Miller, Laguna San Luis' project manager.

Instead of a single developer, a coalition of landowners is behind the project. Led by nine major landowners, they created the Villages of Laguna San Luis Consortium to propose the development in 1989. Most of the development's site consists of dried-up farm and pastureland mostly zoned for agricultural uses. To approve Laguna San Luis, the county will have to OK removing 4,400 acres from its agricultural preserve.

Merced Sun-Star reporter Corinne Reilly can be reached at (209)385-2477 or creilly@mercedsun-star.com.

Reporter Corinne Reilly can be reached at (209)385-2477 or creilly@mercedsun-star.com.