Cambay Group Allan Chapman and sociology professor Nat Mendelsohn both qualify as men of vision when it comes to urban planning. Both are also among the breed of modern-day riverboat gamblers who willingly tied their fortunes to the roll of real estate development dice.

Chapman is the moving force behind River Islands at Lathrop. It ranks as the largest planned community ever undertaken in California’s Heartland. But at 4,800 acres it is miniscule compared to California City.

The master-planned 80,000-acre municipality - the third largest city by geographic size in all of the Golden State - sits on the edge of the Mojave Desert at the base of Walker Pass on Highway 158 east of Bakersfield. Mendelsohn’s dream in 1958 was for a teeming city with nearly a million souls living, working, and playing in a desert paradise. It was a dream fueled by the aerospace industry’s promise of endless growth.

Today, just 14,000 folks call California City home. It is a land where fire hydrants pop up in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing but dirt and cactus.

Mendelsohn rolled the dice back in a time when essentially anything went in California. Urban sprawl wasn’t despised - it was embraced.

Times have changed.

Chapman and his partners are doing exactly what the environmentalists and the California Legislature wanted to see done by pursuing a well-planned master community of 11,000 homes instead of proceeding with less than 500 homes at a time. The idea was to shape a community that addressed all needs up front instead of simply building houses in a patchwork fashion.

River Islands’ reward for addressing all development questions upfront was a barrage of no less than eight lawsuits from environmental groups. Among them was one that tried to block River Islands by claiming if the project went forward the Pacific Ocean would rise and inundate low lying areas around the San Francisco Bay.

Not only has River Islands prevailed in court but they have addressed things the state and federal government can’t because of impotency, incompetency, or both.

The question of inadequate flood protection was addressed by replacing weak levees with super levees. Runaway energy costs are being addressed by putting in place the Lathrop Irrigation District that will provide power at 25 percent less than PG&E rates. And even ecological and public access concerns regarding the river have been addressed with a plan that will restore riverside ecological systems destroyed over a century ago.

There are those who believe River Islands is a pipe dream.

They obviously don’t know the history of Cambay Group.

Before the first house is even built River Islands will have a bridge over the San Joaquin River in place, one of the state’s most technologically advanced elementary schools, and will be the safest place to be along the San Joaquin River when flooding strikes. River Islands have seven secured water for future needs.

Compare that to California City with an abundance of fire hydrants lining non-existent streets marked by street signs in the middle of nowhere.

River Islands is the model for what the private sector can do despite roadblocks thrown in its way by everyone from Uncle Sam and Sacramento to environmental perfectionists.

This column is the opinion of managing editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Bulletin or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA.  He can be contacted at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com or 209-249-3519.