Roseville residents worry for "industrial rezoning" for land near neighborhoods
ROSEVILLE -- A plot of land near a neighborhood in Roseville is stirring up some controversy. The more than 230-acre property is located at the Reason Farms Panhandle on the westside of town.
The city has big plans for the property, but residents worry about what that will be. The future of the parcel of land drew people like Arlene Starrh to Thursday night's meeting.
It comes more than six months after the city entered into an exclusive proposal with developer Panattoni. It called for up to 15 industrial warehouses located next to a neighborhood on Phillip Road.
"We were made aware of an environmental impact report of this proposal and it was devastating," Starrh said.
Residents like Starrh pushed back on the original proposal and successfully paused the project from moving forward.
"The original proposal is off the table and part of the process of what you're hearing tonight from folks is what they want to see," development manager Abbie Wertheim said.
Over the summer, Panattoni met with neighbors to find out what they would like to see. Labeled with posted notes, residents placed what kind of businesses they would like to see move in. The displays were shared at Thursday's meeting. While some of them included things like commercial businesses, none of them said "industrial buildings."
The plan is now in the hands of Panattoni to create a new proposal with some of the community insight in mind.
"The concern with us is, even though we don't know what the proposal is, we do know that Panatoni is an industrial developer, they build mega warehouses. That's what they do," Starrh said.
However, in order to build an industrial park, the land would need to be rezoned to "industrial use." The city hasn't approved rezoning the land yet, but the city says any changes will depend on the final proposal.