Business View Magazine | July 2019

318 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2019 slated for about five million square feet of space, hosting 17,000 jobs. This was part of a citizens’ initiative that got approved in 2000. We have strictly prohibited warehousing and industrial development within that business park, so it’s all slated for commercial use. The target is 40 employees per acre. Unless we go back to another vote of the people, we will not be able to put a big warehouse with few employees in there. Our intent is to be a replica of Bishop Ranch Business Park Development (San Ramon, CA) or Huffman (Anchorage, AK).” Also voted in, as part of that 2000 initiative, was an economic development fee paid by home builders. Upon closing a home, the home builder pays $5,000 in fees to River Islands, which then transfers it to the City of Lathrop, to be held in an escrow account, and only used to entice employers into the business park. Technically, 80 percent must be used exclusively on River Islands; the balance of 20 percent may be used anywhere in the city, as long as it’s for economic site development. “Over time, the 11,000 homes will generate about $55 million in fees,” says Dell’Osso, “so it’s quite a nice financial incentive for an employer to locate here.” Lathrop has a huge resident population that commutes over to the Bay Area every day. Valley Link is a new rail system that will be put in place for public transit to connect directly to the San Francisco Bay Area BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit System). The Valley Link is similar to the eBART (East Contra Costa County BART extension) that’s going on in Pittsburg and Antioch, a train system that that goes down existing rails but would connect, exactly, at the platform. In Lathrop’s case, it would connect from River Islands and other parts of Lathrop to Tracy, at the Dublin Station. The Valley Link would go right down the median of the freeway, over the Altamont Pass, down I-580, and stop at the Dublin BART station; people would be able to get off and walk across to BART without taking a bus - literally a platform-to-platform connection. “That is super critical for our residents, but also pictured River Islands at Lathrop is a major master planned residential development