One might note the omission of the 26.75 million square feet of industrial warehouse development. As they say, a pig is a pig is a pig.
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The 26.75 Million Square Foot “Bomb” Being Dropped on South Tracy
November 20, 2023
Mike Sandhu and his Mega-Industrial Warehouse Project is back with a vengeance.
New Multi-millionaire local developer, Mike Sandhu, the self-proclaimed one-percenter, is back with his mega-warehouse project and controversial university proposal, and, based on the recent Manteca Bulletin Editorial, it’s clear that not everyone is happy about it.
Here’s an excerpt:
“Pacific Gateway is ‘a bomb’ being dropped on rural south Tracy to obliviate agriculture and the countryside lifestyle while providing the City of Tracy truck traffic fallout while at the same time undermining their economic future. It also will have a negative ripple effect on the quality of life in Manteca and Ripon.” The goal is to turn 1,600 acres of almond orchards and row crops into a place that can support the equivalent of eight of the Mother of All distribution centers — Amazon’s Project Big Bird."
The full editorial can be accessed here.
No one is benefiting from Tracy’s political dysfunction more than Mike Sandhu. Since February of this year the antics of Tracy’s City Attorney, who makes more salary than the Governor (see here), and her three councilmember puppets have dominated local headlines. And not in a good way. Patel is the subject of multiple complaints filed with the District Attorney, the State Bar, and the Grand Jury. Yet, three councilmembers unconditionally and blindly follow her lead. The perfect storm of incompetence and political wrangling by Tracy’s electeds has allowed Sandhu to stealthily move his mega project forward, leaving everyone in the south county to scramble. This publication is just as guilty for letting this happen.
You Can Put Lipstick on A Pig…
Sandhu’s newly named “Pacific Gateway” project was once called the “GoldenState Logistics Hub.” It received a cold reception from Supervisor Rickman, something we covered back in 2022 here. Others, like Assemblyman Villapudua, who released a statement in support of the proposal, expressed excitement about the ‘university’ aspect of the project.
However, TT uncovered the shadiness of the University of Silicon Andhra as part of our Sandhu-U series. For those needing a refresher on the series can access them here. The school’s controversial president is tied to extensive corruption allegations in India and the ‘university’ is composed of a few thousand students and a curriculum focused on promoting the language and culture of a subregion of India.
Since Rickman’s cool response to the project, Sandhu went and hired I Street Public Affairs out of Sacramento and Annie Hoagland of JB Comm, Inc. As the Draft Environmental Impact Report was being completed, the project was given the slick makeover and thus was born the “Pacific Gateway” project. Here is a flier from their community meeting this past June.
If approved, Sandhu’s Project will make San Joaquin County the Warehouse and Diesel Truck Capital of Northern California.
Resident can surely kiss their home values goodbye. And they can kiss their air quality and quality of life in general goodbye. The number of diesel trucks plowing through Tracy, Ripon, and Manteca, as they make their way to the Bay Area and beyond, will be incomprehensible.
The Manteca Bulletin Editorial continues:
“As for the number of cars that Pacific Gateway will be sending down congested freeways, city streets and narrow country roads, consider that 14,400 vehicles is a sixth of the average daily traffic count for the 120 Bypass.”
It will be diesel truck, after diesel truck, after diesel truck.