North County Corridor key study kicks off debate over final route options

Six decades of talking about a bypass around Oakdale are coming together in a newly released planning document that should spark new discussion on which path the future road should take.

The North County Corridor’s draft Environmental Impact Report represents “a major milestone,” said Matt Machado, public works director for Stanislaus County.

The key document outlines benefits of the expressway – speeding up travel and smoothing out congestion north of Modesto and around Riverbank and Oakdale – as well as sacrifices, including more than 100 homes and some three dozen businesses that will have to move, depending on which of four options is chosen, in about a year.

The California Department of Transportation will accept people’s comments through Sept. 22, and will stage an information open house in Oakdale on Sept. 7.

The expressway would run 18 to 22 miles, from Kiernan Avenue at Tully Road in northeast Modesto to Highway 108 east of Oakdale. It would feature freeway interchanges at McHenry Avenue, Coffee and Oakdale roads, and Roselle Avenue.

Officials lately have estimated the cost at about $700 million; the document refines that with guesses ranging from $660 million to $699 million.

Most of the money has not been secured. Of $239 million needed just to design the expressway and buy extra land needed for it, $60 million would come from Measure L, the countywide transportation tax approved by voters in November.

Traffic – already horrendous at peak hours in some areas, particularly between Modesto and Riverbank – is expected to get much worse without the expressway. For example, about 16,656 vehicles passed through Pelandale Avenue at Coffee Road in 2014, and that number could grow to 53,700 by 2042 without improvements, the document says.

“The no-build alternative would result in continued deterioration of roadway levels of service, increased traffic congestion, reduced ability to move goods and services, and increased impacts to air quality and noise,” the report says.

A highway with few intersections would bring traffic reductions ranging from 11 percent to 27 percent, depending on location, the document says. For example, driving time from Kiernan and Tully to the Tuolumne County border could be cut from 32 1/2 minutes to 27 minutes, according to estimates for the year 2022, the document says.

Depending on which option is selected, the expressway would displace:

▪  From 114 to 136 homes. They include 68 to 88 houses, eight to 22 mobile homes, and 30 to 32 apartment and duplex units.

▪  33 to 42 businesses, including four churches, several stores, restaurants and auto shops, a used auto lot, a junk yard, several farms, a cell tower and more.

▪  In agriculture, from 397 acres to 576 acres farmed by seven to 16 farm operations.

Rainbow Fields, a popular softball complex at Claus and Claribel roads, would lose 1 1/2 acres of parking space. Access will be hampered during construction, but the complex otherwise would survive, the report says.

Displaced people should be able to find another place to live, the document says, listing 453 homes for sale or rent in Modesto, Oakdale, Riverbank and Ceres, and noting more nearby in Salida and Empire.

“The magnitude of the proposed project is considerable” to displaced people in all four route options, the document says, noting that “neighbors, friends and family often provide emotional support that cannot be easily replicated” in another spot. Such loss is “significant and unavoidable,” the report concludes.

The new study indicates that those to move include:

Manufacturers

Bambacigno Steel Co., K-B Farm Fab & Welding, and Mobility Plus, which makes home medical equipment.

Retail businesses

Showcase Auto Sales, Empire Sportsmen’s Association card room, Ray’s Carpet Flooring Studio, and the Taco Bell and Boyett gas station with Cruisers convenience store at the southwest corner of Kiernan and McHenry.

Services

All Sports Training Center, Dynamic Mixed Martial Arts & Fitness, Modesto Auto Service, America’s Radiator Service, Modesto Transmission, Car Tech Synergy, Central Valley Window Tinting, Stanislaus Custom Upholstery, Wilfredo’s Garage Door Service, Modesto Furniture Wholesalers, Keystone Modesto Auto Finishes and Leisure RV Storage.

Churches

Seed of Joy Worship Center, Covenant Grove and Iglesia Emmauel de Riverbank. A Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses would lose 15 parking spaces on a strip of land, but no buildings.

Some units would be lost in Morningside Mobile Home Park on Claribel, but the document doesn’t specify how many.

The total counts are not far off from an estimate first released in 2009 listing 124 homes, nine commercial buildings, 27 industrial buildings and 37 farm buildings.

Those to move have not yet been contacted by the government. That will happen in coming months as consultants prepare a second phase of studies known as the final Environmental Impact Report.

“Oh, wow. I didn’t know,” said Jason Gonzalez, who has operated America’s Radiator & Mufflers near Kiernan and McHenry for nearly 15 years. “This is new to me.”

The law requires that the government compensate property owners for land taken in such projects. Caltrans also must help those displaced to find new homes and spots to conduct business, and pay to help them move. If negotiations stall, the government can use eminent domain power to seize property; sometimes disputes over fair market value are resolved in court.

Nick Shamoon would rather not relocate Showcase Auto Sales, “unless they compensate me very well,” he said. He and others in strips along Kiernan, west of McHenry, say they lost business because of decreased vehicle access when crews recently widened Kiernan.

“We were really inconvenienced,” said Yashar Nazi of Car Tech Synergy.

The Empire Sportsmen’s Association, a card room at Kiernan and McHenry, lost 35 prime parking spots in front during the recent widening. But the business appreciates the better roadway bringing patrons.

“We’ve got a good group of people trying to make the business grow,” said general manager Srinivas Cherukuri. “Our industry is based on getting new business, so changes like (road construction) could make it difficult. There is a human element to people in business, and people who live there.”

The new document will pique interest of locals in particular areas; for instance, these roads would be raised to cross over the North County Corridor, in some scenarios: Eleanor Avenue, and Langworth, Patterson and Kaufman roads, and the Oakdale-Waterford Highway.

Most of the coming discussion is expected in areas east of Riverbank, where engineers have studied four route options. Two would end with a roundabout east of Oakdale near Atlas Road, and the other two at a roundabout farther east, at Lancaster Road.

Oakdale city leaders already have taken a stance against the two nearer paths, saying they prefer those farthest to the east.

In coming weeks, leaders with the county, Modesto, Oakdale and Riverbank will try to get on the same page with a unified recommendation.

But the California Department of Transportation will have the final say, so the new report features scads of data and information on all four route options.

The option known as 1B would sacrifice the fewest homes (114) while displacing the fewest residents (327), as well as the fewest farms (seven). That’s compared to losing 136 homes, displacing 390 people and sacrificing 16 farms under option 2A, one of those abhorred by Oakdale officials and neighbors in the Atlas area.

However, 1B would gobble the most farmland – 576 acres, compared to 397 acres in Option 2A. And Option 2B would be the most expensive, at $699 million, while 1A would be cheapest.

So debate and negotiation could be on the horizon as leaders seek consensus.

All four could cause significant change in terms of growth, noise, wetlands and displaced people and companies, the report says.

“Future development is likely to be attracted to developable land along the proposed corridor, and such growth pressure may act as a factor to accelerate the conversion of agricultural lands,” the document says. It listed Options 1A and 2B as best for compact growth.

Officials might have to permanently preserve vernal pools elsewhere to make up for those destroyed by the North County Corridor, the document says. Also of concern is loss of habitat for critters such as bats, Western burrowing owls, Swainson’s hawks, California horned larks, white-tailed kites, merlins, tricolored blackbirds, valley elderberry longhorn beetles, Pacific pond turtles, Western spadefoot toads, loggerhead shrikes and vernal pool invertebrates.

The draft Environmental Impact Report actually is a compilation of 18 separate studies. Together, they comprise 11,054 pages.

Other tidbits gleaned from the study:

▪  On average, people near the North County Corridor have lived in their houses about 8 1/2 years.

▪  People near the North County Corridor have a higher income than most of the rest of the county.

This story was originally published August 13, 2017 at 4:41 PM.