Board accepts South 9th Street Corridor Plan to guide redevelopment, traffic and safety improvements

The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors voted Jan. 14 to accept the South 9th Street Corridor Plan, a 1.25-mile corridor study intended to guide land use, safety and infrastructure changes between the Tuolumne River Bridge and East Hatch Road.

Angela Freitas, identified as the county planning director on the agenda, introduced the project team and said the plan began after a Caltrans Sustainable Communities Transportation Planning Grant was awarded in 2022. Senior planner Kristin Anaya and project partners from CivicWell and consultants presented the plan’s goals: improve connections to downtown Modesto and nearby neighborhoods, enhance safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, address flooding with green infrastructure, and promote mixed-use development to better transition industrial parcels toward commercial, residential and open-space uses.

The project team described the study area boundaries, existing conditions and community engagement efforts. Tony Leonard of CivicWell summarized outreach that included surveys, business interviews, walk-audits, a pop-up at a community center, and workshops; materials and events were produced in English and Spanish. The team said outreach generated more than 110 responses and that residents and businesses prioritized traffic safety, pedestrian connectivity, flooding and improving aesthetics.

Land-use recommendations include rezoning portions of the corridor north of State Route 99 from industrial to commercial, mixed-use and residential to create clearer transitions to nearby neighborhoods while retaining industrial anchors on the west side. The plan identifies three “activity nodes” at River Road, Hosmer and Sonora to concentrate retail and mixed-use development, new pedestrian crossings and signalized intersections. Transportation recommendations propose keeping four traffic lanes for corridor throughput while adding wide shared-use areas for pedestrians and bicyclists, cycle tracks/bike lanes, medians, street trees, stormwater planters and coordinated traffic signals to slow speeds and provide safer crossings. Consultants said the corridor carries more than 20,000 vehicles per day in places and recommended phased improvements using county right-of-way.

Non-transportation recommendations include code enforcement to bring properties into compliance, programs to encourage placemaking and murals, support for safe routes to school, and exploring maintenance mechanisms such as a maintenance assessment district. Project funding for the plan document itself was identified as the Caltrans Sustainable Communities Transportation Planning Grant; project staff noted various implementation grants and road-rehabilitation funding (RMRA/SB 1) as potential sources for near-term improvements and said the county has 60% plans for an interim pavement project where interim pedestrian and bike space could be added.

Public comment included praise for the plan and questions about funding and the project website. Ron McMurtry asked where he could view plan details; staff provided a project web link. The Board discussed preferences for signals versus roundabouts and asked public-works staff about signal coordination and emergency-vehicle preemption. Public Works Director Dave Lehman said the county would coordinate signals and suggested interim decisions to eliminate on-street parking in favor of bike lanes and pedestrian space for Phase 1. A motion to accept the plan was made, seconded and approved by unanimous vote.

Staff recommended next steps including code enforcement, adoption of design guidelines and pursuing grants for quick-build projects and engineering work with Caltrans to redesign the SR-99 northbound off-ramp intersection. The plan is available on the county website and project site.