Modesto council to hear $141,000 proposal to hire consultant for general plan amendment

The Modesto City Council will be asked Tuesday to approve spending as much as $141,163 for a consultant to conduct environmental studies for the city’s amendment to its general plan, which serves as a blueprint for how the city will grow and develop in the coming decades.

Staff is recommending the council approve the hiring of urban planner Jerry Haag at a cost of $128,330 to study how the proposed changes to the general plan will affect air quality, noise, greenhouse gases and other issues. The contract calls for a 10 percent contingency of $12,833 to cover any unforeseen expenses.

A city report states a traffic analysis of the general plan amendment by the consulting firm Fehr & Peers is underway.

Community and Economic Development Director Brent Sinclair said in an email that the amendment will cost the city $459,393, which includes the traffic analysis, environmental studies and other work. He added that $240,000 of the funding for the amendment is coming from grants.

The general plan amendment has proved controversial because a majority of council members voted this year to include Wood Colony – the farming community west of Highway 99 – in it. Modesto has set aside hundreds of acres in the colony for big-box retailers and business parks.

That has sparked opposition from hundreds of colony residents and their supporters. It also has prompted farmland advocates to bring an urban growth boundary to the November 2015 ballot. The Stamp Out Sprawl initiative would require a citywide vote before any development could take place outside of the boundary. The colony is outside of the proposed boundary.

Sinclair said only a fraction of the work associated with the amendment would be affected by the SOS initiative. He said the majority of the work, such as policies on transportation and downtown planning, has tremendous value for the city regardless of SOS.

But he added that if SOS passes, it would impact Modesto’s long-term planning and development and the comprehensive update to its general plan it expects to undertake after completing the amendment.

Sinclair said the general plan amendment should be ready for public meetings in late 2015 and then go to the city’s Planning Commission in early 2016 before coming to the City Council for potential adoption in spring 2016.

In other action, the council is expected to:

▪  Consider approving a policy for the use of the Senior Citizens Center, the Maddux Youth Center and the Neighborhood Center at Marshall Park for Neighborhood Watch groups whose members don’t feel safe when meeting in their neighborhoods. A city report states a small number of these groups fear retaliation from criminals.

▪  Consider approving an agreement that will let South Modesto Businesses United operate an 18-foot-by-20-foot electronic message board at the southwest corner of Crows Landing and West Hatch roads. The sign would provide information about upcoming community events, according to a city report. The report says the business group would be responsible for the construction, installation and the maintenance of the sign at no cost to the city. The sign is on property owned by the Turlock Irrigation District, and SMBU has entered into a lease with TID for the property. But SMBU needs to get Modesto’s permission to move forward.

▪  Consider authorizing a contract with Boyett Petroleum to provide fuel for the city’s fleet of roughly 800 vehicles at an estimated annual cost of $2.359 million. The contract is for two years and has three one-year extensions, bringing its total cost to nearly $11.8 million. Operations Manager Steve Fischio said Modesto will pay 23 cents to 30 cents less per gallon than retail customers. He said Boyett has been Modesto’s fuel provider for years, and the new contract is at the same cost as the previous one. A city report says Modesto chose Boyett among two companies that competed for the contract. Modesto did away with operating its own fueling stations nearly 20 years ago.

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. in the basement chambers of Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St.

This story was originally published October 27, 2014 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Modesto council to hear $141,000 proposal to hire consultant for general plan amendment."