Modesto council moves forward on two new housing developments
Modesto City Council members on Tuesday discussed two land annexation proposals for new housing development.
Housing “is the top issue that’s most frequently brought to our attention,” said District 1 Councilwoman Rosa Escutia-Braaton.
The first proposal would amend the city’s Urban Area General Plan to change the designation of about 23 acres of land in Fairview Village in south Modesto from commercial to village residential. Additionally, the council was asked to approve the filing of an application from the Stanislaus Local Agency Formation Commission to annex 177.75 acres of land east of Carpenter Road and north of Whitmore Avenue.
According to city planning manager Steve Mitchell, the Fairview Specific Plan was adopted in 1995 and amended a number of times in 1997. Since then, the city has annexed its eastern portion and built about 400 homes — roughly 20% of the total capacity — but much of the area remains unincorporated and undeveloped.
This annexed and rezoned land would allow developers to build new single-family housing.
STL Company and its housing developer, Tim Lewis Communities, have approached the city with a plan to develop about 38 acres of the parcel into a single-family home subdivision with 217 lots. In addition to the annexation and zoning, the city would have to establish stormwater drainage, agricultural preservation and a number of other amenities to make the subdivision possible.
Mitchell said the city has been in talks with the Modesto City Schools district to potentially build an elementary school on the land, as well as park space.
Mike O’Hara, the director of forward planning at Tim Lewis Communities, the developer that approached the city, said there has been no new home development in the parcel since 2005. The benefits to the city are clear, he added. Besides typical economic benefits like taxes and jobs associated with large-scale construction, the annexation also helps the city remove future hurdles to development for the whole parcel.
“The planning benefits are huge,” he said. “The package removes these barriers to housing.”
By annexing the whole parcel, O’Hara said the city will have an easier time building a variety of homes across a variety of income levels — from multifamily to single-family homes — as well as adding the school and park space.
O’Hara said his team hopes to have all the necessary inspections and permits and any other pre-building requirements approved by the end of the year, so that it can begin adding infrastructure to the parcel in late 2022 or early 2023. Homes would start to be built later that year.
Council members unanimously approved the motions.
More annexation for a second Tivoli
The second proposal concerns Tivoli North, a parcel of land directly bordering the original Tivoli development — a roughly 454-acre housing development in northeast Modesto.
It was proposed to the city in 2008 as a mix of homes, stores, offices, an elementary school and parkland and has been in development for over a decade. Current specific plan documents show space for residential properties, as well as offices, a school and commercial real estate. When the City Council approved the development in 2008, plans included as many as 3,193 new homes ranging in size from apartments and condominiums to regular houses and small estates.
PMZ President Michael Zagaris told The Bee last summer that he expects the project to be among the last large-scale developments in the city, because the land entitlement process — readying a parcel of land for development — is costly and often takes years to complete in Modesto.
The project is expected to break ground this year.
Council members were asked to process an application for annexation, a specific plan and an environmental review for the second parcel, Tivoli North, which is roughly the same size as the original parcel.
Economic development director Jaylen French called the annexation a “logical next step” as it borders an existing development and could yield a similar number of houses — both affordable and market-rate.
Council members unanimously approved an advisory vote to process the application.
District 4 Councilman Bill Zoslocki expressed his support of both projects.
“Modesto’s growth rates have been substantially low compared to the surrounding cities,” he said. “And we need the housing. We desperately need to create some more housing and slow the cost and provide (housing across the board).“
This story was produced with financial support from the Stanislaus Community Foundation, along with the GroundTruth Project’s Report for America initiative. The Modesto Bee maintains full editorial control of this work.
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This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
