A ballot initiative was recently submitted to the Stanislaus County Elections office for certification of a measure that would establish urban limit lines for the City of Modesto. There are good reasons to establish urban limits. The City of Modesto Planning Department has a map showing proposals for development of parts of Wood Colony. One of the designations is for a shopping center on the northwest corner of Maze Boulevard […]
Wood Colony
Colony Protection Must Include Triangle Says Wenger
When Jake Wenger learned Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh and Stanislaus County Supervisor Terry Withrow had begun formation of a compact between the city and county that would protect Wood Colony, he was elated. Wenger’s ancestors settled in Wood Colony in 1910. Besides farming and running farming related businesses, the family has a history of community involvement and activism. Jake’s father Paul is President of the California Farm Bureau Federation. Jake […]
Can City and County Spare Wood Colony?
At the September 20 town hall meeting, Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh proposed a solution for protecting Wood Colony from urban development. He suggested that Modesto enter into a written agreement with the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors to leave the area zoned for agriculture in perpetuity. In exchange, Modesto would drop its efforts to annex the area into the General Plan. The agreement would also need to preclude a future […]
Committees, Water, and Wood Colony
Over the years, local government s within Stanislaus County have formed countless committees. A committee or a study can be a great smokescreen to hide decision making in government. What a committee accomplishes will depend on what politicians want the outcome to be. Sometimes when Valley politicians want to avoid public input, they form a committee. The committee report may be predetermined when committee members are told what the […]
What’s Happened to Garrad Marsh and Jenny Kenoyer?
The Valley Citizen enthusiastically supported Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh and Councilperson Jenny Kennoyer. Mostly because they favor inclusion of Wood Colony in the City’s General Plan, both have left supporters wondering whether they’ve abandoned the principle planks of their pre-election platforms, which included smart growth and farmland preservation. The wide consensus is both have sold out; we don’t think so, but we do think both are in dire political straits. […]
Jackman, Wenger, and Kennedy Propose Urban Boundaries
Wood Colony’s Jake Wenger has joined Denny Jackman and Vance Kennedy in proposing an initiative that would establish firm growth boundaries around the city of Modesto. The proposal may be a sign that Jackman and others have given up on trying to work with the Modesto City Council and Chamber of Commerce on plans to direct growth away from prime farmland. This won’t be the first time Jackman has put […]
MID Rate Policy Threatens Survival of Small Farms
Farmers are businesspeople first and friends second. When it comes to relationships in the farming business, the farmer looks after his own interests, just like a businessperson in any other business. Water is an indispensable part of the business of farming. No farmer is going to sell his entire water allocation to others unless he does not intend to farm. As a businessperson, the farmer is not likely to sell water to a friend below […]
From Wood Colony to Urban Sprawl: A Planning Manual
Converting Wood Colony from prime farm land to urban sprawl begins with the land speculator. The speculator buys land near a growing city because it is inexpensive relative to the cost of property within that city. Long term speculators buy land outside of a city’s “sphere of influence.” The speculator buys as much land as he can and then starts to agitate for the land to be included in the sphere of influence of […]
Best Way to Save Wood Colony? Urban Limits
When Vance Kennedy called the soil north and west of Modesto “a national treasure,” he was speaking from the perspective of an award-winning scientist who has studied soil and water all his life. Kennedy is also a small-scale farmer—he farms eight acres of citrus on the famous “sandy loam” soil north of Modesto. Realtors and developers like to cite figures that show farm acreage is increasing, and they’re right if […]
Marsh Needs to Back Urban Limits Now
If you’ve been reading the Modesto Bee lately, you might think Dave Lopez and Bill Zoslocki are guardians of the farmland Garrad Marsh and Jenny Kenoyer are trying so hard to cover with asphalt. Kenoyer and Marsh have been framed as sell-outs and there’s even talk of a recall. It’s a far cry from what many hoped would be a farm-friendly government led by Marsh, whose years as a Modesto […]