ELK GROVE —

Lynn Wheat could have a very different view from her backyard a year from now.

“Even with all the reassurances we’ve been given, we’re still uneasy about it,” said Wheat

Wheat’s uneasy about big project coming to her neighborhood.

The Elk Grove City Council approved building 651 homes on the 230-acre lot near Bond and Waterman Roads.

For years, neighbors have been against the new subdivision—traffic, one of their concerns. They fear some of the streets, like Campbell Road, will be extended.

“If that road is put through, it’s really going to degrade the quality of our area in that rural community,” Wheat said.

But the city says that won`t happen, and traffic won’t be a problem.

For Wheat, there’s another issue too.

“We, as residents, in reviewing the information found that, at one time, this could have been an unsupervised dump,” said Wheat

The city says it’s still looking into potential soil contamination.

“We’ll be doing some further testing on the site before we go into construction,” said Elk Grove City Planning Manager Christopher Jordan.

If the soil is contaminated, the city says they will look at solutions.

Homeowners are also questioning officials on flooding problems.

“They gave us reassurance that this project will actually improve the drainage,” Wheat said.

But Wheat points to Elk Grove’s history; sometimes, when property changes hands, promises are broken.

The city says residents shouldn’t worry.

“All these restrictions apply to future buyers,” Jordan said.

But that might not be enough for Wheat and others. They say they will be holding their breath until development starts next year.

“We’re concerned that it won’t be as we see it now, that in the future we could arrive and it could be something different than what we would like,” said Wheat.