September 25, 2006 – The Tribune

By Bob Cuddy 

The Dalidio Ranch initiative on the Nov. 7 ballot has raised plenty of questions, but few have stirred such consternation with opponents and officials as the Prado Road interchange — or, more specifically, the lack of one.

The interchange and a thorough scheme for its financing were part of the Dalidio proposal approved by the San Luis Obispo City Council two years ago and later rejected by city voters.

Although Measure J on the countywide ballot mentions an overpass for the shopping center planned on 131 acres of farmland next to Highway 101 in southern San Luis Obispo, it does not provide a guarantee that one will be built.

What’s more, local governments say, Measure J’s suggestions for paying part of the costs of an interchange fall far short.

Ernie Dalidio spokesman Dave Cox, of Barnett Cox & Associates, said all these problems can be solved through special taxing districts and by seeking other creative financing.

Ideas that have been floated include developer fees and dedicating hotel occupancy and sales tax to bond financing.

Cox adds that the initiative sets aside money for both the interchange and traffic on streets near the project.

The stakes are high. Most people who have looked at the project believe the overpass is vital to helping control the traffic, which by all accounts will grow substantially.

The city-county Dalidio Ranch study committee, formed earlier this year to gather information about Measure J, has heard reports from at least three key agencies — Caltrans, the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments, a multi-government agency charged with overseeing regional transportation issues, and the city of San Luis Obispo — that already worsening traffic could approach nightmare proportions around the ranchland if the project is built without the interchange.

Existing Highway 101 interchanges at Los Osos Valley and Madonna roads are already facing breakdown and need the relief a Prado Road interchange could bring, the reports say.

Dalidio’s own consultant, W-Trans of Santa Rosa, wrote that the Madonna Road-Highway 101 interchange would begin operating unacceptably by 2010 and would exceed its theoretical capacity by 2014 if the shopping center is built.

Even without the Dalidio Ranch development, the Madonna Road-Highway 101 interchange would be operating unacceptably by 2016, W-Trans wrote.

The Prado Road interchange would reduce traffic impacts to less than significant, except at Los Osos Valley and Madonna roads, W-Trans wrote.

Reaction

Dalidio’s opponents have pounced on the studies as proof that Measure J is flawed.
The area will become “the Bermuda Triangle of traffic congestion,” said Alan Thomas, a spokesman for the No on Measure J campaign. “You might go in there and not get out.”
Cox said those expressing concern are overreacting and misinformed.

Measure J, he noted, sets aside money for roads. It gives $4 million for the interchange, and dedicates 13 acres worth nearly $4 million for ramps on and off Highway 101 at the unbuilt Prado Road overpass.

It also sets aside $150,000 to build Calle Joaquin south from Dalidio Ranch to Los Osos Valley Road; $250,000 for the Los Osos Valley Road-Calle Joaquin intersection; and $20,000 for the Los Osos Valley Road-Madonna Road intersection.

However, skeptics say, there are several large asterisks attached to the money. First of all, they say, there is no guarantee under Measure J that any of this work will be done. If contracts aren’t signed for the overpass in 10 years and the streets and intersections in one year, the developer gets his money back.

“It will be up to the public agencies, the county, the city and Caltrans to implement those projects,” Dalidio’s attorney, Michael Morris of Andre, Morris and Buttery, wrote in response to questions from The Tribune.

“What (the developer) can do is provide its fair share of the funding” and provide land, Morris wrote.

Fair share debate

Opponents and government officials, however, question whether Measure J will require Dalidio to pay his fair share.

The $8 million in money and land for the overpass are based on the Dalidio team’s assumption that his fair share is 23 percent to 26 percent of the entire cost.

That figure came from Dalidio’s consultant, W-Trans.

The city staff, however, said his fair share should be closer to 52 percent.

But the $8 million number appears in Measure J and is locked in, because the measure is a citizen initiative and can be changed only by another citizens’ vote.

There is also a difference of opinion on how much the overpass would cost. Dalidio’s consultant, Mark Thomas Co., told the county Sept. 18 that the current probable cost estimate is $35.9 million; Caltrans’ latest estimate is $40 million to $49 million. Caltrans says that number will go up because of the escalating cost of construction materials.

So Dalidio’s fair share could be anywhere between 23 percent of $35.7 million and 52 percent of $49 million.

The average voter would have no way of figuring out whose numbers are correct: These are competing estimates based on recondite measuring standards used by traffic engineers.

It’s a moot point to the developer: He has to pay only the number in the initiative.
Who will pay for the overrun if there is one?

Local leaders fear that city or county taxpayers would foot the bill. Cox has long said additional financing can be arranged — and it’s up to the city and county to do so. It’s inconceivable that they would not, he said.

“Can you envision a scenario in which the voters would approve this project and the Board of Supervisors and City Council wouldn’t be able to get together and figure out a way to do it?” he asked.

“That’s a mechanism that has to be set up by the government,” Cox said.

San Luis Obispo Mayor Dave Romero agreed that the city and county will work together to finance an overpass, but he also envisions the developer being involved.

Dalidio could not be compelled to do so because of the language in Measure J, Romero agreed. However, the mayor added, “It would be very much to his advantage to have freeway access to his project and not to have traffic congestion, if he wants a successful shopping center.”

Romero said that before a referendum defeated the Dalidio Ranch Marketplace last year, Dalidio had agreed to pay for the overpass first and be repaid by city sales tax.

“It was a marvelous deal,” Romero said, but voters rejected it.