Dear Editor,

This past week’s Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) meeting’s public comment session had several people speaking out against the River Walk development being proposed for Riverbank. I agree with their points, which include:

As an age-restricted development (most houses will be for ages 55+) this does nothing to meet the housing needs of Stanislaus County, where many families have been priced out of the housing market.

The project would have a negative impact on the sewer and water facilities that would need to be provided by Riverbank. There are already problems with the city’s sewage treatment capacity. People who live in the development area complain about the poor water quality; building here would not improve the water.

The site is within a floodplain. Even building catch basins to handle a 100-year flood would not save those houses from a mega-storm, which are happening all over the US and in Europe. Let’s keep the land in agriculture since the area is one of the best around for recharging our aquifer.

Traffic on McHenry Avenue, Patterson Road and Coffee Road is already very heavy. Adding up to 2,682 new homes will only make the traffic worse. Bad traffic also equals bad air quality from tailpipe emissions. Stanislaus County has some of the worst air quality in the U.S.

Anita Young