River Islands sets high bar for water conservation
MANTECA BULLETIN - January 4, 2008
BY Dennis Wyatt Managing Editor
LATHROP - The first significant rain of the season was pelting the San Joaquin River creating thousands of echoing ripple patterns.
It was the precursor to what the National Weather Service is predicting will end up as the valley's biggest potential drenching in 10 years.
Inside the River Islands at Lathrop office overlooking the San Joaquin River at Mossdale, water is definitely on Susan Dell'Osso's mind.
It's not about how snug the planned community of 11,000 homes will be inside the confines of 300-foot-wide super levees considered so bullet-roof that they should withstand anything Mother Nature can toss at it short of a repeat of weather reminiscent of the era of Noah's Ark.
Dell'Osso, the project manager for Cambay Group which has invested more than $130 million to date into the 10-square-mile-plus project without building a single home, is worried about the lack of water.
That is why design standards adopted for all property within River Islands - employment centers, public buildings, retail spots and even homes - will have mandatory moisture sensors placed on garden and yard irrigation systems.
"It's a crime to watch automatic sprinkler systems come on during a day like this," Dell'Osso said Thursday as skies darkened over Lathrop.
Being green makes green for builders
Dell'Osso sees water as a resource that California has no business wasting. She can cite studies that show lawns with moisture sensing systems have reduced water consumption by 40 percent. And that's just not in the winter when lawns go dormant. It's also in the summer and spring when overwatering is as commonplace and prevalent in the Northern San Joaquin Valley as 90-degree plus days.
Cambay Group also knows how expensive it is to develop and secure water sources. They wrote the biggest private sector check - more than $10 million - towards Lathrop's share of the $125 million South County Water Treatment Plant tab.
Dell'Osso also knows first hand how much pumping water from rapidly depleting underground sources can cost. Her husband Ron's farm operation in one month alone required paying PG&E $25,000. And that was simply to power irrigation pumps to take water from the river and not lift it more than 150 feet up from below the surface.
"It's just not good (stewardship)," Dell'Osso said. "It's good business."
Welcome to River Islands at Lathrop. Arguably the largest-ever "green" community ever conceived in California.
The project that local leadership of the Sierra Club once demonized as the worst development ever to surface in San Joaquin County is looking more and more like something that the organization John Muir founded after being inspired by his beloved Yosemite to protect Mother Nature's jewels from being destroyed by "progress" would create.
Keeping water clean that goes back to river
The rain coming down on River Islands Thursday - as well as 50 years from now - will go down storm drains and flow into large interior lakes lined with natural sandy loam.
That way the accumulative muck picked up by run-off and sent down the drain will filter out as the rainwater seeps through the sandy loam and makes its way to the large underground aquifer that mirrors much of the river.
It's the way nature intended it. And, thanks to the scale of the 11,000-home project that allowed the planning of large lakes to accomplish just that purpose, it is also more cost-effective than man-made treatment systems for run-off.
River Islands' green status goes way beyond water.
Plans are in place to use solar panels wherever possible to reduce reliance of off-site electricity.
While housing guidelines for builders strongly recommends solar tiles on roofs - Dell'Osso doesn't believe the general housing market is ready for traditional and more efficient and longer lasting solar panels that are boxier looking and don't integrate into the roofline - solar is mandatory elsewhere.
You will see solar panels as part of public buildings. They will be atop road signs with flashing lights and even in some instances such as lights that may also require a back-up traditional electrical system.
The Lathrop Irrigation District - essentially created for River Islands - will provide power as well as water.
Residents will be able to go on-line and monitor real time water consumption as well as real-time power consumption.
"It's difficult to encourage water conservation after the fact when you get a bill," said Dell'Osso. "This way homeowners can go on-line and see if they are spiking water use unnecessarily so they can control the size of their water bill."
Restoring river habitat as well
The Lathrop Irrigation District will also have a program like the South San Joaquin Irrigation District's Simply Green energy conservation effort. That program regulates air conditioning temperatures at a specific setting when power usage becomes critical. In return, homeowners have a way of keeping their homes comfortable while reducing their power costs.
And a resident returning home from the Bay Area on a chilly January night will be able to remotely turn on their heat as they cross the Altamont Pass.
"They (housing) will have that capability whether people are living in a home, a condo or an apartment," Dell'Osso said.
It is all made possible by the wiring backbone for each home built in River Islands that Cambay Group is making mandatory.
River Island's green goes much deeper than just saving water and reducing air pollution. It has also designed a plan to save the river by restoring a small part of it.
There are only a handful of legal access points to the San Joaquin River within the county - Dos Reis and Mossdale in Lathrop as well as Louis Park and Buckley Cove in Stockton. That will change, however, once the 11,000-home River Island at Lathrop planned community gets under way in 2006.
The Cambay Group project will add nearly 30 public access points - including two boat launches - on the perimeter of Stewart Tract. And they won't be the typical access either.
River Islands at Lathrop is planning eco-systems restorations as well as planning bona-fide parks complete on the river's edge. Since the levees being built will be 300 feet wide, you will see vegetation on the side of them - including trees - instead of the sterile feel of traditional levees that is a byproduct of not allowing anything to grow on them for fear of erosion and burrowing animals that threaten the long-term integrity of a typical 25-foot-wide levee.
Creating unparalleled San Joaquin River access
Dell'Osso noted the intent is to give the public access to the river regardless of whether they live in River Islands, Manteca or are passing trough from Los Angeles.
To walk along the river's edge for an extended stretch you have to basically trespass, River Islands is planning landscaped trails that meander along the county's namesake.
When completed, it will provide the most extensive - and unique - river access on the entire San Joaquin River where virtually every parcel abutting California's second longest river is in the hands of private owners.
The river parks will vary in design depending upon whether they are located in River Islands.
The one planned closest to the town center just west of the Mossdale bend in the San Joaquin River will have a lighthouse feature and be just an easy walk from rows of planned restaurants.
All of the parks will be out of the flood plain since restrooms and other improvements will be made. There will be no access to the riverside of the levees. But instead of simple, barren dirt either natural vegetation will be restored or trees and other improvements will be made.
The view from the parks will be pretty impressive as well. On the north side and west side of Stewart Tract, you will be able to see sunsets over Mt. Diablo, sunrises over the Sierra and expanses of farmland on islands directly to the north that are out of the development zone and protected from development.
The River Islands at Lathrop project is the largest of its kind in Northern California in terms of being a self-contained community with homes, business park, schools and a town center. Its most unique feature, though, is the universal access to the river as well as internal lakes and canals being incorporated in the overall design of the community.
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© 2006 River Islands at Lathrop –
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MANTECA BULLETIN - January 4, 2008
River Islands set high bar for water conservation
