The arduous process of beautifying a Modesto street

Last year, Modesto embarked on a project to beautify one downtown block. The improvements included installing 15 planter boxes with Chinese pistache trees, decorative cement that looks like bricks, and tables with umbrellas for outdoor dining.

The roughly $200,000 project is on Tenth Street between J and I streets, and several businesses along the block say the project has improved the street’s curb appeal.

“We were quite pleased with it,” Chartreuse Muse gallery manager Jennifer Price said, adding she has seen an increase in foot traffic along the block. “Before they did all the work … it looked sad and pathetic.”

But the project has a downside. The work took much longer than the city said it would, and the frequent street closures hurt some of the businesses. The street has been closed again for more work. And some are not happy the city reduced the number of street parking spaces from 40 to 30 to make room for the planter boxes along the curbs.

“Aesthetically, it looks nice,” Central Stamp and Coin Co. owner John Whitehead said. “But it was not worth it. I don’t see the point. Take out the planters and put in the parking. I don’t get it.” He estimated the project took about six months and the block was partially or fully closed about half of that time.

The planter boxes have caused another problem. The concrete boxes jut into the street and are built low to the ground so people can sit on them. But that makes it difficult for drivers to see them. As of this spring, drivers had hit them about a half-dozen times.

The project also sparked debate at City Hall among officials over such concerns as what kinds of trees to plant and how to pay for the work. In the end, the city used its general fund, which is used primarily for public safety and has come under scrutiny as the city looks to find money to hire more police officers.

In order to save money, the city did not hire a contractor and used its own workers. City Manager Jim Holgersson said the effort was well-intentioned but said the city will not use its own workers again on a project like this because they are stretched too thin. City workers juggled the project with their other duties and worked on Tenth Street in fits and starts.

The Community and Economic Development Department took the lead on the project and worked with the Downtown Modesto Partnership, with the partnership’s urban design team helping with the design. Deputy City Manager Brent Sinclair said the city picked the block because of its blighted condition and it connects Tenth Street Plaza with Gallo Center for the Arts.

Sinclair touted the project in a March email to other city officials after The Modesto Bee asked questions about the project’s funding sources. “The project was designed to be a WIN-WIN-WIN for the (Modesto) DT Partnership, the City, the property owners benefiting from the improvements and the community as a whole. Anyone feel like a winner? Well YOU SHOULD ! It is a great project and you and your staff need to be PROUD of it. I am!”

The Bee obtained Sinclair’s email through a public records request. Other emails and documents obtained through the request highlight some of the project’s problems.

How to pay for the work

The project’s proponents expected to use funding sources that are used for street maintenance and similar work. Those are among the funding sources the council approved in June 2015. But Public Works Director Bill Sandhu warned proponents that was not an appropriate use of the funds and that formal funding arrangements for the project were never put into place.

In March, the City Council approved taking $190,714 from the general fund to reimburse those funds.

In a 2014 report to the council about the project, Sinclair and Josh Bridegroom – the city’s former downtown project manager who now oversees the downtown partnership – wrote the city expected to raise as much as half of the project’s costs through donations. But that fell short. They also at the time estimated the project cost at about $100,000.

The Modesto Garden Club paid $6,588 for the purchase of the trees and one of the Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Modesto classes raised $25,400 to pay for lights that wrap around the trees, landscaping for the planter boxes and a plaque to honor those who contributed to the project.

These contributions are in addition to what the city has spent on labor, materials and other costs. The city is not yet done with the project. The street was closed earlier this month as workers put in two crosswalks with the stamped concrete that looks like brick. It also plans to put what is called a slurry seal on the street over the summer.

Dispute over the trees

The project called for planting Chinese pistache trees in the planter boxes, but the city’s forestry division balked. Based on forestry’s experience, these trees don’t do well in confined spaces because of their fast-growing roots and have had to be removed.

Forestry recommended planting other types of trees, but those working on the project wanted Chinese pistache because they also are planted in Tenth Street Plaza, though forestry said those trees are not in planter boxes. The city used planter boxes because workers could not dig very deep under the street because of the businesses’ basements and underground utilities.

Bridegroom said in an email that the planter boxes were built to accommodate the Chinese pistache trees. He said one of the members of the urban design team is an arborist and landscape architect and met with forestry over its concerns but concluded the trees would do well in the planter boxes. Bridegroom said “city leadership” decided to use the Chinese pistache.

In the end, the city paid Grover Landscape Services $4,375 to plant the 15 trees.

This story was originally published May 29, 2016 at 1:49 PM with the headline "The arduous process of beautifying a Modesto street."