Business View Magazine | July 2019

329 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2019 Central Pacific at a point three miles east of Ellis. The line had been built to greater efficiency by avoiding hills and to eliminate the expense of helper engines. The result of the new rail line was the founding of Tracy on September 8, 1878. Tracy was incorporated in 1910 and grew rapidly after the first irrigation district was established in 1915. Although railroad operations began to decline in the 1950s, Tracy continued to prosper as an agricultural area. Today, the City seal reflects this history of railroads and agriculture. Beginning in the 1980s, Tracy experienced a growth spurt as people migrated to the city looking for affordable alternatives to Bay Area home prices, in addition to a more tranquil lifestyle. A steady period of growth ensued, as many companies found Tracy an ideal location for their distribution facilities. In an effort to reduce its impact on the environment, the city launched the Emerald Tracy Project in September 2009. City spokesman Matt Robinson said that if it succeeds, Tracy would be the second city, after Riverside, to satisfy the state’s goal for sustainable communities. Veronica Vargas, of the Tracy City Council and Valley Link Board, is spearheading, in San Joaquin County, the efforts on a new way to connect to BART in the Bay Area via a major regional train system called Valley Link Rail (officially the agency is the Tri-Valley San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority). With an unsustainable 27 percent increase in road traffic, this link light-rail should alleviate this. The project is to connect to BART through seven stations traveling from Northlake of Monteca to Tracy, passing in front of Mountain House, connecting to Livermore, and then to Dublin/Pleasanton. “We’re hoping to be, eventually, a 100 percent sustainable train, utilizing electrical power we’re going to be getting from solar and wind. The Tri- Valley Hub will help us to get funding. The project is completing their feasibility, to be released for public review,” says Vargas. The agency was formed with five cities from each side of the Altamont Pass TRACY , CAL I FORNI A - five cities from the Alameda side and five cities from the San Joaquin side and two supervisors from Alameda County and San Joaquin County. “They recognize that the workforce comes from the Central Valley, and we have over 120,000 commuters going over the East Bay and San Francisco area, not counting the ACE ridership that connects it to the Silicon Valley. Currently, 80,000 vehicles go over the Altamont Pass, daily. Most commuters experience a 3-to-5 hour commute time.” The project will have three different intermodal stations and, overall, the train station will eventually connect Tracy with many other train stations. According to Andrew Malik, Development Services Director, Tracy was a railroad town from its inception in 1910, having four different avenues of rail culminating in its downtown. “So it’s the perfect location for commuter rail, high speed rail in the future, and the like,” he notes. “We have a transit station. We also have a very vibrant downtown. There are some great older historic buildings. But more importantly, getting people to live, work, and play right next to the commute lines is something that this Council and the city is very proud of. This specific plan, and the transit- oriented development, will further that goal of the Council.” Walkability and other modes of transportation have been very well received by the community, according to Vargas. Between the downtown