Denny Jackman: Allowing Riverbank to expand west is a very bad plan
When a city in Stanislaus County makes a request to urbanize thousands of acres of our best farmland and area of highest water recharge, order and logic are not two terms I would use to describe it.
How can it possibly be considered logical to intentionally expand urban mass over our best soils? One would think it logical and orderly to require Modesto, Riverbank and Stanislaus County to collectively plan urbanization along the proposed North County Corridor and onto lesser soils.
This community, this land, deserves more scrutiny than a rubber stamp from the Local Area Formation Commission. Dereliction of duty and asleep-at-the-wheel are better terms to describe LAFCO approval for massive urban expansion when we (and they) know the facts about those soil qualities and water recharge history.
Do not refer to such a request as orderly and logical. Also, please consider that existing retailers are being squeezed for market share by Amazon and other online retailers that do not need costly storefronts that will eventually be abandoned.
We need smarter planning which includes all the concerns of a community. We need planners to plan where not to urbanize. Building over our best soils is not a wise option.
Denny Jackman, Modesto
This story was originally published May 25, 2016 at 12:35 PM with the headline "Denny Jackman: Allowing Riverbank to expand west is a very bad plan."