About $80 million will have to be spent for roads and facilities before a single house is sold at the proposed Yuba Highlands subdivision, the developer of the small city right across the Nevada County border said Thursday.

Despite its cost, scope and concerns expressed at recent public meetings in Yuba County about the 5,000-house project, developer Gary Gallelli has not stopped.

And Gallelli thinks a good percentage of the people who buy the homes will be military veterans who want to be close to services at adjoining Beale Air Force Base, so he has a vested interest in the base’s survival.

One of the major concerns is that the project would encroach on base operations and security, putting its future in jeopardy. That has concerned many area retirees, who go to Beale for services.

But at a meeting this week in Marysville, Gallelli told a group of veterans the project will be 4-1⁄2 miles from Beale’s main runway, so it won’t produce noise over the development which could house 15,000 people between Beale, the Spenceville Wildlife Area and Hammonton-Smartville Road.

“We’re not below the runway. We’re due east,” Gallelli said. “The Air Force has already said it’s OK.”

Currently, the United States Air Force takes no position on the project, although a past commander said he considered it a major possible encroachment on the base.

Gallelli consultant John Murphy of the Public Private Solutions Group said documents used in 1995 and 2005 to defend the base from closure acknowledged the project, and it did not surpass Air Force encroachment criteria. Murphy said an occasional split traffic pattern at Beale sends planes out over the development area northeast of the runway. But those planes climb to high altitude before returning to land in what he called a normal airport procedure.

Dealing with the Air Force base is just one of Gallelli’s hurdles.

His project will require “severe mitigations” to area roads he will have to improve or create.

“Before we sell a house, we’ll spend $20 to $25 million on county roads alone,” Gallelli said. His hope is for the first home to be built in 2010, with complete build out in 10 years.

“A wastewater treatment plant will have to be completed,” before homes are sold, Gallelli said. “And that’s not counting schools.”

He foresees the Wheatland School District building three or four schools. He would provide the sites “and some creative financing” to help the district get the job done.

Gallelli does not think his development will severely impact traffic into Nevada County on Highway 20, but does foresee Yuba Highlands residents using it to shop and relax in Nevada County.

“The majority of the traffic will go south and east into Yuba and Placer counties,” Gallelli said. “A key point is, we’re out of the flood plain. Finally, Yuba County has a community that won’t be in danger” because of an old and tenuous levee system.

“We’re not paving over any prime agricultural land, either,” he added.

Many in Nevada County have complained about the project’s potential impacts to the Spenceville Wildlife Area. Gallelli said 450-foot setbacks should help. He also said that a portion of the area closest to his development is not the best part of it, according to Fish and Game officials he has talked to.

The project’s environmental report is being scrutinized by the Yuba County Planning Commission. The commission will conduct the second of two hearings on the report at 6 p.m. Thursday at 915 Eighth St. in Marysville.

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To contact Senior Staff Writer Dave Moller, e-mail davem@theunion.com or call 477-4237.