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| Stockton Record, Monday, October 29, 2001 |
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| MOUNTAIN HOUSE INCHING ALONG TO FUTURE CITYHOOD- Mountain House - Quietly, a new town is putting down roots west of Tracy. |
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An observer headed west on Byron Road can’t help but notice the flurry of activity on both sides just before the Alameda County line. Mountain House, usually thought of in the future sense, is now the present. "It’s pretty exciting out there," said Paul Sensibaugh, general manager of the Mountain House Community Services District. "In about a year, it’ll look like a real development."
Even now, the work along Byron Road suggests something big in the offing. A westbound driver can see crews at work on a number of fronts on the south side of the road once past Mountain House Parkway.
Stretching south on the parkway is a long line of warning barriers signaling the lack of a road shoulder as crews move dirt, grade land and lay pipe.
The activity is unbroken on a parallel line along Byron, stopping just before the county line. On the north side, off Kelso Road, other progress is visible. A pair of circular red structures will serve as water reservoirs for the new community. In shape, they resemble the new Tracy water reservoir seen north of East 11th Street at Chrisman Road.
Stacks of pipe along the trenches, and piled construction equipment nearby, tell an observer that the work is just beginning. Teichert Construction crews are at work on the water and wastewater treatment plants that are only part one of the town.
Sensibaugh said work will begin in the spring on actual homes for Mountain House, which will eventually have a population of about 45,000, including its own city government, high school and more. The end of that, though, won’t come for 30 years.
San Joaquin County’s Board of Supervisors took another step forward earlier this month when they approved a map for the first area of the town, referred to as Wicklund Crossing. Sensibaugh said the decision is one step closer to putting the first residents in the community. "As each neighborhood develops, each will have a final map to it," he said.
One supervisor, though, is still on the sidelines on Mountain Hose votes. Lynn Bedford, a hay farmer who owns property next to the project’s boundaries, said the board’s counsel told him voting on the project could be a conflict of interest.
Bedford represents south San Joaquin County on the board, including Tracy and the area that will constitute Mountain House. But while he isn’t voting, he said, he can’t help but notice that the view outside his window is changing. "I’ve been here 55 years, and little ground left between here and Tracy is in the hands of farmers," he said. "I’ve seen it go from cow pastures to residential. People want those houses."
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