Oakdale: New step to control growth

By LESLIE ALBRECHT
lalbrecht@modbee.com

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OAKDALE -- The housing slump may have silenced the hammers that once pounded in new subdivisions, but the city is quietly laying the groundwork for its next round of growth.

At its Tuesday night meeting, the City Council will vote on a consulting contract that would draft specific development plans for swaths of land on the city's eastern and western edges.

If approved, the $2.5 million agreement also would charge the Sacramento office of consulting firm PBS&J with the job of updating Oakdale's general plan, the document that outlines how the city will grow for the next 20 years.

If approved, the specific development plans for the eastern and western edges of Oakdale would be the first the city has initiated since 2001. The plans will sketch out growth blueprints showing where streets and parks would go, and how housing and other buildings would be laid out.

Oakdale's last two major developments, Bridle Ridge and Burchell Hill, consisted almost entirely of single-family housing. The consulting agreement the council considers Tuesday would draw plans for mixed-use developments that would include commercial, retail and office space as well as housing.

"We're really deficient on retail commercial land opportunities," Community Development Director Danelle Stylos said. "We are, in a sense, built out in those categories. This is an opportunity to provide more commercial opportunities than what's currently available."

Property owners with land in the planning areas will foot the bill for the specific development plans. The plans take about two years to create. The land must be annexed into the city before any development can happen there.

The specific development plans are part of Oakdale's controlled approach to growth, City Manager Steve Hallam said.

Oakdale doesn't allow growth to happen on a parcel-by-parcel piecemeal basis, Hallam said. Instead, the city has carved out 11 areas surrounding downtown where it wants to see development -- eventually.

The city will allow development in one of those areas only after a specific plan is in hand that sketches out how the entire area will de- velop, not just the parcel where one developer wants to build. Each area is annexed into the city only after that specific development plan is complete.

"It's a very good process that keeps the community of Oakdale in control of its destiny, deciding the phasing and the geographic area of how we want to grow," Hallam said. "That's what's different about this process. The City Council is in the driver's seat."

The council meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. in council chambers, 277 N. Second Ave.

Bee staff writer Leslie Albrecht can be reached at lalbrecht@modbee.com or 578-2378.