Better bike lanes on Ninth Street in Modesto? Sure — if it means more affordable housing
The idea of more affordable apartments on Modesto’s North Ninth Street is good news, and long overdue.
Adding 74 units to the 76 that Archway Commons built in 2013 will not rid Modesto of its homeless population, a tricky problem with no easy silver-bullet solution. But providing reasonably priced housing will improve the lives of 74 struggling families or seniors, and that’s a step in the right direction.
It’s not a done deal yet; the builders and their partners at City Hall have yet to land a $24 million state grant. But they’re close, having privately resolved some public opposition that recently arose over a funding component involving bicycle lanes on Ninth Street.
Any change in street configuration seems to bring out critics. A few years ago, people loved to hate roundabouts. Recently, distaste has been directed at bike lanes, whether tied to the controversial College Avenue road diet, or to the Downtown Modesto Master Plan, or to lanes protecting bicyclists on the Briggsmore overpass of Highway 99 and down North Ninth Street.
News about a plan to enhance these bike lanes on Ninth — as an element of the Archway Commons project — brought more hate and loathing.
The criticism, however biting and misplaced, did not threaten the apartment expansion nearly as much as concerns from two of Modesto’s most venerable merchants: Modesto Junk, celebrating its 100th year on Ninth Street, and its youngster neighbor, American Lumber, which has been there only 97 years.
Representatives said that a proposal to reduce Ninth’s four lanes of traffic along that stretch to one each way, plus a center turn lane, would cause traffic to back up and hurt business. That was enough to set two City Council members who don’t always agree — Mayor Ted Brandvold and Councilman Mani Grewal — against the entire project, at a Jan. 28 council meeting.
Archway Commons can’t expand without the $24 million state grant, and they have no chance at that money without the bike lanes. That’s because the grant requires that projects reduce climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions. The grant would provide $14 million for the apartments and $10 million for transportation improvements, including the bike lane which would be separated from car traffic by more than just stripes on the road.
Last year, the apartment builders and Modesto lost a similar grant because their plan would not curb enough emissions. The new plan emphasizes the walking-biking link along Ninth from Archway Commons to Modesto’s downtown depot, which accommodates buses and will welcome Bay Area-bound ACE trains as soon as next year.
The grant’s transportation component includes the purchase of a new ACE passenger car, and would give Archway Commons residents three years worth of city bus passes.
After the Jan. 28 meeting, city staff came up with a new street plan that keeps all four car lanes on that stretch of Ninth and makes things safer for trucks heading to American Lumber and Modesto Junk. They don’t mind losing some street parking out front to make room for the bike lanes.
Crisis averted.
If the city and EAH Housing land the big grant, someday people on bicycles and on foot will use the new path to arrive at the future graffiti museum — an edifice celebrating our car-culture heritage — planned at Ninth and Coldwell Avenue. If they come from the north, they’re likely to pass right by a future roundabout where Carver Road and Princeton Avenue meet Ninth.
That’s progress.
This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM.