Farm Beat: Downtown Modesto housing would slow sprawl

Boosters for downtown Modesto talked this week about bringing in new offices, shops and restaurants, topped in some places by a few stories of town houses.

Has the Farm Beat wandered off course? Not at all. The issue of housing density, and the related matter of redeveloping city cores, is vital to the future of agriculture in our region.

I attended a news conference Wednesday where city and business leaders explained new incentives for building downtown. Developers can get breaks on taxes and fees, along with help in improving facades on older buildings.

The effort goes hand in hand with policies that discourage sprawl onto farmland at the city’s edges – the model since the middle of the last century.

“It’s all downtown, so it would absolutely provide an alternative to spreading out,” said Josh Bridegroom, downtown planning manager for the city.

Downtown once was where Modestans went to shop, see a movie or get a meal. Then came the McHenry Avenue commercial strip in the 1950s, Vintage Faire Mall in the ’70s and the big-box stores in the ’90s. All cater to people who drive, mostly from low-density neighborhoods.

Downtown has had some revival in the past quarter-century – Modesto Centre Plaza, Tenth Street Place and the Gallo Center for Arts, along with restaurants, nightclubs, offices and specialty retailers. But the district still has plenty of commercial vacancies, and residential construction has been close to zero. The last major housing project to be completed was the Ralston Towers senior apartments in 1974, although another senior project will soon rise at 17th and G streets.

The residential incentives include waiving a city fee that goes into road improvements. The idea is that people living in a high-density, mixed-use downtown could get a lot done by walking or bicycling.

(Hopefully, the mix eventually will include a grocery store. The closure of Save Mart, which was just a block away from Ralston Towers, still hurts.)

The incentives have support from David White, chief executive officer at the Stanislaus Business Alliance, which works to attract new employers and help those already here.

“Downtown is like your living room,” he said at the news conference. “It’s what people see when they come to your community.”

Bridegroom said downtown already has more than 10,000 workers, and their median income is higher than the citywide average. He said new housing could attract young people “who want to live in more urban environments.”

Here’s a nice thing about this evolution: It can happen in a district that still has businesses with important roles in agriculture. We have a downtown tomato cannery, owned by Stanislaus Food Products. And a feed mill, part of J.S. West & Cos. Not to mention the many trucks and rail cars that pass through daily, bearing products bound for world markets.

Noisy, yes, but a fine mix of town and country.

This story was originally published January 30, 2015 at 6:23 PM with the headline "Farm Beat: Downtown Modesto housing would slow sprawl."