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The need for a local destination park is obvious, and we think a wetlands project at the old Holly Sugar site is a good start.
One of the best things about living in Tracy? We’re just hours away from ocean beaches and a national park, with state, regional and county parks an hour or less away.
One of the worst things about living in Tracy? We’re that far away from any substantial public open space.
Without question, San Joaquin County is underserved when it comes to regional parkland, and the Tracy area has far less parkland than the rest of the county.
But a focus on housing development sprinkled with politics seems to have pushed aside all thoughts of preserving nature parkland and wildlife habitat in our midst.
It’s not that residents haven’t tried.
Several years ago, a nonprofit group wanted to buy private property on and along Old River north of Tracy and started to get city, county and state cooperation and funding. What could have been a public island park with walking trails and fishing, unfortunately, ran into insurmountable opposition from landowners, and the idea fizzled.
When Leroy Ornellas became this district’s county supervisor, he started looking for land for a south county park and two years ago spotted the 1,200 acres of old Holly Sugar land northeast of Tracy now owned by the city. The county has money from voter-approved bonds to buy land for parks and is in negotiations with the city to buy 220 acres on the east side of Tracy Boulevard. (The city’s sports parks would be on the west side of Tracy Boulevard.)
Already, farmers in the area are concerned, but it would be in the city’s best interest to enter into a partnership with the county to build public wetlands, where the city can cool treated sewage before it’s pumped into Old River.
The two governments could share the management and upkeep of a park with a visitor center, casting ponds, bird-watching areas, walkways and bikeways.
We’re all for it.
Not far away is the 98,000-acre East Bay Regional Park District, which has 65 parks with more than 1,150 miles of trails. In 1988, East Bay voters passed a bond to buy and preserve 34,000 acres of new parkland and wildlife habitat. In November, they’ll decide whether to tax themselves some more to meet the demand for parks and open space.
Rather than spend our time and gas money to travel to Contra Costa and Alameda counties for recreation and tranquility, we’d like to see something like that closer to home. That’s why we’ll continue to push for parkland in and around Tracy.
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