Ballot measure against 2,400-home expansion of Riverbank fails to get enough signatures
Farmland advocates failed to qualify a ballot measure against a 2,400-home expansion of Riverbank to the west.
The petition got 1,173 valid signatures from the city’s registered voters, short of the required 1,227, project opponent Jami Aggers said by email Tuesday.
If approved sometime in 2024, the measure would have required future voter consent for this project, known as River Walk, and for most other housing west of the current city limit. That line is roughly halfway between Coffee and Oakdale roads.
River Walk supporters have said it would provide a variety of houses and apartments amid a shortage of affordable dwellings. Critics complained that it would be built on soil especially suited to farming and groundwater recharge.
The development would stretch Riverbank to McHenry Avenue north of Modesto. It would be bounded on the south by Patterson Road and on the north by the Stanislaus River. The project would boost homes by about 30% in Riverbank, which now has about 25,000 residents.
Riverbank Mayor Richard O’Brien has said he is against voter-imposed limits on land use in general but would weigh River Walk carefully. “We’ll still work with the agricultural community,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Homes were announced in 2021
River Walk was proposed in 2021 by a group of landowners in the project area.
It is still undergoing the required study of its environmental impacts. That document will be released for public comment and revised to address the concerns.
The project then would go to the Riverbank Planning Commission for a recommendation on how the City Council should vote. The final step would be the Stanislaus Local Agency Formation Commission, which rules on farmland annexations.
The petition was submitted in December by Aggers and her husband, Barney, who live in the area that would be annexed. They represent a group called Voters for Farmland.
The Stanislaus County Election Office compared the signatures to voter-registration forms. It found that they fell short of the required 10% of all Riverbank voters.
Other places to build in Riverbank
River Walk opponents have said the city has plenty of vacant parcels within its current boundaries. They praised neighboring Modesto for shifting its housing plan from farmland to infill sites along commercial strips.
The Riverbank measure would have exempted construction in service to farming, such as worker homes, as low-income homes in general.
Aggers said her group is still considering its River Walk strategy now that the ballot measure is disqualified.
This story was originally published January 30, 2024 at 5:54 PM.
