WETLANDS PROTECTION
Developer plows deep into property rights
Tsakopoulos has interests in Galt, Tracy
San Joaquin Record - 1/5/03
By Andy Samuelson, staff writer
GALT -- While driving along a private dirt road on the rolling hills of his
property, Angelo Tsakopoulos stopped his car and pointed at a pool of water
that sits in between rows of vineyards.
"See the vernal pool," he said. "See how we avoided it."
As the trip continued on his Borden Ranch, the 66-year-old Tsakopoulos indicated
other precautions he took to preserve the environment, such as saving vernal
pools and preserving natural swales by harvesting around them.
Upon reaching the patch of wetland that put him on the losing end of a recent
U.S. Supreme Court decision, Tsakopoulos became agitated; his voice grew louder.
He still couldn't believe the high court upheld a ruling that he violated the
law for deep-plowing his fields to produce grapes and apples.
He was forced to pay $500,000 and restore four acres of wetlands, but he said
the case has cost him about $20 million in damages.
Yet, he's not dejected.
The Greek immigrant, whose company is developing the proposed 5,000-home Tracy
Hills project and has built housing projects throughout Northern California,
said the publicity garnered from the case has enhanced his reputation among
farmers as a property-rights advocate who has been wronged by an intrusive government.
"If I'm embittered, they win," Tsakopoulos said. "I will not
allow them to win. They must not win, because they are wrong."
His Supreme Court case became an ideological battle between environmentalists
seeking to preserve valuable wetlands and farmers' rights on their land.
Throughout the 1990s, Tsakopoulos used a deep plow to tear through wetlands
without obtaining a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to grow his
grapes and apples on 900 acres. Such plowing cuts beneath the land's surface
about 7 feet, and can ruin vernal pools and affect drainage to nearby creeks,
both of which may support fragile wildlife.
Tsakopoulos said before he bought the property, corps engineers told him that
deep ripping of the soil was exempt from the Clean Water Act for the purpose
of producing food.
The corps' position had been that he needed a permit to do work in the wetlands
and swales, spokesman Jim Taylor said.
"That was what we maintained from the beginning," Taylor said.
The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court ruling with a 4-4 vote, saying that
farmers needed to have the same type of permits as other developers for wetlands.
Tsakopoulos said he expects the ruling will be overturned should Justice Anthony
M. Kennedy, a fellow Sacramentan, take part in a vote on a similar case.
Kennedy did not participate in the Borden Ranch case, because he knows Tsakopoulos.
Vicki Lee, conservation chairwoman with the Sierra Club's Mother Lode chapter,
said the court's ruling kept Tsakopoulos from ultimately ripping up the land
and building houses on it.
"Vineyards are a predecessor to housing," Lee said. "He tried
to eliminate the protections of the wetlands."
But Tsakopoulos said he has no intention of converting the land. He said if
the ruling stands, the government permits will become a burden to small farmers
who can't afford to pay the fees.
"The government wants to control everything," Tsakopoulos said. "The
government wants to control farming. They are using every pretense to do that."
Tsakopoulos has a background in farming. When he came to America from Greece
as a teenager, Tsakopoulos worked on his uncle's farm in Lodi.
He said he took up this cause because he wanted to protect the small farmer.
Yet Tsakopoulos has made his name as a developer and land speculator, rather
than a laborer of the earth.
He owns property throughout Sacramento County and has been involved in controversial
developments such as Natoma Station in Folsom and Laguna Creek in Elk Grove.
He also been known to buy batches of land and then use his influence with government
officials to change the zoning so he can sell at a higher price.
His political sway is famous.
Tsakopoulos' family ranks among the more generous donors to the Democratic Party,
and he has well-documented connections to such political heavyweights as state
Treasurer and former California Democratic Party Chairman Phil Angelides, San
Francisco Mayor and one-time state Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, and former
President Bill Clinton.
It has been widely reported Tsakopoulos once was rewarded for his financial
support of Clinton's re-election campaign with an overnight stay in the Lincoln
Bedroom of the White House.
His influence concerns some local conservationists who have kept a watchful
eye on Tracy's rapid growth.
Tsakopoulos' company, AKT Development Corp., took over the Tracy Hills project
in 2001 from Stockton-based Grupe Development Co. The long-delayed project under
Grupe entailed building 5,000 homes on 2,000 acres in south Tracy.
Tsakopoulos said he is not involved in the Tracy Hills project and referred
calls about it to his daughter and company president, Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis,
and Mike Souza, a Tracy developer.
Nonetheless, Eric Parfrey, a spokesman for the Sierra Club, which has battled
with Tracy officials about development, still worries.
He says he thinks Tsakopoulos will wield a heavy hand in Tracy Hills' progress.
Lee, too, worries.
"He buys political influence and professional services of attorneys and
engineers who can make the case for him to part the Red Sea," Lee said.
"Whatever he decides to do, he decides and then he sets forth to make it
happen."
Tracy City Councilwoman Evelyn Tolbert said she also doesn't think Tsakopoulos'
legal battles will have a lingering effect when it comes time to vote on Tracy
Hills.
Souza, the builder, agreed, adding the project is years away from being developed.
Tsakopoulos dismisses his critics.
He said he's always trying to find a middle ground among the environment, building
homes and growing food.
"People on one side say, 'Developers are horrible and we should not develop
anything,' " Tsakopoulos said. "Then we have others who say, 'We don't
have to save anything; we can do whatever we want with our land.'
"That is not good," he added. "We need to have a middle ground."
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