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Flying Cars Two Years Away

Daily Republic: NEWS Index: "Milk Farm Partners wants to develop 30 acres of the 60-acre site off of Interstate 80 and Milk Farm Road - 30 acres for highway commercial use and 30 for agricultural activities, according to Milk Farm Associates' September 2002 report. Four highway commercial acres will be set aside for research and development.

The project includes restaurants, lodging and conference facilities, retail shops, a pond, and recreation and picnic areas. The agricultural part of the project will include seasonal and permanent amenities.

Paul Moller, the man spearheading this project, is a retired University of California, Davis, professor and founder of Moller International, a research and development company dedicated to inventing the first flying car. The research side of the proposed facility, if built as presently planned, will expand the building where Moller is currently working on Skycar and other transportation-related projects.

Milk Farm Partner LLP originally submitted a redevelopment proposal for the Milk Farm to the county, but withdrew it and made a formal application to the city of Dixon in June 2002. Since then, they have applied for an environmental review, sphere of influence amendment, general plan amendment, annexation and pre-zoning for 60 acres of land at the historic site at I-80 and Milk Farm Road. Annexation of the land is key, and will have to be approved by LAFCO.

'It would provide a gateway to the city that doesn't exist right now,' project manager Steve Peterson said. 'It would also provide jobs in the highway commercial and retail facilities there.' Peterson's company, Environmental Stewardship & Planning, represents Moller's interests in the project.

Now that the Dixon City Council authorized Baseline Environmental Consulting to begin the environmental review, the project is officially under way. The review will take about a year.

'At this point, we have quite a long ways to go,' Peterson said. 'Obviously, sooner would be better by us, but we'll see how it goes. We'll look forward to working with city and county to see if we can make it a reality.'"

jaynote: ok, so why the headline? Moller needs this facility to do flight testing of his flying car. Their site describes how they need to develop the lake over which the unteathered flights will happen. Since the environmental review will take a year, chances are we won't see it zipping around untill 2006.

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