QUALITY OF LIFE

By Janice E. Keating

Safe Neighborhoods, Effective and Timely Police and Fire Protection are Things that Should be Taken for Granted in Modesto

I have a straightforward philosophy on the issue of development in Modesto. All residential growth should be balanced by an appropriate amount of industrial and commercial development. Simply put, residential development alone is a net cost to the city. Required investments in infrastructure and the cost of additional city services including public safety must be offset by increasing the tax revenues through commercial and industrial businesses. The current state of the Village I plan leads me to believe that current members of the city council do not understand these basics.

By most accounts, the Village One project has been a dismal failure. Once planned as an attractive mini-community with homes, parks, schools, shopping and professional offices, it has evolved into a huge, sprawling subdivision. In addition to becoming a huge drain on city finances, a shortcoming we all will pay for, the village has failed to meet it basic goals in the areas of multi-family housing, parks, shopping and schools. This failure is a direct result of the council's failure to keep the project on course from the beginning. Time and time again, parcels of land within the project have been re-zoned in a manner that has gutted the original plan. The problem continues to this day.

I will work to bring a sensible approach to growth in Modesto; one that will provide needed housing for citizens at all income levels and one that will return the city to a financially stable condition.