Modesto, Stanislaus want to make improvements to Tuolumne Regional Park. How you can help
The Tuolumne River Trust seeks input from residents on upgrades to the riverside park in Modesto as part of an ongoing process to increase public participation.
Tuolumne River Regional Park (TRRP) is about 500 acres along seven miles from the Mitchell Road Bridge by the Modesto Airport all the way west to Carpenter Road.
Hilary Moak, Central Valley program director of the Tuolumne River Trust, said she is trying to get the community involved in the decision-making process for the upcoming TRRP commission meeting scheduled for Feb. 12 at Tenth Street Place, the city/county government building in downtown Modesto.
“One of my main missions is to encourage those who do care about this park to start voicing their support and their care for it so the elected bodies that manage this park know there is a community that supports it and wants to be involved in the planning process,” she said.
Improvements to the park are overseen by a partnership between Stanislaus County and the city of Modesto. Ceres also used to partner but dropped out.
Nathan Houx, a planning and development manager with the city of Modesto, said one of the focuses in its new master plan is to promote uses including walking, biking and birdwatching.
“I think it can attract a lot of people to come to Modesto and be a huge economic driver for our community once it’s all done,” he said.
Houx said one issue he sees is people just don’t know the park is there. Growing up in Modesto, he didn’t learn about TRRP until he was in high school.
“I know there are a lot of people in our own community that don’t even know there’s a river that goes through Modesto,” he said. “You don’t have to go 100 miles away just to find nature, you could find it in Modesto.”
Moak said the park is an amazing resource but is underutilized. She agreed that not enough people know about it. “Even when we take groups of people who have lived here for their whole lives, they’ve never actually recreated down here or have come to visit,” she said.
Chris Guptill, chair of the Tuolumne River Regional Park Citizens Advisory committee, said he hopes more people give feedback.
“We would love to see more people come to our meetings every other month and then come to the [TRRP Commission] meetings just to tell people, ‘Hey, we love this park and here’s why — we ride our bikes, we take our family, we do this, we do that — but here are the things we would like to see improved.’”
There is currently a vacancy on the citizens advisory committee for District 2. Anyone interested can apply through Stanislaus County.
Guptill said he hopes to see a bridge connect the Legion Park area by the airport to the boat launch area near the Modesto Nuts ballpark, but that the process can be expensive.
“This boat launch is the latest thing we’ve accomplished,” he said. “But there’s just more to be done in terms of connecting the rest of the park to here.”
Houx said more use of the park could get people to realize they don’t have to go far to find nature. “We can do it right here in our own community, we can do all these things in Modesto,” he said.
The trust provided suggestions on things residents can keep in mind when providing feedback to influence the future of the park:
Why is the Tuolumne River Regional Park important to you?
Share personal experiences of the TRRP to highlight its importance in the community.
What role does the Tuolumne River play in supporting riparian habitat?
What benefits does the Tuolumne River bring to Central Valley and Modesto, and how does the TRRP support those benefits?
What role does the TRRP play in connecting Modesto’s disadvantaged communities to nature and the need for equitable access?
Highlight the immense value of the TRRP to the City and County officials
Guptill wants users of the trail to advocate for it. “It’s one thing for a person to talk about [the park] in abstract, but for a person to show up and say, ‘Hey, this is important to me and I want it to be important to the people in charge,’ then we as a [citizens advisory committee] can listen to that and the commissioners can listen to that and we can try to use that information to push the goals of the park forward,” he said.
Comments will be received in person on Feb. 12 from noon to 2 p.m. at Tenth Street Place, Room 2005 on the second floor. Residents unable to attend can submit their comments ahead of time by emailing ParksPlanning@modestogov.com.
This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 10:34 AM.
