How will Modesto address jobs, housing and quality of life in its next general plan?
Modesto will embark on its long-awaited comprehensive update to its general plan, which serves as a blueprint for how the city will grow and develop over roughly the next quarter century.
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously directed staff to proceed with the update, hire the Santa Ana-based consultant PlaceWorks to prepare the update at a cost not to exceed $1.74 million and fill a vacant associate planner position to help with the project at a cost of $340,000 over three years. The update is expected to take that long.
That puts the total cost for the project at roughly $2 million.
Modesto’s website describes a general plan as “a set of instructions on how to build a city,” which includes everything from land uses and the city’s boundaries to housing and jobs and how people move about the city.
In PlaceWorks’ proposal to the city it says the general plan will address such key issues as expanding the city’s economic base, clarifying future growth areas (though the proposal states Modesto has more than enough land to meet future demand for housing, retail, offices and industry), implementing the city’s recent downtown master plan, establishing a “robust open space network” and achieving what it calls “sustainable mobility” by making it easier for people get around Modesto on foot, by bicycle and other alternatives to single-occupant cars.
Looking at environmental justice
Elevating environmental justice is another key issue the general plan will address. That includes remedying deficiencies in public health, access to healthy food and open space as well as safe and sanitary housing and reducing exposure to pollution.
The PlaceWorks proposal states California’s CalEnviroScreen map ranks Modesto in the 55th percentile for environmental justice factors and west and south Modesto and the Highway 99 corridor in the 90th percentile.
Modesto Community and Economic Development Director Jaylen French told council members Tuesday the first steps will be developing a robust engagement with the public regarding the general plan update. He said the city is working with PlaceWorks on how to do that.
PlaceWorks states in its proposal that in order to address growth as well as equity it will be critical to engage a range of local organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce, the Tuolumne River Trust and organizations that work in Modesto’s poorer neighborhoods to create consensus about Modesto’s future.
Modesto’s last comprehensive update was completed in 1995. Previous City Councils have talked about updating the plan for several years. French told council members that as a rule of thumb general plans are updated about every 10 years.
City Council member and Mayor Sue Zwahlen expressed enthusiasm about Modesto moving forward with this project.
Modesto will use a $577,284 state grant, $700,000 from the nearly $46 million it is getting from the American Rescue Plan, the federal pandemic relief effort, as well as money a previous City Council set aside in 2014 to pay PlaceWorks.
This story was originally published July 12, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
