Housing? Retail? Parks? Discussion will resume on downtown Modesto vision
The Modesto City Council will hold a workshop Tuesday night on the master plan in the works for downtown.
The document will outline the prospects for housing, retail, entertainment and related topics over 20 years.
The city has held several public gatherings since July on the plan. Opticos Design of Berkeley is compiling it on a $210,000 contract with Modesto.
A draft could be released for public comment by January, followed by possible council action in the spring.
The workshop starts at 5:30 p.m. on the second floor (room 2001) at Tenth Street Place, 1010 Tenth St.
The consultants got much of their input during five straight days of brainstorming at Greens on Tenth restaurant in October. It ended with computer-generated sketches of a downtown that would be denser than today’s, with better conditions for walkers and bicyclists.
New downtown for Modesto?
The district already has plenty of offices, restaurants and entertainment venues. Modesto has lagged behind many cities in building downtown housing, which could support retail within walking distance.
Brainstormers suggested multi-story housing and other uses around the station planned for the Altamont Corridor Express at Ninth and J streets. Trains to San Jose could start as soon as 2021.
Attendees talked about creating three floors of apartments out of the Stanislaus County Courthouse and adjacent jail at 12th and H streets. The jail no longer has inmates. A new courthouse could rise at Ninth and H by 2023.
The October sessions brought calls for better connections to the extensive parkland along the Tuolumne River and Dry Creek. Some fans thought downtown should become home to the Modesto Nuts, a minor league baseball team now half a mile to the south at John Thurman Field.
The master plan boundaries cover the diagonal grid created when the Central Pacific Railroad founded Modesto in 1870. This includes the part of west Modesto near Highway 99.
Correction: The meeting will be held at 1010 Tenth Street on the second floor, room 2001. An incorrect location was referred to in an earlier version of the story.
This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 4:34 PM.
