Council approves MOU with CSU Stanislaus to continue 'Virtual Turlock' project, city to contribute $5,000 annually

The Turlock City Council voted 5-0 to approve a memorandum of understanding with California State University, Stanislaus to continue development and maintenance of the Virtual Turlock platform.

City staff and Stan State students demonstrated a 360° virtual-tour application that integrates street-video layers, embeddable 360 tours, hotspot navigation, and management tools for the city to add and manage content. Students described the project architecture (YouTube storage, Google Cloud hosting, Marzipano/WPVR tools), UI choices for responsive and accessible design, potential e-commerce hotspots for future retail features, and plans for live data retrieval and a management dashboard.

As described in the staff report, the city’s contribution would be $5,000 annually to sustain ongoing development, maintenance and stewardship of the platform and to support student engagement and economic development objectives. Students and the supervising professor highlighted plans to expand sites (downtown, Stan State campus, municipal buildings) and to include accessibility features and Spanish-language workshops as the project scales.

Council discussion emphasized the project’s potential for economic development, student workforce experience and accessibility benefits for residents who cannot visit facilities in person. A council member who moved the motion noted support for continued collaboration and milestones; the motion passed by roll call 5-0.

The council action authorizes staff to finalize the MOU and the city to provide the stated annual contribution to support the Virtual Turlock partnership with CSU Stanislaus.