The proposal was put off by Yolo County supervisors during an angry meeting, reported Mary Lynne Vellinga of The Sacramento Bee. However, the proposal is not likely to vanish. Its chief backer, developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, is a persistent businessman. The stem cell proposal was one of three land use proposals that the supervisors were considering. Vellinga wrote:
"Tuesday's vote shelves -- at least for now -- a proposal by Sacramento developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos to build an incubator for stem cell research just south of Interstate 80 outside Davis, and to fund it with profits from the construction of an unspecified number of homes.For more on this issue, see the Yolo item below. Searching on the label Yolo will also turn up additional items.
"The county has been considering inclusion of some 1,500 acres, about 60 percent of the land owned by Tsakopoulos, for an 'innovation corridor' targeting life science and biotechnolgy.
"A bevy of stem cell experts, researchers and accident victims in wheelchairs -- including Ms. Wheelchair California -- turned out Tuesday to support the idea.
"'With your approval, the suffering people would have hope,' said Roman Reed, who was paralyzed when he broke his neck playing football. A state law named after Reed sets aside money for paralysis research.
Robert Klein, chairman of the state-funded California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, also made an appearance. He has been working with Tsakopoulos to promote the idea of a center, which he plans to head.
The supervisors took pains to stress that they would love to see a stem cell research center built in Yolo County but don't support the idea of building housing on the valuable farmland next to the Yolo Bypass. “'The money (for the center) comes from building the houses; that's not something I can support in that area, no matter how much I care,' Thomson said.”
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