Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "economic development department"

No longer a ‘pedestrian mall,’ K Street prepares for cars

2011-07-12T02:39:31Z

On Tuesday evening, the City Council will consider revising a local ordinance that will bring the city one step closer to seeing cars on K Street for the first time in more than 45 years.

The revised ordinance will change a city code that has been in place since the early 1960s that defined the five blocks of K Street between Eighth to 12th streets as a “pedestrian mall,” closing it to vehicular traffic.

“It was something that was happening in a lot of places back then,” said Denise Malvetti, department manager at the city’s Economic Development Department. “Cities were trying to replicate the suburban experience, and they created a lot of these pedestrian malls. It was a failed experiment, though.”

Roughly 150 cities in the U.S. installed pedestrian malls in the 1960s, Malvetti said, and now about half of those have converted back to allow street traffic.

“We’ve been working on getting cars back on K Street since late 2008,” Malvetti said. “We’ve put a lot of consideration into this project, and we did a lot of outreach to the community.”

Business owners were outspoken in saying that returning cars to K Street is vital to increasing retail activity in the area, Malvetti said, but they won’t see an instant change.

“It will likely be an incremental increase over time,” Malvetti said.

City Council recently approved numerous projects intended to revitalize the J-K-L corridor, and K Street in particular, in order to stimulate economic activity in the area and bring people back to what was once a hub of activity in the city, Malvetti said.

The “Cars on K Street” project was part of a $2.7 million construction and design project approved by City Council in April 2010.

The purpose of the project, according to a staff report, is to “increase access and visibility to businesses, promote a safe environment, stimulate additional economic activity, and improve (traffic) circulation.”

“Sacramento needs to be more pedestrian-friendly,” said Councilman Steve Cohn, “but the way that part of K Street is laid out, it wasn’t working as a pedestrian-only street.”

Cohn said returning cars to K Street makes sense because it will help with traffic flow and make it easier for people to get to the businesses along that part of K Street.

In order to allow for the reintroduction of cars on K Street from Eighth to 12th streets, the city code must be amended to remove the definition of “pedestrian mall” currently applied to those five street blocks.

According to provisions in the city charter, the council must first pass the revised ordinance for publication, and then it can finalize the approval at the following City Council meeting.

This is one of the last steps before construction can begin, Malvetti said. The Department of Transportation will bring a construction contract to City Council next week for approval, and then groundbreaking can begin within the first week of August.

Design plans for the “Cars on K Street” project include creating new crossing signals at 11th and K streets, wheelchair access at intersections and the addition of edge treatments (possibly planters or street furniture) to provide a buffer between the roadway and sidewalks to increase pedestrian safety and make the blocks more visually appealing.

“Our goal is to have cars back on K Street in early November,” Malvetti said. “It’s one more step in the revitalization of K Street.”

Melissa Corker is a Staff Reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.

Council approves K Street redevelopment proposal

2011-06-22T07:22:40Z

The proposal for redevelopment of the 700 block of K Street received the nod of approval from City Council Tuesday night, opening the way for developers to move forward with the $47.7 million project.

With close to 64,000 square feet of retail space and more than 130 housing units, the project is designed to revitalize a long-ignored section of K Street with a diverse tenant mix of restaurants, boutique shops and a live music venue.

If all goes as planned, developers expect to begin construction in late January or early February of next year.

With their unanimous vote, council members approved the environmental impact and planning commission reports, and formalized a Developer Disposition Agreement (DDA), which spells out the terms of the redevelopment deal with the city.

Bay Miry, senior associate at D & S Development, one of the project’s development companies, said they anticipate the project will create approximately 300-400 construction jobs during the building phase, and another 400-500 permanent jobs from the 14 retail spaces being built into the development.

“We’re very excited and thankful for (the) council’s approval,” said Ali Youssefi of CFY Development, the other half of the 700 block development team. “Now it’s all about completing the plans, getting to construction and getting to the day when we can go out and enjoy the finished product.”

The next steps for Youssefi and Miry will be securing the remaining financing elements, including a conventional loan and a federal grant for redevelopment of blighted neighborhoods in distressed areas.

“We’re hoping that this will put us where we consider to be very solid ground,” said Beth Tincher, a senior project manager with the city's Economic Development Department.

Tincher described working with city planning and building officials on the project at every step as a “collaborative effort to ensure the success of the project.”

“They have indicated their willingness to work with us and help us to keep to the schedule we’ve outlined,” Tincher said.

The development team initially requested $16 million in existing city redevelopment assistance funds to go along with developers’ private investment of $1.5 million in cash equity and $18 million in conventional debt to develop the 700 block, Miry said.

As the project was being negotiated, however, the deal was revised so the city would contribute only $14.5 million, and developers increased the private investment of debt and equity to a total of $33 million.

The development team anticipates about 200 residents “living, working and playing” in the K Street area from the 137 apartments planned for the project, Miry said.

The developers anticipate the project will bring about 6,000 patrons to K Street every week.

Additionally, developers estimate about $1.6 million in annual sales tax revenue generated from the project, and another $330,000 annually in property tax.

“We really feel this project will encourage development in the surrounding underdeveloped, vacant, blighted parcels,” Miry said. “It’s a home run for the city, for sure.”

Council OK's infrastructure study

2010-08-18T17:54:45Z

The Sacramento City Council agreed to fund a $150,000 study of downtown's infrastructure Tuesday night.

The purpose is to collect up-to-date information about the core's aging and sometimes outdated infrastructure and identify improvements needed to eliminate obstacles to the kind of infill development outlined in the city's 2030 General Plan and the Downtown Activation Strategy. It was adopted by the council in January.

The study is needed to make sure downtown is primed for the development and investment that's expected as the economy picks up. The data also will help the city apply for state and federal funding. An R Street infrastructure study done years ago has been used to get funding and begin infrastructure work to encourage development there, said Sheri Smith, senior project manager with the Economic Development Department.

"When you have some downtime and in a down economy, it's a good time to prepare yourself for the future," Smith said. "Right now is the time to do the study. Then it becomes a really useful tool for potential projects as the uptick happens."

The need for infrastructure upgrades can turn out to be a costly obstacle to redevelopment. Detailed, current data is crucial to developers in the early stages of planning and financing, especially for projects in downtown Sacramento. Getting financing is easier if developers know what kind of infrastructure work is needed in advance.

"Most development projects don't know that until (further) down the line," she said. "If it's a big enough ticket item, it could kill a project."

For instance, the cost of adding a transformer for a downtown building — sometimes required by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District — is $500,000 to $1 million. Recent downtown projects such as the 800 J Lofts and light rail additions have uncovered a "spaghetti" of different pipes and other utility services. Some infrastructure wasn’t expected, and others were missing, City Councilman Ray Tretheway said earlier Tuesday.

"Downtown's pretty old. So some of our infrastructure is extremely outdated," said Tretheway, whose district includes part of downtown. "The surprises are very expensive. This will be a real asset to anybody who's considering reinvesting in downtown. We can show them up front what we have for them in the way of services and what we don't have for them."

The council agreed to have Nolte Associates, Inc., determine the condition and capacity of existing sewer, water, electrical and telecommunications systems, as well as streetscape and historic infrastructure for the area from I to N streets and from Third to 15th streets.

While some of downtown's water and sewer pipes have been replaced recently, a significant amount is at least 80 years old, according to the utilities department.

Streetscape needs, which include streets, sidewalks and alleys, and historic infrastructure including buildings and underground sidewalks, would also be mapped so developers can know how they might impact certain projects. H Street won't be included to keep the study cost down.

The company's analysis will include expected costs and priorities for scheduling upgrades.

Five companies submitted bids to handle the study. A committee made up of staff from the Economic Development Department, Community Development Department and the Department of Utilities chose Nolte, which performed an R Street infrastructure study for the Capitol Area Development Authority.

Funding will come from the Community Development Department's Shovel Ready Sites Program as part of the Downtown Activation Strategy. The council approved funds for that project last October.

Nolte is expected to begin the study immediately and be completed by spring 2011.

Photo Credits: Aerial photo by Eric Whalen. Sacramento night scene by Kati Garner. K Street infrastructure work photo by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

River District plan unveiled

2010-08-05T05:24:44Z

The city of Sacramento's Preservation Commission on Wednesday got the first look at a draft of the new plan intended to guide redevelopment of the River District north of the central city.

Commission members gave the first round of feedback Wednesday evening to the city's Community Development and Economic Development departments, which led the multi-department project encompassing about three years of work. The draft River District Specific Plan was unveiled online last week.

Commissioners were concerned with proposals to allow 250-foot hotels along the Sacramento River, demolishing the state's printing plant building without exploring its historic landmark eligibility and the need to consider whether a section of North 16th Street could be a registered historic district.

"It concerns me (there could be) a Miami Beach wall of buildings right next to the water ... and a lost opportunity to connect with the river by building a wall of buildings," Commissioner Melissa Mourkas said.

The plan addresses zoning, infrastructure, circulation, parks and open space, historic preservation and urban design within the district. The plan is an update to the renamed Richards Boulevard Area Plan, adopted in 1990 and last revamped in 1994, said Project Manager Evan Compton with the Community Development Department.

A revised plan was needed to allow for parts of the industrial-zoned area to be rezoned for mixed-use development and to incorporate planning changes contained in other plans adopted more recently, including the Railyards Specific Plan. That plan included a new street network and relocated a future regional transportation facility from North B and North Seventh streets to the downtown railyards, near the existing train station.

Staff is recommending city officials allow height changes in the district that would allow buildings up to 250 feet high in two limited areas, the first in a transition area from the Railyards along North B Street and the other in a hotel zone along the river adjacent to the planned Powerhouse Science Center. Public access to the river and viewing decks would have to be included in the hotel zone if such height were allowed, said Greg Taylor, a senior urban designer in the city's Community Development Department.

"We don't see this as a district that would compete with downtown," he said.

They also propose allowing new buildings up to 45 feet high in the historic district, where buildings average 25 to 30 feet high. The idea would be to allow one or two stories for retail and possibly a third story for housing to "invigorate" development without too much building height or pushing up land values, he said.

The plan also calls for a new historic district tentatively called the North 16th Street Historic District, a "ribbon" of parks and a "Two Rivers Trail" along 2.6 miles of riverfront, a street grid connecting through the future Railyards development to downtown and beyond, pathways for pedestrians and bikes, and a range of housing, employers and entertainment. City staff expect the number of housing units could grow to more than 8,000, and the number of hotel rooms could triple by 2035, Compton told the commission.

New buildings would need to be designed to be consistent with existing architecture, in keeping with the city's general plan and design guidelines. Redevelopment of historic buildings would have to protect the character of the buildings, Taylor said.

"We see the opportunity for adaptive reuse within the district to be quite strong and quite exciting," he said.

The roughly 748-acre district has been dominated by warehouses, industrial businesses and distribution centers, especially for produce, that became established near the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers, railroad tracks and the adjacent highway. The area was largely isolated for years because it was bounded by rivers and river levees on two sides and the old Southern Pacific railyards to the south. Motels, as well as shelters and other services for homeless people, also sprang up in the area.

The district has grown to include office buildings and city, county and state government agencies, retail and wholesalers, and a small amount of housing, 386 units containing about 600 people. The area has seen change in recent years, especially after Seventh Street was extended from downtown into the River District in 2004. Over the next 25 years, retail and office space would be expected to triple in size, industrial would shrink, and parks and open spaces would grow from 16 acres to 55.5, according to the plan.

A new light rail line is being constructed to link downtown with the River District and, eventually, the airport. Three transit stations are expected to be built. Construction of a temporary Greyhound terminal is expected to start this fall. Other construction plans include a mixed-use area called Township 9 on Richards Boulevard and the conversion of the historic Pacific Gas & Electric power station into a $50 million riverfront science and space museum.

Mourkas and Commission Vice Chair Karen Jacques, who chaired the meeting, agreed with Sacramento Old City Association board member Bill Burg's concern that the plan calls for demolishing the state printing plant to allow construction of a new street grid before determining whether the building could be registered as a national, state or city historic landmark. The general plan's guidelines on preservation and sustainability seem to require such a determination, Jacques said.

"If the building is a potential landmark, we need to discuss that first...before we decide to demolish it," she said. "So we stop filling our landfills with the bones of buildings that might really be used for adaptive reuse."

The plan's draft is scheduled for review and comment at three more public meetings: the Parks Commission at 7 p.m. Thursday; the Planning Commission at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 12; and the Design Commission at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 18. City staff are taking comments until Sept. 9.

Staff also said they plan to present information about the historic district and recommended landmarks to the Preservation Commission in October. A consultant has recommended the city pursue getting individual buildings, such as the Pipeworks Building — which holds a climbing gym —listed with the National Register of Historic Places, rather than an entire district.

However, Commissioner Tim Brandt and Jacques encouraged city staff to consider the benefits of trying to get the entire district listed if it's eligible.

The final plan is expected to go before the Sacramento City Council in November.

Graphics provided by city of Sacramento Community Development Department. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Broadway business walk

2010-06-11T02:56:02Z

The pros and cons of doing business on Broadway were brought into focus Thursday during the Greater Broadway Business Walk.

More than 100 businesses were polled to get a pulse on the area's current business environment, part of an effort to retain and expand business.

Vagrants and panhandling are regular headaches for Broadway business owners, civic and business leaders learned. At the same time, business owners said they appreciate edgy, urban Broadway's central location, freeway access, supportive neighborhoods, diversity and recent decrease in crime.

Nearly 40 people fanned out along the commercial corridor, visiting 117 businesses Thursday morning. Their goals were to find out how business is going, see what's working and learn about the problems facing business owners. The event was organized by the Sacramento Metro Chamber, Greater Broadway Partnership and the city's Economic Development Department.

"This really is about building and furthering a relationship with these businesses, because we're all in this together," said Matt Yancey, the chamber's director of business and economic development. He explained the process and goals during a breakfast at Beatnik Studios, 2421 17th St.

The group included Broadway business owners, Economic Development staff Lorrie Lowry and Dean Peckham, and City Councilman Rob Fong, who grew up in the neighborhood.

Ethnically and economically diverse Broadway supports a mix of businesses — most of them family-owned. Some, like Setzer Products, Ruhkala Monuments and Saccani Distributing Co., have been in families for generations, said Teresa Rocha, executive director of the Greater Broadway Partnership.

"Most of the businesses on Broadway are not small — they're micro," Rocha said. "A lot of them are working really hard to end up each day with a good living."

Sacramento's landmark Tower Theater, with its Art Deco architecture and historic neon sign, help define Broadway at its center.

The street contains a high concentration of ethnic restaurants, as well as banks, national chains like Target, auto-parts stores, gas stations, a bait and gun store, and a fish market. KXTV Channel 10, the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery and warehouses anchor the west end of Broadway, while state agencies and fast-food restaurants anchor the east, known as Upper Broadway. Liquor stores, money lenders and a porn shop also make their homes on the street.

Artsy endeavors such as Beatnik Studios, a photo studio and gallery, have opened more recently.

Most business owners seemed to say that business was down since last year, anywhere from 10 to 50 percent. But some reported business was about the same or even getting better.

Hands down, problems such as aggressive panhandling and people camping behind businesses seemed to plague proprietors from one end of Broadway to the other. On Thursday, people slept in the shade of bus stops while one panhandled on the sidewalk, yelling at those who did not give him money.

"We have issues with panhandling," Cherie Prasad, store manager of the Walgreens at 1401 Broadway, told Fong's group, which included Lowry, business owner Royce Ann Ruhkala Burks and Fong's staffer, Lisa Nava. "That's my biggest customer complaint: panhandlers."

There are also problems with people relieving themselves on the property — sometimes within view of customers and staff — or suffering from mental instability or drug and alcohol problems, several said.

"Most of them are harmless. They hang out and panhandle. So we go (to nearby businesses) in groups," said Bea Franchetto, business manager of the Sacramento Business Journal. "But once in awhile, we get someone who is ranting."

The problem with vagrancy is no different on Broadway than other parts of the city, Rocha said.

"We have a lot of people walking around in this district," she said. "We don't have the robberies, burglaries and violent crimes other places may be experiencing."

The Greater Broadway Partnership hired security guards for the corridor, but it was expensive and didn't solve the problem. Homeless people were just pushed from one area to another. The business improvement district will continue to work with the city to find a better solution, Ruhkala said.

Business owners were encouraged to report problems to 311, but vagrancy and panhandling should be reported to police non-emergency at 264-5471, according to city staff.

Speeding, lack of parking and reduced business due to furlough Fridays also were reported, especially on Broadway's eastern end. While proprietors up and down the corridor said crime had decreased, a few reported serious crimes including blatant drug dealing near the Broadway light-rail station, illegal businesses in backroom shops and a recent armed robbery inside a fast-food restaurant.

Business owners said they appreciated the five-day-a-week street cleaning, graffiti cleanup and the security guards paid for with their dues to the Greater Broadway Partnership. They said they would like to see the area become safer for pedestrians and cyclists, with the addition of bike lanes and 25 mph speed limit enforcement.

Others suggested promoting the street's unique and diverse businesses and creating a trolley system between downtown and Broadway.

The information gathered during the event will be used by the business community and the city to help Broadway's businesses.

Outside Chinatown Buffet — one of the many ethnic restaurants giving Broadway its identity today — Fong said he wants to help transform the one-time transportation corridor into a walkable main street, with businesses serving nearby neighborhoods, but without an attempt to copy successful Midtown.

"I think it'll sort of define its own way," he said.

Photo by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Sacramento wants Google's ultra-high-speed network

2010-03-24T06:02:49Z

Sacramento’s elected officials and city staff want to use the Internet at breakneck speeds. The City Council gave staffers the go-ahead Tuesday night to ask Google to set up an ultra-high-speed broadband network in Sacramento.

In February, Google released a document saying that local governments could apply for the speedy network.

“We plan to test ultra-high-speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country,” the document states.

The network would be 100 times quicker than the speeds available to the majority of the public, the document also states.

Google also says that the network would be available to users in the chosen community or communities at a “competitive price.”

Melissa Anguiano, senior project manager for the city’s Economic Development Department, said that the city government wants the entire city to be covered in Google’s program.

West Sacramento, too, is hoping to be chosen by the company.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Let's Make Smart Decisions Regarding the Commercial Use of Our City Water

2009-10-26T20:42:08Z

By Kevin McCarty, Sacramento City Council, District 6

With California in its third year of drought, the City of Sacramento’s water conservation strategy includes busting people who flood sidewalks.

Since June, we’ve been telling residents they can water landscaping on only three specific days per week and there is to be no watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Last year, the City Council decided to ban bottled water at its meetings. We did so in recognition that plastic water bottles are littering the world and the precious water they once contained is often wasted.

That’s why I was surprised to learn that the Nestle Waters North America Co. is moving forward with plans for a water bottling plant in my council district at the Florin/Fruitridge Industrial Park – a plant with the potential to intake more than 81 million gallons of city water yearly. Another 20 million gallons would be trucked in to the plant from springs in El Dorado, Placer, Tuolumne and Napa Counties.

Tomorrow night, Tuesday October 27th, the city council will discuss whether we need an urgency ordinance requiring special permits for water bottling facilities.

These plants pay a flat rate for city water. We also need to discuss whether there should be a tiered water rate for commercial facilities.

Across the nation, attempts to site water bottling plants have been dogged with controversy. In Glenn County, residents in the Orland area are fighting plans for a Crystal Geyser plant. In the Shingletown area of Shasta County, a San Francisco investor has been attempting to acquire water for a bottling plant. He refuses to say who his client is. In Flagstaff, Ariz., the city rejected plans for a Nestle plant last July.

In 2003, Nestle announced plans for a bottling plant in McCloud on the flank of Mount Shasta. McCloud residents once again proved Mark Twain’s adage: “Whiskey is for drinkin’. Water is for fightin’.” The fight raged for six years before Nestle finally gave up.

We owe it not only to Sacramentans -- but to residents of our Central Valley where fields are fallow for lack of water -- to have a thorough public airing of the issues involved in the siting of a water bottling plant here.

Among the issues is the basic question of whether this product necessary? Shouldn’t people who feel the need to carry around a water bottle have one that is refillable?

We also need to explore:

Whether there are better uses for our water?
Whether we need ordinances to prevent Nestle from taking even more than the projected 81 million gallons annually if they find a market for it?
Why the city has not developed an environmental analysis of the plant’s impact on water supplies.
The extent of the water bottle litter problem in our community.
A request by a group of citizens called Save our Water Sacramento to impose a moratorium on beverage bottling plants in the city.

Nestle would make extreme profits with Sacramento water at a time when we are trying to preserve it. At current rates, they would pay the city about 65 cents per 100 cubic feet of water, or 750 gallons. That works out to a payment to the city of $186 for the 215,000 gallons of water taken on an average day. By the time that water is bottled and put on a grocer’s shelf, the consumers would pay more than $2.1 million for those 215,000 gallons—a profit margin of roughly 10,000 percent!

And we would still be busting people for flooding sidewalks.

Discussion grows over Nestle water bottling plant

2009-10-26T04:53:25Z

Discussion over a Nestlé water-bottling plant appears to be growing in Sacramento, as the Swiss multinational prepares a facility for operation and new hires begin work.

The Sacramento City Council, which was not involved in the decision to approve the plant, will discuss the issue publicly for the first time after a request two weeks ago by council members Kevin McCarty and Lauren Hammond. They asked the council to consider an emergency ordinance requiring a special permit before Nestlé Waters North America begins bottling city tap water and spring water at a plant in South Sacramento.

Such a permit could "trigger" an environmental analysis of this and future facilities, McCarty said Wednesday night at Crest Theatre, where he and 165 others watched "Tapped," a documentary on the bottled water industry.

Save Our Water Sacramento, a group formed last month to oppose the plant, also is seeking a temporary City Council moratorium on beverage bottling plants in Sacramento.

"Ultimately, Save Our Water wants to see the Nestlé plant stopped," said Midtown resident Jenny Esquivel, a leader of the organization.

That group and others have begun raising questions and concerns about the plant and the bottled water industry. Primary concerns include the lack of an environmental impact study and information about the operation, impacts of extracting and bottling a potentially unlimited amount of water, and the commercialization of a natural resource, representatives said.

"Nestlé just got kicked out of McCloud. The final nail in the coffin was when the attorney general sent them that letter demanding they do a proper, more rigorous environmental review," Esquivel said. "Rather than do that, what Nestlé did was pick up that project and move to Sacramento.

"It's not like those environmental issues disappear," she said.

Attorney General Jerry Brown threatened to sue the company in 2008 over an inadequate environmental review of its plan to bottle spring water in McCloud, near Mount Shasta. On Sept. 10, Nestlé Waters Chief Executive Officer Kim Jeffery sent a letter to the McCloud community announcing that the company was abandoning the project.

"Earlier this summer, we were able to secure a new facility in Sacramento to serve our customers in Northern California," he wrote. "As a result, and after conducting a thorough analysis of our business operations in the region, we have determined that the Sacramento plant production will replace the production we expected in McCloud and therefore we do not have a need to build a new facility in McCloud.”

Several companies bottle water in Sacramento, where water is "ridiculously cheaper" than other areas of the country because of the city's location at the confluence of two rivers, McCarty said.

Nestlé continues retrofit, hiring

Supporters point to the financial and economic benefits the plant could bring. Nestlé plans to spend $14 million to retrofit an industrial facility at 8670 Younger Creek Road and to create 40 new jobs, said Jim Rinehart, the city's economic development manager. That doesn't include equipment costs, he added.

In addition, Nestlé is using about 16 construction workers to modify the 214,000-square-foot building and install equipment for two production lines, plus contractors and skilled tradespeople to make the facility operational, according to Rinehart and a company Web site.

The warehouse was nothing more than four walls, a ceiling and a floor when Nestlé's lease began two months ago. Crews are halfway through building warehouse docks, reinforcing concrete flooring to support heavy equipment, and building a front office, lab, and areas for manufacturing, chemical storage and shipping, said Chris Kemp, a project manager who has overseen manufacturing and quality assurance at Nestlé facilities since 2002.

The amount of tap water bottled by Nestlé would not be limited by the city. Nestlé has reported different figures for the amount of water that would be bottled each year. The company has told the city's utilities department that it would "consume" 250 acre feet — nearly 82 million gallons — as well as 78 million to 117 million gallons a year, and bottle that under its Pure Life brand. Consumers would pay about $111 million to $166 million for that amount of Pure Life water.

Nestlé expects to bottle 30 million gallons of Sacramento tap water in 2010, Kemp said. Existing water pipes could bring 250 acre feet of water to the warehouse if operations were run 24 hours a day all year, he said, adding that's expected during peak months, but not the rest of the year.

Nestlé can't say how much Sacramento water it'd use annually after the first year, Kemp said, adding only sales will determine that.

In this state, water isn't just critical to all life. It's also big business.

"California runs on three things: energy, information and water," said Richard Howitt, a UC Davis water economist who said the amount of city water Nestlé wants isn't considered large. "A million gallons sounds like a lot, but in the grand scheme, it's really not."

Globally, the company used 10.82 billion gallons of water in 2006 and sold $10 billion of water under different brand names in 2007, according to a report from Food and Water Watch in Washington, D.C. Nestlé sold at least $997 million of water in this country in 2007, making it the top bottled water company here.

Groups Oppose Water's Commercialization

Food and Water Watch and other organizations are fighting the commercialization of drinking water, which occurs when water that is free or accessible at a very low cost through a government treatment system is instead bottled and sold at market price.

"It's not just happening in Sacramento and California. It's happening all over the country and all over the world: A corporation like Nestlé is beginning to get a stranglehold by setting the price for water," said Ruth Caplan, past chairwoman of the Sierra Club's water privatization task force. "So people who can afford the price will get the water. And people who can't afford the price will have to choose between water and food, and that's really about life and death.

"Many of us believe water is a fundamental right for people and nature," she said.

When asked for Nestlé's response to the concern that access to water is a human right, Kemp said the company doesn't have any water rights in Sacramento.

"The city plans for the growth of residents and businesses. We feel we're part of that growth in the city of Sacramento," he said.

Concerned residents such as the people who formed Save Our Water Sacramento have sought information about the plant since the city and the Sacramento Area Commerce & Trade Organization announced Nestlé's plans in July. Group members said they were given the runaround after asking for specifics about jobs and other logistics, so they began requesting public documents, Esquivel said.

The company has filled 11 of the 40 jobs expected to be created by the plant. Seven hires are local residents, including two plant managers and a lead mechanic, and the other four transferred here, Rinehart said.

The four who already worked for Nestlé include Kemp, who plans to move here permanently to manage the plant; a logistics manager; a controller; and a mechanic with ties to Northern California. Two others on the plant management team — a technical operations manager and a female quality assurance manager — come from cities 30 minutes north or 60 minutes south of Sacramento, Kemp said.

"We can't restrict our hiring search to candidates in a given Zip code or a given city," he said.

The 11 hires will have started working by Monday and will help set up the facility. Nestlé will hire an additional 29 people, whose permanent positions will begin Nov. 30 or Dec. 7.

The plant is targeted to begin operation by January and is expected to require 100 trucks per day in the peak season, generally May through Labor Day. Fifty trucks a day will suffice when there's less demand. Seven to 10 seasonal workers are expected to be hired during peak times, Kemp said.

Neither Nestlé nor the city's Economic Development Department would disclose the rate paid to lease the building from Buzz Oates Real Estate Co. Taxpayers will benefit from possessory interest taxes, a tenant's equivalent to property taxes, and sales tax on the water, because Sacramento is considered the point of sale, Rinehart said.

Groups concerned about the plant and the bottled water industry say the lack of information from Nestlé is one of the company's and industry's primary problems. City Department of Utilities staff did not respond to requests for information about the city's water sources.

But according to the department's Web site, 85 percent of the city's water supply comes from the American and Sacramento rivers. The other 15 percent comes from underground aquifers.

Food and Water Watch is sponsoring a California bottled water bill, AB 301, recently re-introduced by state Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes. The measure would require water-bottling businesses to report the amount of water bottled each year, the source of the water and the location of each extraction point, and for the information to be available to the public through the state Department of Public Health.

Bottling water raises concerns

Water is a natural resource that should be managed sustainably, said Mark Schlosberg, western regional director for Food and Water Watch. Water from aquifers, where rainwater is stored underground, can recharge some streams during dry spells. Aquifers also provide water for springs and wetlands. A limited amount of water can be pumped from aquifers before their levels drop, he said.

Pumping systems take water that falls to the ground in Northern California and distribute that to the Central Valley and Southern California, Schlosberg said.

"In California, water's very connected," he said. "If you have a lot of these little straws coming in and sucking up water, it can add up to a lot. Also, this is a time when we're asking everyone in California to conserve water."

People have a right to know how the extraction of that much water during a continued drought may impact the Sacramento River Valley, Sacramento residents and wildlife, as well as the water rate residents will pay, said Schlosberg and Caplan.

"There has to be CEQA review of these sites," Caplan said, referring to the California Environmental Quality Act.

Nestlé's plans were announced in July. Last week, Mayor Kevin Johnson said he'd prefer to have information on such facilities before they're approved by city staff.

"When Nestlé can take water -- our water -- and sell it at a price, that’s a little bit concerning to me, just in general. What are those parameters in what they can and cannot do?" he asked at a press conference. "And... do they have caps in terms of what their limitations may or may not be? Those are two concerns that the public is bringing forward, and I think they’re very valid."

Nestlé has followed all Sacramento regulations, gotten the required permits and provided the city with requested information, said Kemp, adding that a full environmental impact report was not required.

Mass production of the water bottles that would be required to hold even 50 million gallons of water, transportation of those bottles and the trash they'd create also troubles people alarmed by the growing industry.

Save Our Water Sacramento estimates that 800 million half-litre water bottles would need to be produced to hold 50 million gallons. Kemp and another Nestlé spokesperson disputed that number. After agreeing to provide the company's estimate, they later said that wasn't possible.

More than 400,000 barrels of oil would go into making that many bottles, according to Save Our Water Sacramento. Americans drinking bottled water in 2006 disposed of more than 30 billion bottles in 2006, 86 percent of which go to landfills rather than being recycled, according to Food and Water Watch. That group estimated that 7.86 billion bottles could have come from Nestlé.

The safety of drinking bottled water also is a growing concern, according to these groups.

Tap water is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state and local governments, and is rigorously tested in government-certified labs. There is little to no government testing of bottled water, which is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, according to Food and Water Watch.

Researchers are studying chemicals used to make water bottles and other products. Phthalate, often used in soft plastic bottles, has been shown to leach into bottle contents and to increase the risk of cancer and to cause liver and reproductive problems, according to these groups. Often used in hard plastics to make five-gallon water jugs for offices, Bisphenol-A, or BPA, is an estrogenlike chemical which studies are linking to a host of problems in children and adults, including decreased sperm counts, accelerated puberty, aggression, hyperactivity, and increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Bottled water consumption has increased in the last decade but there hasn't been the political pressure to ensure enough federal funding to maintain municipal water treatment systems, said Caplan and Schlosberg. Nestlé executives have said projected problems with the breakdown of the water infrastructure have led to a very positive climate for bottled water, Caplan said.

"They're banking on people not wanting to drink tap water. That's their whole business plan, as far as I can tell," Caplan said. "People have been brainwashed into thinking bottled water is safer."

Photo by Eric Whalen. Sacramento Press reporter Kathleen Haley contributed to this report. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.