Delta College’s plans once included a campus at the northern county line, in November the board approved sale of the land
In 2006, the San Joaquin Delta Community College District Board of Trustees purchased approximately 141.88 acres of property in a rural part of Galt for $2 million.
Sixteen years later, and the land is now being sold to the San Joaquin Council of Government (SJCOG) for a total of $1,342,557.50.
The sale is largely due to the fact that the property was deemed not suitable for district use for environmental reasons.
The board voted unanimously to sell the land to SJCOG during its Nov.15 meeting.
Delta originally bought the land from a local farming group back in 2006. The selling price is less than what Delta paid for the land, prompting board members to ask why the land wasn’t put on the open market.
“We didn’t test the open market because of the limited land use availability for the property,” said W. Bryce Chastain, legal counsel representing Delta College in the sale. “There wasn’t going to be an opportunity for us to increase our profitability on sale by advertising. We would spend money for a broker, for advertising, for other different things that would be associated with the sale.”
This north campus in Galt was long planned, but a Collegian article from April 2022
notes that “those plans never materialized despite Delta College owning 140 acres of land there.”
By 2016, however, it became clear that the land was ill-suited for Delta’s multi-campus plans.
In November 2016, a report to the board noted the potential for widespread flooding on the land. It also noted that a federally protected species of shrimp, the Vernal Pool Fairy Shrimp, were found to be inhabiting the land.
“It’s pretty much a water land,” said former Delta Trustee Richard Vasquez in an article written by the Lodi News Sentinel in Apr. 2017.
There are currently no estimates on closing costs. Escrow period is estimated to last about 180 days with an additional 90 days of extension time. Delta expects to close on the sale of the land sometime during the early spring 2023 semester.
“There’s no reason to keep it. We’re not using it,” said Delta Trustee Kathleen Garcia.