Curtis Park Village update:
toxic dirt being removed and plans moving forward

By Andrea Rosen
Viewpoint Staff Writer

The piles of dirt in the Union Pacific rail yard adjacent to Curtis Park are once again starting to disappear. Many neighbors have noticed that rail yard cleanup and the associated proposed Curtis Park Village development process have been on hiatus for quite a while.

Developer Paul Petrovich ran into problems with Union Pacific when he decided to buy an additional seven acres on the western edge of the rail yards to add to the originally purchased 65 acres. After sealing the deal with Union Pacific, Petrovich was notified that the track agreement governing the removal of the toxic dirt needed to be revised under Union Pacific rules.

Philip Harvey, Petrovich Development's senior vice president of development and point person on the Curtis Park Village project reports that it took a frustrating two years to revise the track agreement. The new clean up schedule, says Harvey, calls for completed clean up of the original 65 acres by late fall of this year; the additional seven acres will be handled by spring of 2008 and total site clean up by summer 2008. Toxic dirt is being hauled to a certified site in Utah.

Meanwhile, soil samples and toxic dirt clean up on the strip of land that runs behind the houses on 24th Street is also underway. Lori Harder, who lives on 24th Street reports that Petrovich team members and representatives from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control met in mid-July with all effected neighbors on 24th Street and walked the alley behind their homes while explaining exactly what the clean up would entail.

Security fencing has been placed to protect the work area and keep people away from holes dug in the dirt. Sampling and dirt removal will proceed until completion. A fully paved alley will replace the current dirt alley when the new development is built.

According to Harder, the neighbors remain cautious about the disposition of the trees that currently occupy the alley and those adjacent on the rail yard property. The entire alley running behind 24th Street is subject to clean up prior to development. The state will need to approve the clean up and sampling before the holes can be backfilled.

The Curtis Park Village application was re-filed in May though not much has been changed. Harvey reports that the retail and commercial areas have been refined and reduced a bit with overall planned commercial square footage now at 175,000 square feet.

When asked about the types of tenants sought, he mentioned the possibility of a national book store which requires about 20,000 square feet. Other changes include deeper parcels on the northern edge to save more oak trees along that border.

The developer has not yet filed the required plan to demonstrate compliance with the mixed-income housing ordinance, which requires construction of 15 percent of the total residential units as affordable housing under the city's rules. This plan should be completed and filed in the next few weeks.

The question of road connections to the neighborhood and how many of those will be required for the new development remains open. Whether the connection at 21st Street is one-way south or a two-way is also undecided. Harvey sees these as transportation and safety issues that will ultimately be decided by the city and not the developer.

Harvey indicated a desire to have the city hold hearings this fall on the Environmental Impact Report and requested entitlements. The entitlements would be a completed clean up certified by the state of California. Despite this seemingly aggressive timeline, Harvey did not know when the draft EIR, managed by the city of Sacramento would be complete. Nor did he know when the developer's application would be complete.

Both a complete application and a completed EIR are required prior to entitlement hearings to be conducted by the city. The developers will be meeting with SCNA committees and the SCNA Board in the near future and plan to hold another community update meeting soon.

Some neighbors have noticed that the Curtis Park Village Web site has disappeared and when queried, the developer acknowledged this is the case and commented that it will be back up in a month or so.

Return to Viewpoint Index