Dear Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

My comments reflect on the city’s impending purchase of 417 acres of farmland in the vicinity of the Hayes Road and the San Joaquin River, and are not meant to be critical of personalities or impugn the integrity of individuals associated with ANF Development; they have a long history of progressive private development projects that have brought to fruition long awaited municipal infrastructure projects. I support their continued endeavors in that regard, because apparently the city council cannot accomplish the task on their own.

Disposal of reclaimed water has been occurring adjacent to the sewer plant for many decades and the conversion of this same land area to developable lands has been a topic of discussion for as long a period. On a positive note, in more recent years modifications to the sewer plant permitted the conversion of enough disposal land area to allow the construction of the Stadium Center, Field of Dreams, and Costco projects. However additional development interests require that more disposal land area and a wetlands area be replaced elsewhere. In the first instance the city utilized existing land area, a simple transaction; today the city is both disposing of public land and purchasing land of lesser value, who will benefit from the savings?

This all sounds up and up, and I suspect that is the task. However, why is it necessary to purchase prime farmland for disposal of reclaimed water when lands adjacent to the community within the freeway system and parklands can serve the same purpose? And, why is it that a developer is once again at the forefront of such a proposal instead of city hall having planned and funded for such a task.

Because the purchase of floodplain farmland several miles out of our urban area costs much less, there will be substantial savings. Unfortunately as history indicates, the savings will not be realized by the residents; costs will be passed on to the community and savings to new development, and the existing and future residents will likely be saddled for decades with the costs of extending and maintaining a purple pipeline and the establishing and managing of a new wetlands area that accommodates yet another private development project today.

Benjamin Cantu

Manteca

June 22, 2011