At Tuesday’s Rio Vista City Council meeting, City Manager Kristina Miller delivered an update highlighting a growing rift between Rio Vista and Suisun City leadership over the proposed California Forever expansion project in Suisun.
Before presenting her report, Miller noted that Rio Vista submitted a Notice of Preparation comment letter to Suisun City on Dec. 12. In the letter, the city stated that given the California Forever proposal’s size and scope, it would have “a radical impact on the entire Solano County region, including Rio Vista.”
The city said it hopes to collaborate with Suisun City and other stakeholders “to ensure an EIR is prepared that meaningfully analyzes and informs the public of the Project’s environmental consequences, of alternative approaches to achieving Suisun City’s objectives with lesser environmental impacts, and of mitigation measures to reduce environmental impacts of implementing the Project.”The letter further argues that Suisun City and California Forever have failed to provide sufficient information on water supplies and questions the project’s potential environmental impacts, concluding that Suisun City should recirculate the notice with “information that is necessary to inform responsible agencies regarding the scope of potential impacts, as required by CEQA.”
The letter also notes that before completing the Draft Environmental Impact Report, Suisun City “shall consult with, and obtain comments from, each responsible agency,” adding that Rio Vista should be identified as one of those agencies but is not currently listed.
Plans and maps for the expansion show a “commuter bicycle trail and external transit routes extending well into the bounds of Rio Vista.” While such features could be beneficial, the letter notes that they would require Rio Vista’s approval: “Accordingly, Rio Vista should be identified as a responsible agency.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Miller said that in the interim, the mayors and vice mayors of both cities met to discuss the project and a potential revenue-sharing agreement.
“We have not been able to come to an agreement on a revenue sharing agreement with Suisun City despite extensive efforts and being the closest and most impacted community,” Miller said. “Due to concerns regarding impacts of added traffic, air quality, noise, aesthetics, population growth and water use — without any of the benefits of development such as increased property tax revenue, economic development or development contributions via a development agreement — the city expressed its interest in annexing the full 22,873 acre project area,” she said, calling it a “final ditch effort” to protect Rio Vista’s interests, since the city has the “potential to experience all of the negative impacts” of the Suisun City expansion.
Miller said California Forever “rejected that idea and stated they will continue to negotiate with Suisun City, due to (its) being the first to initiate discussions.”
Council members took turns disputing that explanation.
“I think it was more about who was most desperate,” quipped Vice Mayor Sarah Donnelly.
Miller also reported that California Forever has expressed some interest in developing the land it owns in and around Rio Vista’s existing city limits. While that could help offset some negative impacts from the Suisun City proposal, Miller said she has long-term concerns about Rio Vista’s financial health.
“One of my concerns is sales tax leakage,” she said, referring to the loss of sales tax revenue when residents shop outside the city.
“On a per capita basis, Rio Vista receives 50 percent of the average per capita sales tax as compared to other Solano County cities, yet the demand for services is the same,” she said. “To compensate for this, historically, Rio Vista has taxed its way out of fiscal issues. However, as city tax base decreases, its ability to tax its way out of fiscal issues also decreases. As the impact of any sales tax is minimized.”
“In other words,” she said, “at some point it will not matter how much the city increases sales tax if residents are doing the bulk of their shopping outside of Rio Vista or if Rio Vista’s population does not increase.”
Miller said the city will continue discussions with California Forever to explore annexation of land it owns in and around Rio Vista, while also pursuing other economic development efforts.
In the meantime, Rio Vista “will continue to review, analyze and comment on the Suisun expansion project,” she said, adding that the city has submitted a public records request to Suisun City for all California Forever-related documents.
Councilman Walt Stanish said the actions of California Forever and Suisun City have put Rio Vista “in a position we never thought we would be or want to be in.”
Mayor Edwin Okamura said that when early discussions began about California Forever working with local cities, “it was all about how we would share,” but instead resulted in the developer submitting plans solely to Suisun City.
Donnelly was more direct.
“I was disappointed to hear from Suisun that their position was ‘we’re taking it all,’ ” she said. “They didn’t care much about the impact to us.”
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