TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

City staffers this week blasted a draft environmental review of the state's high-speed rail project.

The criticism essentially previews Bakersfield's official response to the 3,300 page document.

Complaints listed in a new administrative report target what City Manager Alan Tandy called an "irresponsible" failure by the review to discuss potential mitigation efforts for the rail line, if it is built here.

The High-Speed Rail authority's document includes proposals that the city asserts will impact local transportation projects, convention center parking and the city corporation yard along Truxtun Avenue -- a large fleet operations facility staff valued at $150 million.

Although many of the city's concerns have been raised in earlier staff communications, Bakersfield's new report contains what may be the most detailed and cohesive project comments to date.

The city's administrative report is also notable in that its generally negative tone contrasts with the cooperative approach county and other local officials have adopted as they lobby the California High-Speed Rail Authority for a bullet train maintenance facility in Shafter or Wasco.

A spokeswoman for the rail authority could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

The city expects to submit a formal response to the draft review by Oct. 13, even as staff are pushing to have that deadline extended by 30 days because of the document's complexity. Originally the deadline was to be Sept. 28 but project officials agreed to give the public more time to review what they acknowledged was a complex report.

Sweeping criticism

The city report, written by Planning Director Jim Eggert, calls the draft review "poorly constructed," technically "indecipherable" to most people and dismissive of comments made by city staff in meetings with representatives of the rail authority.

Eggert's report says that the state review fails to specify which public and private properties would be affected by competing train route options. It also takes issue with the fact that only one written copy of the draft review was provided for all of metropolitan Bakersfield, an area populated by half a million people.

"This is a lengthy and complicated report that is extremely difficult to review on a computer screen," the report states.

Both the Westside Parkway and the Centennial Corridor transportation projects could be significantly impacted by the project, the city report says. It notes that the the South Mill Creek apartment development could also be impacted, as could part of Bakersfield High School, Mercado Latino and Mercy Hospital.

The staff report also reiterates complaints that the environmental review does not fully address potential impacts to east Bakersfield, which the rail authority has said will be addressed more fully in a review expected out in about year, even though a decision is due next spring that would largely dictate the impact on neighborhoods east of downtown.

Tandy said he has heard recently from local residents who cannot tell from the environmental review whether their property will be affected by the rail project.

"One guy's property was permanently impacted ... and he had no idea why," the city manager said.

The environmental review, released last month, covers the project's proposed first leg, planned to begin construction late next year between Merced and Bakersfeld. By 2020, the project is proposed to link Anaheim with San Francisco with trains traveling as fast at 220 mph.