Tracys Delta College hopes fade

STOCKTON -- The attempt by Tracy city officials to pry away a new Delta College campus from Mountain House isnt dead. Its just mostly dead.

The San Joaquin Delta College District Board of Trustees decided 5-2 Tuesday night to pursue a deal with developers in Mountain House to build a new south-county campus there.

The board directed Dr. Raul Rodriguez, the colleges superintendent and president, to get a deal in place with developers by Nov. 1 and presented to the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors.

If no deal is in place by then, Rodriguez is authorized to begin negotiations with the city of Tracy, which vigoursly tried to pry the planned campus away from the new town over the summer.

The decision, with trustees Anthony Bugarin and Greg McCreary opposed it, quite possibly brings an end to a battle that has grown contentious between the supervisors, the new town, and the second largest city in the county.

The college trustees opted to build in Mountain House after developer Gerry Kamilos offered to pay improvement costs -- such as sewer and water lines, roads and street lights, and power lines totaling in the neighborhood of $15 million.

Kamilos is developing hundreds of acres of homes near the campus site just off of Interstate 205.

Were excited about it, Kamilos said. Weve been working on this project for almost five years and Delta has been working with us diligently on planning this whole community for more than three years.

School officials had said the cost of building in Mountain House nearly doubled in price to $90 million and they were keeping their options open in hopes of finding a more affordable site.

That materialized in the form of an offer from the city of Tracy that would have sold Delta two parcels of city-owned land on the corner of Chrisman Road and 11th Street.

The city of Tracys proposal represented a $76 million deal for the col-lege if it moved to Tracy, said Andrew Malik, Tracy's director of economic development.

He said the college district could make $40 million by selling of the property in Mountain House, save another $26 million in improvement costs, and the city offered $10 million toward joint- use facilities such as athletic fields, library and an aquatics center.

Tracy Mayor Dan Bilbrey said city officials still felt their offer was the best offer on the table

"We're still hopeful and we'll see how things turn out," Bilbrey said. "(Now) we refine our deal points and wait for a phone call."

The Board of Supervisors was a week away from approving the 114- acre school and two new subdivisions in Mountain House when word leaked of discussions between Delta and the city of Tracy in September.

That vote was delayed until at least Nov. 8.

Mike Martinez can be reached at (209) 832-3947 or at mmartinez@angnewspapers.com.

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