For port, short-haul a long-term project

 

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When it comes state infrastructure bond money, Port of Oakland officials say a proposed inland port and industrial park in Crows Landing is not a top priority.

Port spokeswoman Marilyn Sandifur said Friday the PCCP West Park project is likely “about 20 years beyond the time of the I-bond measure,” though she added it’s still unclear what state infrastructure bond requirements will be.

“We’ve always been interested in all kinds of short-haul rail projects,” Sandifur said, “but … it doesn’t pencil out right now for short-haul rail.”

Short haul, long term
West Park, led by Sacramento-area developer Gerry Kamilos, is taking a year to negotiate with Stanislaus County to develop a 4,800-acre industrial park at Crows Landing’s former naval airfield.
Port of Oakland executive director Omar Benjamin wrote a letter to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission on Aug. 23 that stated short-haul rail was a secondary priority behind long-haul uses. The port’s priorities included expanding access along Donner Pass, the Tehachapi Trade Corridor and the Martinez subdivision and working on its own intermodal terminal in Oakland. Sandifur said those projects would cost more than $1 billion, and the port hopes to get $523 million in bond money for them. About $2.5 billion in the bond has been set aside for ports and trade corridors.

She noted that the application process has not yet been established for trade-corridor bond money, so it’s impossible to know whether the port would apply jointly with West Park. However, there is no immediate priority to back a short-haul rail project of any kind.

Lots of questions

Meanwhile, an official with the Bay Area’s nine-county transportation agency wrote a letter Monday that grilled West Park on several points mentioned in a rail study it submitted to Stanislaus County last month.
Therese McMillan, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s deputy executive director of policy, asked for specifics about the project’s cost, rail uses and level of community support.

She questioned math used in West Park’s report and asked who would subsidize the rail service’s first few years. She also asked how running trains at night made economic sense, as there is less traffic on freeways at that time and goods could be shipped more easily by truck.

MTC legislative director Randy Rentschler said the project does not solve the major trade corridor problems that Northern California needs to resolve, and noted it required a subsidy.

“We need to really focus our limited resources on stuff that really helps people,” Rentschler said.

Kamilos said this week that his team already had the answers to most of the McMillan’s questions.

“It’s no big deal,” he said.

He said the subsidy needed to operate the rail service would be assessed from businesses in the industrial park.
 
Though Rentshcler said the MTC takes an inter-regional view of transporation projects, Kamilos said the agency’s priorities are reflective of the Bay Area.

Discussions with past port maritime director Wilson Lacy had included talks about a joint bond application, he said.

He said he planned to meet with port officials in the next several weeks, and his group will press forward on bond money.

“In any project, you have to expect dialogue,” Kamilos said. “You can’t put your head in the sand.”

Local leaders respond

County supervisors had mixed reactions this week to port officials’ statements on the West Park project.
Supervisor and project supporter Dick Monteith said he was surprised to learn of the port’s response, though he expected there would be challenges.

“This gives us challenges that need to be addressed,” Monteith said. “I’d say this gives us more mountains to climb.”

Supervisor Jeff Grover said he knew of at least one MTC representative who supported the West Park project, and stressed that Kamilos had a year to complete the work assigned to him.

“We just need to keep pushing forward,” he said.

Meanwhile, Supervisor Jim DeMartini, who opposes the West Park project, said the port’s response was no surprise. He chuckled as he noted that a staff report for this weeks’ Stanislaus Council of Governments policy board meeting indicated West Park possibly could receive matching funds from the Port of Oakland and other developer money.

“The Port of Oakland isn’t going to put a cent into this half-baked project he’s got,” he said.
Representatives from West Park opposition group West Side–Patterson Alliance for Community & Environment also remained critical.

“Nobody in county government asked the West Side if we wanted to become a second Port of Oakland,” WS-PACE president Ron Swift said. “Now, it’s apparent they also didn’t ask the Port of Oakland, either.”

Holding back

The response of the port and the MTC already are having an affect locally. StanCOG’s policy board held off Wednesday on voting on a resolution in support of the rail project after county CEO Rick Robinson asked that it be pulled from the agenda.

Robinson said Friday he wanted to make sure the questions put forth by the port staff and MTC were sufficiently answered before the board voted.

“It seemed the responsible thing to do,” he said.

Modesto City Councilwoman Janice Keating took aim at StanCOG staff at that meeting for placing West Park’s project above Highway 132 on a list of potential Trade Corridors Improvement Program bond projects.

StanCOG director Vince Harris responded that StanCOG and other agencies planning to apply for the bond money believed the Crows Landing project would score better than the Highway 132 project.

“Highway 132 is still a top priority,” he said after the meeting.

Though West Park’s proposal continues to stir debate at city, county and regional levels, Monteith said the county’s intent is not to pit itself against the West Side.

“We’re just trying to figure this out,” he said. “We’re trying to do what’s best for the county and the West Side … and to look at all possibilities.”

To reach Jonathan Partridge at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at jonathan@pattersonirrigator.com