Stockton Airport Accused of Trying to Thwart Housing Plan

The debate over a plan to build more than 2,100 homes within earshot of Stockton Metropolitan Airport is heating up, with developers accusing airport officials of campaigning against the project.

Stockton-based Arnaiz Development Co.'s Tidewater Crossing project would combine homes with industrial and commercial development on 880 acres southeast of the airport. The project would bring jobs, shopping opportunities and thousands of residents to an area currently populated with fields and orchards, said Matt Arnaiz, the development firm's president.

But Airport Director Barry Rondinella and some San Joaquin County officials say the project is a controversy waiting to happen between new residents and the airport. Although most of the proposed homes would sit at least a mile from the airport's runway, the sound of planes circling in their landing pattern could cause discomfort for people in their new homes, Rondinella said.

The county Board of Supervisors is to hear a report on Tidewater's status and its relation to the airport during its regular meeting Tuesday. The development is considered a city project, but Supervisor Jack Sieglock said the board could make attempts to annex the property difficult if the homes are determined to be a threat.

"There are a variety of ways the county could exercise its clout to change the project," Sieglock said. "It could be tied up for 10 years."

Rondinella predicts a scenario in which new residents complain about aircraft noise, convince lawmakers to enforce a curfew and, ultimately, shut down the airport. But Arnaiz said this week that Tidewater's homes are proposed more than a half-mile from the 60-decibel noise threshold set by the Federal Aviation Administration for development near airports.

Both the Stockton draft General Plan and the Airport Land Use Plan approved by the San Joaquin Council of Governments in the 1990s allow development in the targeted area, officials said. The county's General Plan also allows residential development in some portions of the proposed development, said Kerry Sullivan, the county's community development director.

Still, airport officials say the project is bad for business. In May, Aeromexico officials threatened to pull out of a deal to fly Stockton-to-Guadalajara flights from the airport because of uncertainty surrounding the housing project. That deal has been on hold since U.S. Customs and Border Protection denied a request to staff an inspection station in Stockton.

Arnaiz believes Aeromexico knows little about the Tidewater project and wrote the threatening letter at the prodding of airport officials. He said he contacted the letter's author, Aeromexico official Jaime Bernal, and determined that Bernal couldn't say what direction the project was from the runway.

"He didn't know where it was," Arnaiz said.

Bernal could not be reached for comment Friday.

Arnaiz also says Rondinella is withholding several maps charting landing patterns at the airport. Those maps show that planes rarely fly over the area proposed for development when taking off and landing, Arnaiz said.

Rondinella denies keeping information from the developers. The three maps were provided to officials at Arnaiz, but they were only available in a poster format instead of a smaller page that could fit in a packet.

"I haven't withheld anything and I don't have any intentions to," Rondinella said. "All I'm trying to do is inform the board to the best of my ability and allow them to make the decision. I don't have any personal stake in this."

Tidewater is still in the early stages of the planning process. Documents detailing the project's impact on the surrounding environment are still being drafted, and the city won't begin the review process until after environmental documents for its draft General Plan are circulated in August, said James Glaser, Stockton's community development director.

Arnaiz said he believes Tidewater and the airport can peacefully coexist and even thrive off one another, providing easy flights out of town for residents and stores and industrial space for airport workers. Rondinella also says coexistence is possible but fears it could hinder the airport's efforts to bring more commercial and industrial flights to Stockton.

"It could certainly have ramifications on the airport's future," Rondinella said.

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