Credit Modesto mayor's focus on growth

There was relatively little discussion about it Tuesday night, but the City Council's 7-0 vote on a long-term growth map for Modesto represented a milestone for outgoing Mayor Jim Ridenour.

For most of his eight years in office, Ridenour has been convening the nine mayors in the county with a goal of getting each city and the county to take a regional approach to planning.

Originally, the intent to was to fend off citizen initiatives that could severely limit cities' growth rates and patterns. More recently, the mayors have been trying to avoid having a county planning agency impose ag mitigation regulations that would require an acre of land to be preserved in ag uses for every acre of farmland that is consumed by development.

Ridenour has only a month left as mayor, and now he'll leave office with his city having achieved his goal of identifying a long-term growth limit.

The other cities are adopting plans, too, and soon they'll go before the Local Agency Formation Commission. Ultimately, the intent is to take all these plans to voters, either late this year or in 2013.

Modesto has taken a fairly reasonable approach, using its current General Plan boundary, adopted in 1995, as the identified growth area up to 2050. Make no mistake, this still allows ample room for more houses and businesses. Between 1970 and 2008, Modesto added an average 1,300 dwelling units annually. The map would allow that rate of growth to continue and more. There also is room for new businesses and industrial uses.

However, Modesto's proposed expansion is modest compared with the smaller cities. Seven of the nine are setting their urban growth limit beyond their current General Plan areas.

Also, the limited public comment Tuesday doesn't mean there won't be controversy over the amount and direction of Modesto's growth. The map shows Modesto taking in all of Salida — the original town west of Highway 99, later developments and everything within the Salida Community Plan that was approved by the Board of Supervisors.

We have no sense yet whether Salidans want to become Modestans sometime in the next 35 years.

We do we want to applaud Ridenour, however, for his hard work in encouraging these important regional growth discussions.