A Smart Growth Report Card

Posted by: Tim Halbur

27 October 2008 - 2:00pm

The Modesto Bee does a thorough ranking of cities and town in California's Central Valley and how 'smart' their growth is. Oakdale, CA comes out on top, while Gustine is the dunce of the group.

"Armed with a strong community vision and a few founding documents, Oakdale has thought "smart" since the mid-1990s. The philosophy helped the self-proclaimed "Cowboy Capital" take top honors in The Modesto Bee's survey of all 60 cities in the San Joaquin Valley.

Oakdale, known for its chocolate festival and annual rodeo, quietly embraced smart growth policies to produce vibrant, attractive neighborhoods with a mix of affordable homes while charging adequate development fees. Other policies protect Oakdale's beloved historic clock tower.

The city also scored highly in areas that may be less visible but still support smart growth concepts, with strong policies regarding jobs, streets, water and sewers. And Oakdale's west end is protected by an agricultural buffer, a rare greenbelt formally acknowledged by Riverbank.

Such forward thinking vaults Oakdale to the top of The Bee's survey of ideals."

Full Story: Framing Our Future

Source: Modesto Bee, October 26, 2008

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Wasco

Submitted by DerekWildstar on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 16:24.

Actually Wasco is the merely at the bottom of the first page (Rank 37). The list goes on to rank 60 communities. It is poor Gustine that ranks 60 of 60.