MERCED � Merced County supervisors signed off Tuesday on the concept for a
massive community that planners say is critical to the new University of
California at Merced.
Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the University Community Plan,
amending the county's general plan to allow 11,600 homes on 2,100 acres on
agricultural land south of the campus that is being built near Lake Yosemite.
Supervisors also voted unanimously to certify the plan's 1,900-page
environmental impact report, which describes how the development would
affect the surrounding area.
"It's been a long road," Supervisor Jerry O'Banion said, minutes
before the board voted. "We've spent more time on this project than any
other since I've been on the Board of Supervisors."
Lindsay Desrochers, vice chancellor of UC Merced, said UC officials
are counting on the new community to house the population expected to
accompany the university.
The community, between Lake Road and the Le Grand and Fairfield canals, is
expected to house about 30,000 people.
"We feel wonderful about it," Desrochers said. "We feel the Board of
Supervisors did a very comprehensive job.
"It's great to have this partnership with local government and to make
sure the university is established the right way."
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The general plan amendment does not give anyone permission to build, and
to date, specific details of the development have not been planned. A UC
Merced spokeswoman said it could be five years before houses are ready to
move into.
But the next step of the process is to plan how each portion of the
community will be built, which segment is built first and how those
specific plans would affect the environment.
"What we're doing today is very preliminary," Supervisor Mike
Nelson said.
It took UC Merced planners three years to hammer out the details of
the University Community Plan, and still, most everyone agrees not
all questions have been answered.
Water availability main concern
At Tuesday's board meeting, supervisors, farm advocates and environmentalists
all voiced concerns about Merced's water supply and whether there will be
enough water for the new community.
County and UC planners said water will become a bigger issue when developers
ask supervisors to approve the community's specific plans. State laws would
require developers to prove the availability of water for their projects
before they could build.
"It's still not finished," Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Deidre Kelsey
said of the planning process. "It's still one of these things that's got a ways
to go."
The University Community Plan and its final environmental impact report were
made available for public review the week before Thanksgiving.
The Planning Commission put its stamp of approval on the documents Dec. 1.
However, several audience members at that meeting voiced concerns.
Elementary and secondary school officials worried that the community's
population would overwhelm Merced school districts. Representatives of
the county Farm Bureau and the Merced Chapter of California
Women for Agriculture criticized the community plan because it did
not require developers to make up for lost farmland.
The next week, supervisors responded. They added one section that
requires developers to pay in-lieu fees to buy other land and earmark
it for conservation � enough to replace every acre of agricultural
land destroyed by their projects.
The board also added language requiring developers to work with school
districts to make sure the university community does not outgrow
existing schools.
Tuesday, Farm Bureau Executive Director Diana Westmoreland Pedrozo
praised the agricultural mitigation effort, but said it will not bring
back any land lost in development.
"Where do you draw the line on what's next and what happens?" she asked.
Supervisor Kathleen Crookham said county planners tried to
compromise but knew they could not meet everyone's needs. Crookham said
the community's north-south layout � not east-west along Bellevue Road,
as Farm Bureau officials advocated � will better serve the university.
"What I hope is coming out of here is a cohesive community," she said.
