Sacramento City Council approves Curtis Park project
rlillis@sacbee.com
Published Wednesday, Sep. 29, 2010
After years of tense neighborhood meetings, more than 140 changes to the proposal and threats of a lawsuit, the Curtis Park Village development project received City Council approval to move forward Tuesday night.
Following another in a long line of contentious hearings on the city's second-largest infill development project, the council voted unanimously to allow developer Paul Petrovich to begin development work on the 72-acre site.
Petrovich, the developer behind the R Street Market in midtown, hopes to complete his ongoing task of removing thousands of cubic yards of toxic soil from the former Union Pacific railyard by next year.
He said he has state Proposition 1C funding available to begin placing infrastructure on the site and could begin construction on buildings by the end of next year.
The proposal calls for 129 single-family homes, 45 brownstone residences, 248 multifamily homes and 259,000 square feet of commercial, retail and office space.
The land sits in a wedge between the leafy Curtis Park neighborhood and Sacramento City College, just north of Sutterville Road.
Petrovich said the $211 million project would pump $2.5 million in property taxes and $900,000 in sales taxes into the city's coffers each year, in addition to $32 million worth of building fees. It will also create 2,000 construction jobs.
"People in this city are committed to smart growth and this is a good project that is going to be a great project," said Councilwoman Lauren Hammond, who has brokered disagreements between Petrovich and neighborhood activists for years.
The project has been the focus of more than 200 neighborhood meetings, a 2,100- page environmental impact report and hours of debate before the planning commission and City Council.
Over the course of the seven years Petrovich has been involved the project, the developer said he has made 42 changes at the request of the Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association, the active community group representing the Curtis Park neighborhood.
The group still opposed elements of the project going into Tuesday night, but last-minute changes eased some of those concerns.
Chief among the challenges by the neighborhood association was the notion that Petrovich might store some toxic soil under a 7-acre park in the development. That possibility had led the group to threaten a lawsuit.
However, Petrovich agreed not to store contaminated soil beneath the park if no legal challenge was filed. The most toxic of the soil is being shipped to Utah, while other contaminated dirt will be placed in a 16-foot-deep trough beneath the main street of the development.
As a result of the last-minute agreement, neighborhood association president Rosanna Herber said it was "very unlikely we will sue."
The council also agreed to prohibit vehicle traffic onto an extension of 10th Avenue into the project – leaving it open only to bicycle and pedestrian traffic – addressing another concern of the neighborhood association.
"I don't think this is the best we could have done, but I do think it's acceptable (as long as toxic soil is not placed beneath the park)," Herber said.
Other groups, including the Land Park Community Association and the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, had already signed off on their support of the project.
At his weekly press conference earlier in the day, Mayor Kevin Johnson said Petrovich "has done a lot that's proactive to meet the concerns of the community."
While the council approved the design guidelines of the project, more specific project details will go back to the city planning commission and planning director in the future.
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