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Planning Commission to consider private dog park, youth home expansion projects
Oak Park Apartments expansion
Oak Park Apartments is proposing to build a dog park, outdoor picnic area and additional parking spaces for residents in the two parcels of land located at 1620 N. Tully Rd. (Photo contributed).

The Turlock Planning Commission is expected on Thursday to review the annual report on the city’s implementation of its 2023 General Plan, as well as a few new projects under consideration.

Along with reviewing the 2023 General Plan Implementation Report, the Turlock Planning Commission will consider approving a minor discretionary permit to Oak Park Apartments, to allow for the development of two parcels located at 1620 N. Tully Rd. The requested permit would rezone the property from Community Commercial to Community Commercial High Density Residential and allow for the 2.52 acres to be developed into amenities for the Oak Park Apartments residents.

Amenities would include 53 covered parking spaces, 17 single-car garage units, a dog park and outdoor picnic area and trash enclosure. The design calls for the entrance to be gated and limited to apartment residents only.

The Planning Commission is also expected to consider approving a conditional use permit for Aspiranet to construct a short term residential therapeutic program facility and learning center at 521 W. Linwood Ave.

Aspiranet is proposing to construct a 2,223 square foot residence to be used as a short term residential therapeutic program for up to six youths and a 3,674 square foot learning center that will serve approximately 72 youths, annually. The project will be licensed through the California Department of Social Services and staffed 24 hours per day, seven days a week.

The learning center will operate from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will offer counseling, life skill-building classes, outpatient behavioral health services and other supportive services provided to the youth and families involved in the program. The existing three bedroom, two bath home and detached three-car garage will be demolished.

Onsite improvements include a new driveway with a gate and new fencing, nine parking spaces, parking lot lighting, landscaping, onsite fire hydrant, a water feature behind the learning center, and the relocation of a portion of the retention basin from the rear of the property to the front of the property along Linwood Avenue. Frontage improvements including curb, gutter, and sidewalk are already installed.

The Planning Commission will also have the opportunity to comment on a request Aspiranet made to the Stanislaus County Planning Commission to rezone a 10.56-acre parcel of land at 2513, 2517 and 2519 Youngstown Rd. from Agriculture and Planned Development to Planned Development to allow for the expansion of the Excell Center residential treatment facility.

The existing facility is currently licensed as a Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Program as well as a Medical Mental Health Provider site by the State of California.  The existing facility currently provides behavioral health services, life training skills and development.  There is also a private school on-site for male youth ages 9-18 years old.  The facility currently provides services to youths living on and off-site.  The existing residential program serves 16 youths consisting of 10 youths living on-site for a period of 14-30 days, and six youths living on-site for six to eight months. A total of 13 youth do not live on-site but are enrolled in the academic program under the private school offered at the facility, and 10 of the youths living off-site are also in programs that are designed for up to 23 hours on-site.

The current project site is improved with a 2,850 square-foot office (to be converted into an extension of the wellness center), four dwellings totaling 16,324± square feet, a 5,418± square-foot private school building, and the following structures which are proposed to be demolished under this request: a 2,400± square-foot gymnasium, 3,100± square-foot maintenance shop, 650± square foot pool cabana, and 4,320± square-foot modular admin building. 

The project proposes the construction of 40,410± square feet of additional building space consisting of the following: a 15,700± square-foot crisis services facility for youth; a 5,000± square-foot receiving center; a 2,898± square-foot wellness center and outpatient services building; a 2,975± square-foot intake and administrative services building; a 10,157± recreational center and kitchen; a 3,520± square-foot service building; and a 160± square-foot golf cart shed. 

In addition to the proposed buildings, the applicant proposes to develop three new parking lots and restripe an existing parking lot for a total of 135 parking stalls on-site, renovate an existing dwelling to become an extension of the wellness center, demolish two existing swimming pools and replace them with one lap pool, and install landscaping throughout the site to provide outdoor quiet areas for the youth.  Additional lighting is also proposed throughout the site and will be shielded to prevent sky glow and light trespass onto adjacent parcels. 

The applicant also proposes an alternative agricultural buffer consisting of conifer trees around the perimeter of the project site and construction of a 10-foot-tall masonry wall around the residential facility buildings on-site in addition to the conifers. 

Currently, the facility is permitted to have up to 34 youths on-site. The facility’s current state license permits a maximum of 16 youths in the residential program and 13 youths in the academic school program on-site for a total of 29 youths participating in programs on-site.  Under this proposal, the applicant anticipates renewing the state license and increasing the number of youths in the residential program to 19 (an increase of three) with no change in the number of youths for the academic school program for a maximum total of 32 youths participating in programs on-site. 

The project site is located within the City of Turlock’s sphere of influence and is classified as urban reserve, which is believed to remain committed to agricultural uses for the foreseeable future. Turlock Chief of Police Jason Heddon submitted a letter to the County Planning Commission in opposition of the planned expansion of the facility.

In the letter, Hedden states that in the past three years, Turlock police officers have contacted 22 youths associated with the facility at 2513 Youngstown Rd. and he predicts the number of calls will continue to increase with the proposed expansion.

“The presence of numerous troubled youths poses a significant risk and liability to both the Turlock Police Department and the surrounding community…The expansion document submitted to the county’s planning department fails to clearly represent the violent criminal record, mental health and behavioral issues of the youth, most of whom come to our county from other counties. The document does not have a security plan or clearly state how they are assessing or classifying youth coming to the facility,” wrote Hedden.

The Turlock Planning Commission will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Yosemite Room at City Hall, 156 S. Broadway. Meetings are open to the public and include a time for public participation.

 

 

To fight cancer-causing ‘Erin Brockovich’ toxin, California may give water districts legal cover
water

BY RYAN SABALOW AND BRIANNA VACCARI

Special to the Journal

Editor’s note: This story was produced as a collaboration between CalMatters and The Merced Focus.

Lawmakers are poised to give California’s water districts legal cover from lawsuits as they work to meet strict new state standards for a cancer-causing toxic chemical. 

It’s called hexavalent chromium, more commonly known as “chromium-6.” Drinking water with trace amounts of the chemical over long periods has been linked to cancer. 

Last year, state water regulators approved a nation-leading drinking water standard for the chemical, which is found naturally in some California groundwater. In other areas, chromium-6 leached into the water from industrial sites. 

The regulations are intended to protect more than 5 million Californians from the toxin, including in the Central Valley, Inland Empire and along the coast. Water districts say they plan to comply, but they complain the new rules are going to cost tens of millions of dollars, will jack up their customers’ water bills and could take years to complete.

They don’t want to spend even more ratepayer money defending themselves from lawsuits while they work to meet the new standards. Their concerns stem from the fact that they won’t be meeting state rules while upgrades to prevent contamination are underway. Water districts also would have to notify their customers that they’re not meeting the drinking-water standards, which the districts worry could create a wave of lawsuits.

Democratic Sen. Anna Caballero, whose sprawling San Joaquin Valley district includes water utilities affected by the new standard, heard their concerns. 

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She introduced Senate Bill 466, which aims to give water districts a break from spending ratepayer money on lawsuits as long as they’re making progress toward meeting their state-approved targets. The measure does not restrict state regulators’ enforcement authority.

“This just makes sense,” she said at an Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing last week. “It makes sure that they are protected so that they can put their resources to … bring(ing) the system up to their compliance plan.” 

The bill passed the committee unanimously as it did the Senate earlier this year. It’s likely to be heard by the full Assembly after lawmakers reconvene in August from their summer recess. 

 

Water districts support proposal

The measure has broad support from water districts across the state, including the city of Los Banos, which co-sponsored the bill.

Los Banos operates 11 wells to service 50,000 customers, and so far, the city has seen no evidence that its drinking water is dangerous to drink, Mayor Michael Amabile said.

Nestled just east of the Diablo Range, chromium-6 is naturally occurring in Los Banos’ ground water at varying degrees above the new state standards. During the winter, the city supplements its groundwater with surface water from the nearby Los Banos Creek, which sometimes brings chromium-6 levels down.

It would cost the city around $65 million in infrastructure to bring the city into compliance, Amabile said, which is half of the city’s annual budget.

“People shouldn’t be burdened just because of where they live,” Amabile said. “So if you’re on the east side of the (San Joaquin) Valley, you have absolutely no problems at all. If you’re on the west side of the Valley, you have all these issues.”

The city plans to comply with state requirements, but it’s not clear how the city is going to pay for the upgrades without financial assistance from the state, Amabile said. Any type of study that could propose a solution would take at least a year.

“I really don’t want to go down as the mayor that quadruples water rates, so I need the help from the state,” Amabile said.

At last week’s judiciary committee hearing, Scott Burritt, a representative for the Coachella Valley Water District, said the utility will have to spend $400 million to comply with the new rules – and that’s before anyone sues.

“Domestic water rates are expected to double,” Burritt told the committee. “This will have an enormous impact on the large disadvantaged communities that we serve, and it will also impact the retiree population, which is very large in our service area.”

The district provides drinking water to around 270,000 people in the Coachella Valley, which has naturally occurring chromium-6 in the area.

The influential lobbyists at the Consumer Attorneys of California opposed the original version of the measure, arguing it would have provided near total immunity for water districts, including if one had acted negligently. 

“SB 466 grants public water systems a preemptive and absolute blanket shield from civil liability from negligence (such as causing cancer) related to drinking water with hexavalent chromium … so long as they are implementing — or even awaiting approval of — a compliance plan approved by the state Water Resources Control Board,” the attorneys wrote in a letter opposing the bill. 

But Caballero, an attorney and former Salinas mayor, agreed to amend the bill last week to address the group’s concerns. The Consumer Attorneys’ spokesperson, Mike Roth, said the organization is satisfied with the changes, has removed its opposition and gone neutral on the bill.

Caballero has voted in accordance with the Consumer Attorneys’ positions on legislation 84% of the time, according to the Digital Democracy database

 

The Erin Brockovich chemical

Hexavalent chromium was made infamous by the movie “Erin Brockovich.” The film dramatized Pacific Gas & Electric’s contamination of the water supply in the small California desert town of Hinkley.

Under the standards the state water board approved last year, water suppliers have to limit the chemical in water to no more than 10 parts per billion — equivalent to about 10 drops in an Olympic-sized swimming pool

Levels above the new state limit have been reported in about 330 sources of drinking water in California. 

Public health advocates say the new standard, while an improvement, doesn’t go far enough to reduce cancer risks. The new standard is one of the least protective of all the water contaminants regulated by California, according to a state analysis. 

Under the new standard, for every 2,000 people who drink the water for a lifetime, one person would be at risk of cancer.

Some of the areas affected are the counties of Sacramento, Solano, Santa Cruz, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Monterey and Merced. The highest levels found were in Riverside, Yolo, Los Angeles and Ventura counties, although water suppliers may blend or treat the water to reduce the contaminants there.

The water board last year gave the largest water suppliers two years to comply with the new requirements; smaller ones with fewer than 1,000 connections were given four years. Those that can’t meet the deadlines must create state-approved plans that they’ll need to follow to come into compliance. They could be fined if they don’t. 

In 2023, the California Air Resources Board also approved a ban on use of hexavalent chromium by the chrome plating industry.

CalMatters water reporter Rachel Becker contributed to this story.