zachary construction, pa construction article Construction on a $500 million expansion of a planned $1.8 billion project in the Central Valley of California has begun, but the real-estate developer is still fighting to get the project approved by the state’s Planning Commission.
The Central Valley Regional Planning Commission on Monday approved the expansion project by building a $2 billion residential project, a $350 million industrial complex, and a $150 million commercial building on the site of the former Kew Gardens site.
The project, which will include a park, a grocery store, a movie theater, an aquarium, and retail space, will be built on a 1.3-acre parcel of land along the California Highway 101 and Highway 8 interchange.
The commission approved the project on a 5-2 vote, with commission chairwoman Lisa Brown, a San Francisco resident, dissenting.
“The commission did not have a good faith reason to deny the project,” she said in a statement.
“If I was in the commission, I would have approved it.”
But environmental groups argue the project could damage water quality, and would have a major impact on the county’s agricultural economy.
The plan includes a $4 million, 60,000-square-foot water recycling plant that will recycle and reuse drinking water from the Kew Garden site, and water from an adjacent creek.
The development is a mixed-use project with about 4,000 housing units and about 400,000 square feet of office space.
The developers have raised a total of about $200 million to build the project.
The project is scheduled to be completed by 2035.