Phillip Road Site

On this public parcel of land with water rights — in the City of Roseville, California — industrial development would jeopardize Quality of Life

Phillip Road Site: Water, Power and the Infrastructure Question

Episode 6 - Water, Utilities, and Infrastructure Strain

Water, Power, and the Infrastructure Question

A development plan is only as real as the water, wires, pipes, and public systems required to make it work.

The proposed Phillip Road Site project is not simply a land-use map. The State CEQA record describes an approximately 176-acre mixed-use proposal with up to 664 homes, retail and medical-office space, more than one million square feet of innovation-center uses, parks, trails, a new electrical substation, utility extensions, and roadway improvements. It would also bring new infrastructure across and around an area shaped by Pleasant Grove Creek and the surrounding watershed.

The Draft Environmental Impact Report, or DEIR, states that the project would require extensions of potable-water, recycled-water, wastewater, stormwater, and electrical infrastructure from nearby connections. Those extensions would occur within the project disturbance area, existing roadways, and a public-utility easement along Blue Oaks Boulevard. The DEIR concludes that the project-level impact from new or expanded utility infrastructure would be less than significant, based on the infrastructure described and evaluated in the document.

That conclusion is one part of the picture, not the whole picture.

Water: More Than One Number

The DEIR estimates total annual project water demand at approximately 1,002 acre-feet per year: 368 acre-feet of potable water and 634 acre-feet of recycled water. The potable-water calculation assumes recycled water will serve much of the irrigation demand and assumes conservation measures such as reduced turf area and smart irrigation controllers.

The recycled-water figure deserves particular attention because it reflects more than landscaping. The DEIR states that approximately 96 acre-feet per year of recycled water would serve landscape irrigation and that approximately 538 acre-feet per year could be associated with cooling if a data center were developed. The DEIR also states that recycled-water infrastructure would need to be built before recycled water could be supplied to the site.

The City’s conclusion is that sufficient water supplies would be available for the project during normal, dry, and multiple-dry-year conditions, based on the 2022 Water Supply Assessment and its 2025 amendment. That is the City’s technical conclusion, and it should be stated plainly. At the same time, the analysis depends on the assumptions built into the project’s water-conservation plan, recycled-water infrastructure, and anticipated development scenario.

Water planning is rarely dramatic until it is. Most of the time, it is a spreadsheet, a pump station, a pipe diameter, and a construction schedule. Those details are exactly why residents are entitled to understand them before a large project is approved.

Power: The Substation Is Part of the Project, Not a Footnote

Electricity is another central element of the proposal. The DEIR estimates that the project would require approximately 49 megavolt-amperes of power at buildout. It states that Roseville Electric has identified 5 MVA of available power for the project, with the remaining 44 MVA expected to come from a new on-site electrical substation. The DEIR describes a proposed substation footprint of approximately 225 by 175 feet, with likely steel structures and overhead 60-kilovolt line extensions within a public-utility easement along Blue Oaks Boulevard.

The City separately states that no tenants or businesses are currently proposed. It also states that a hyperscale data center is not possible at the site and that a potential data center would be limited by the project’s planned electrical capacity and restricted to recycled water. Those distinctions matter: a data center is a potential use evaluated under the proposed zoning, not an announced tenant or approved facility.

A Less-Than-Significant Finding Does Not End the Conversation

The DEIR’s project-level utility findings are less than significant. Its cumulative analysis, however, identifies utilities and service systems as a significant and unavoidable cumulative impact, stating that no additional feasible mitigation measures are available to reduce that cumulative impact below a significant level.

That is not necessarily contradictory. CEQA evaluates the direct project and the broader combination of past, present, and reasonably foreseeable development separately. But it is an important distinction for the public: a project may be considered adequately served on paper while still contributing to a larger regional infrastructure challenge.

What the Public Comments Add

The public-comment record featured by Save Reason Farms repeatedly returns to the question of whether important infrastructure commitments are sufficiently concrete, complete, and enforceable.

The featured advocacy submission argues that the DEIR is not an adequate informational document. The Center for Biological Diversity letter urges correction of what it identifies as deficiencies in the environmental analysis. Public Comment Letter #2 raises a claimed piecemealing concern regarding a 60-inch sewer line and future development it may serve.

The remaining featured letters expand the accountability theme in different directions: student walking and bicycling safety; the breadth and clarity of the proposed “innovation” designation; deferred planning and mitigation; neighborhood quality of life; proximity of advanced manufacturing to homes, schools, and sports fields; localized pollution concerns; enforceability of CEQA mitigation; solar as a mitigation measure; on-site greenhouse-gas reductions; and reliance on future fees, plans, and assumptions. These are commenters’ positions, not City findings. But together, they ask a fair planning question: are the major infrastructure commitments clear enough to evaluate before approval?

Neighborhood discussion, including posts on platforms such as Nextdoor, can be useful for identifying the everyday questions people want answered. It should not substitute for the DEIR, engineering plans, water assessments, utility agreements, or enforceable mitigation measures. Community concern can identify the issue; the public record must supply the answer.

For the Phillip Road Site, the practical questions are straightforward.

Infrastructure is easy to overlook because most of it sits underground or behind a fence. But it is where every ambitious development proposal eventually meets reality.