Shopping center coming – but when?

Yuba Highlands developer Gary Gallelli is back with a new project that would be good news for Plumas Lake residents: A 57-acre shopping center is on its way.

The bad news part, though, is that until the economy and housing start a turnaround, there won't be much progress with the Feather River Gateway project.

Planned for north of Arboga Road between Highway 70 and the still-to-be-built extension of River Oaks Avenue, the center would have space for 23 stores, including two big-box retailers and some restaurants and smaller stores.

Gallelli was a prominent figure in last year's debate over Yuba Highlands, a planned community of 5,000 homes near Beale Air Force Base that voters overwhelmingly rejected in a ballot measure.

Gallelli said Feather River Gateway is on hold until the economy improves.

"If you can tell me when rooftops will start being built again, I can tell you when this project will move ahead," Gallelli said. "My crystal ball is rather fuzzy."

Feather River Gateway has been in the works for a couple years, he said, but interest from commercial stores faded as economic conditions worsened nine months ago.

A Yuba County project planner said with a parcel map approved, Feather River Gateway won't need any further governmental approval until it reaches the point of design and building permits.

"I believe the developer is anxious to get some tenants in," said Dan Cucchi of Yuba County's Community Development and Services Agency.

In addition to the economy, though, neighboring infrastructure will need to be improved before the project moves ahead.

Primary access for the center would be from River Oaks Road, which has yet to extend that far north.

Cucchi said he believed the responsibility of building the road will fall to developers in that area, which means Gallelli and the housing developers behind Ross Ranch, which would be across River Oaks Boulevard from the shopping center.

Gallelli said building the road, too, would probably wait until the market improves.

Once the center moves ahead, Gallelli said he's not sure what stores will fill it.

"Wal-Mart and Target will still be around. Home Depot and Lowe's will still be around," he said. "We'll see who's surviving. There are probably some potential tenants who will no longer be around."

Even with a delay, some Plumas Lake residents welcomed the idea of being able to shop close to home.

"It'll probably be easier than going to Linda," said Jerry Lee, 33, as he took a break from mowing his lawn on a sunny afternoon. "I'd approve of it."

Michael Andreini, who moved his family to Plumas Lake after spells in Rocklin and Lincoln, said much of his shopping now has to be planned to hit as many places as possible.

"It's a little stretched out sometimes," said Andreini, 43, who added that he does most of his shopping in Lincoln because he gets prescriptions there.

The addition of stores would help in other ways too, he said.

"You get some stores out here, what's that do to the tax bracket?" he said. "You'll have police, and a little substation. They say they want it to be a little town."

Gallelli said there's nothing new to report about Yuba Highlands, which voters rejected in the form of Measure N in February 2008, with 77.6 percent of the vote.

Yuba County supervisors had approved the project twice before the vote. Gallelli said before the Measure N vote that he planned to eventually reintroduce the project with different characteristics to make it more palatable to residents.

Gallelli said this week that Yuba Highlands, like the shopping center, wouldn't move forward until the economy improves.

He also said he has still not paid the county $105,199 for an environmental-impact report on Yuba Highlands because he said the report was poorly done.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com.