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Wilton resident offers land swap for 23-acre park property
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Photo by Fran Soto
This undeveloped parcel on Clay Station Road adjacent to 'The Ranch' has been set aside as a park for the Wilton community. A Wilton resident who asks to be unidentified has offered a proposed land swap for the park.
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By Fran Soto
River Valley Times Staff
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Wilton resident Mary Morgan, chair of the Wilton-Cosumnes Parks and Recreation Advisory Council (Parks & Rec) announced at the Oct. 21 meeting that the council had received a trade offer for the community’s park property.
The council is currently working on plans to develop a 23-acre park site on Clay Station Road adjacent to The Ranch. “A resident called and is very interested in swapping 10 acres for a suitable amount of land at Clay Station,” Morgan said. “He is very interested and has even gone out on the property.”
The resident has asked to be unidentified, but Morgan also related that the resident said after the Centennial that he "felt his property’s close proximity to the heart of the Wilton community would make an ideal location for a community park."
Member Gene Rose told the council that the offer had been made in the past. “All I remember is we tried to get the county to talk to him,” Rose said. “Nothing ever came back to us.” Deputy Director Jill Ritzman, with the Sacramento County Parks Department, said that a portion of the parksite at Clay Station Road serves as Swanson Hawk mitigation land and could hinder a land trade agreement. Morgan asked Ritzman to research the background on previous negotiations of a land swap and the consequences to mitigation.
In related business, Ritzman updated the members on the community park project. After explaining the county’s procedures for negotiating with contractors not in the county system, she said, “If the county engineer can’t do the project, we have to contact the unions and need to do a formal meet and confer.”
Ritzman confirmed that she expected that step would be completed and the matter would be moved to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors before their holiday break. “If all goes well, it should go to the Board in December before their break,” she said. “It’s a process we have to go through.”
Ritzman estimated the cost of the first phase of the project would be around $317,500 and include the well, irrigation, electric to the well, trenching, concrete pad, curb, gravel and storm water prevention plan. “It will be to the point where someone can drive in and start building your fields,” Ritzman said. “If you bid as one project, you get a better price.”
JTS Properties, The Ranch developers, will supply a portion of the financing of the project, and Ritzman said that money would be forthcoming when the park project started. “We hope to have some progress by spring,” she said.
In other business, the council also discussed the 2008 Centennial celebration in their first meeting after the event. “Everybody I’ve talked to had a great time. The only complaint was it was too hot,” said council member Julie Craig. “There was so much energy in the multi-purpose room; it was awesome.”
Rose also presented to the council a resolution that he had received during the opening ceremony at the Centennial and told the members that the resolution really belonged to the council. The members also discussed outstanding bills from the celebration, and Morgan said that, at the next meeting, they would have a record of the final costs to the council for the celebration.
Before adjourning the meeting, Morgan made a general plea to the Wilton community to step up and fill the two vacancies on the council. “I think we need to talk about how to sell this council to the town,” she said. “I don’t think they know who we are.” Any potential candidate must be a resident of the area and able to attend evening monthly meetings, which take place the second Tuesday of the month. Council members are appointed by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and are required to file a disclosure statement. An application is available on www.wiltoncalifornia.org or residents can call Amber Veselka, Department of Regional Parks at 875-6238.
The next meeting of Parks & Rec will be Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. at the Dillard Elementary School library.
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