Final Piece of Solar Power Project Nearly Ready for Construction

After a year of negotiating with Valero, a deal to purchase 1.76 acres of land at the corner of East Second Street and Rose Drive is nearly complete.  The final purchase price for the property is $556,909. 

There is $300,000 of bond proceeds that can go toward the purchase and the city was hoping to borrow the balance from the Good Neighbor Steering Committee settlement funds.  That plan hit a snag though when it was determined the Community Sustainability Commission would have to sign off on the deal before the money could be secured. 

The City council is set to vote on the deal Tuesday, April 24 but the CSC isn’t scheduled to meet until the third Monday in May.  In order to move forward with the purchase the City Council may decide to borrow the money from a different fund until the Community Sustainability Commission has a chance to vote on the project.

“I have full confidence that the Community Sustainability Commission would support the loan,” said Mayor Elizabeth Patterson.

Asked why the negotiations took so long, City Manager Brad Kilger said, “We had to work through some issues.”

At least one of those issues was the amount of land in question.  The original deal outlined in a January 2011 letter from Valero was for the purchase of 1.2 acres, but the power requirements for Pump Station 3 required more power than could be generated by a panel array of that size so the city had to ask for more land from Valero’s buffer zone.

The letter also outlined some requirements Valero put on the deal.  Among them is that Valero be given right of first refusal if the City decides at some point in the future to sell the property.

“I’m very excited that we were finally able to reach an agreement,” said Kilger.

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If there’s something in this article you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, call editor JB Davis at 707-628-0051 or email him at benicia@patch.com.