Regional growth plan looks at such places as North Texas Street
FAIRFIELD — Paula Cummings can step outside her Sea Splendor Aquarium store on North Texas Street and be amid a world of auto repair shops, restaurants and other stores, but not much housing.
Some 1,600 residences could be built there by 2040 under a Bay Area growth plan being contemplated by regional agencies. The North Texas Street commercial area is among the existing parts of town that are to gain apartments, condominiums and other types of residences if the plan becomes a reality.
Attend the workshop
One Bay Area will hold a Solano County workshop from 5:45 to 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 25 at the Solano County Events Center, 601 Texas St. There is a limit to 100 people who may attend. Please go to http://www.onebayarea.org/spotlight_12-11.htm to register.
Most of the existing North Texas Street apartments are in an area away from the commercial strip. More housing in the commercial area is OK by Cummings, as long as it’s good-quality housing that people can take pride in, something that doesn’t become run-down.
“I think that would pick the whole street up,” said Cummings, who is on the North Texas Street Business Association board of directors.
The evolving One Bay Area plan looks at where to put 770,000 new residences expected to be needed by 2040 in the nine Bay Area counties. Plan organizers wants help from citizens and are holding a new round of workshops, on the heels of a previous round last spring.
A Solano County workshop is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Solano Events Center, 601 Texas St. Participants will be able to go to stations to see various growth scenarios and vote on potential transportation incentives.
Work on the One Bay Area plan is being led by the Association of Bay Area Governments and Metropolitan Transportation Commission, with the Bay Conservation and Development Commission and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District also involved.
Some scenarios funnel more growth to the core Bay Area such as Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Alameda counties and others more to outlying counties such as Solano County. Solano County could get 15,440 to 39,116 new homes, apartment units and other residences over 30 years, depending on the scenario.
All of the scenarios deemphasize having new suburbs built on open space far from mass transit hubs — the model that fueled Solano County growth for decades.
Rather, areas that have been developed for decades but have room for infill projects would handle some of the growth load. Hundreds of apartments, townhouses and other home could get tucked into such places as downtown Vacaville, the Suisun City waterfront, downtown Vallejo and the Vallejo waterfront.
In Fairfield, one scenario shows 2,720 residences being built on West Texas Street, 1,970 on North Texas Street and 950 in the downtown Government Center/South Jefferson Street area.
Even some of the potential development on vacant land comes with a twist under One Bay Area. Fairfield is to have 6,800 residences built in a new community near Travis Air Force Base. But many of them would be near a proposed train station, creating the type of mass transit hub that MTC and ABAG favor.
Driving the regional planning is a law passed by the state Legislature in 2008. It requires regions to integrate their land use and transportation planning and also try to reduce per-capita greenhouse gas emissions.
Building more residences closer to mass transit hubs and to stores and jobs means more people will walk, ride bikes and take mass transit, a One Bay Area report said.
“The amount of overall driving and greenhouse gas emissions statewide is certainly less than if the new residents were commuting to Bay Area jobs from communities in neighboring regions that do not offer such amenities,” it said.
All of this might sound like an airy, ivory tower exercise in planning, a bunch of ideas that land on paper and never go any further. After all, people move to where they want to live, not to where a report says they should live. And Fairfield, not ABAG and MTC, controls where growth takes place within its borders.
But local leaders say One Bay Area can be more than a planning exercise. MTC can focus certain transportation funds on targeted growth areas.
Also, the growth ideas for Fairfield and other cities began locally. Fairfield itself has led the effort to create a community based around a planned train station near Travis Air Force Base. The city’s own plans call for more infill development along North Texas and West Texas streets and near the downtown, though not necessarily to the extent envisioned by One Bay Area.
Fairfield Community Development Director Erin Beavers said the stretch of West Texas, Texas and North Texas streets has more room for commercial uses than the area will support. He noted that the area began developing in the days when Texas Street was State Highway 40, before the highway relocated and become Interstate 80.
But new apartments, townhouses and other residences in the North Texas Street core commercial district?
“It could be,” Beavers said. “It’s just not short-term.”
Residences would probably be built on West Texas Street and the area near downtown before they get built on North Texas Street, Beavers said. That’s because those areas have larger lots for apartments.
But the state’s decision to dissolve redevelopment agencies, such as the one run by Fairfield, will make it harder to bring housing such existing areas, Beavers said. Redevelopment agencies can provide money to help prepare infrastructure for private developers.
For now, merchants in such growth-targeted areas as North Texas Street can only reflect on a developing vision that may or may not become reality.
Belen Carcamo of Reuben’s Precision Automotive sees plusses to the idea of building more residences on North Texas Street. But Carcamo, who like Cummings is on the North Texas Street Business Association board, wants to see more details, such as what type of housing would be built and where it would be located along the street.
“I don’t know how well it would fit,” she said. “I certainly personally wouldn’t want to live next to a repair shop or even a motel or tire place.”
Yet more residences in the area would be good for businesses, she said. People living there would see the sign at Reuben’s Precision Automotive every day, she said.
“That’s a great form of advertising,” she said with a laugh.
That could be the future — or only a plan.
Reach Barry Eberling at 427-6929, or beberling@dailyrepublic.net.
Short URL: http://www.dailyrepublic.com/?p=123223
Posted by Barry Eberling
on Jan 15 2012.
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“More housing in the commercial area is OK by Cummings, as long as it’s good-quality housing that people can take pride in, something that doesn’t become run-down.” HUH?!
This is another lousy idea right up there with the train station and housing out there. IMO, we need a moritorium on all new residential construction with more emphasis on new business. I’d rather see a drive in theater or bowling alley go back into that empty space then cluttering up this city with more houses we don’t need. The economy is creating low cost housing, they’re available all over the city. There are going to be many more foreclosures, how about we sell what we have before building more?
CD, I don’t believe there is any intent to build this out in the new future. This is long-range planning. Most developers won’t touch it untill the housing market is moving and the current inventory is depleting.
Most people seem to want our Main Streets and Mom & Pop business areas to thrive. Housing and access to public transportation will be the key for many of these areas.
Mr. Practical, I understand but we have far too many properties available now and even talking about building more is senseless to me. I too would love to see businesses developed, but it will probably have to begin with renovating downtown and moving North from there. That should be the first priority.
CD, if ABAG didn’t do this long -range planning they would have nothing else to do!
I doubt FF has any plans to act on this anytime soon. THey could ignore the recommendations altogether. Beavers’ comments say as much.
I just believe it’s never too early to plan and begin public discourse.
Ain’t gonna happen anytime soon due to one main reason…
there is a lot of talk at these meetings about where people will live in the bay area communities and how they’ll get to the jobs. no discussion on bringing those jobs out to where people will live and shortening the commutes. its just preserving the status quo of long commutes into the bay area. they should focus more on bringing the jobs out into cities like Fairfield.
More affordable housing will lead to more crime.
We don’t have enough cops or prosecutors or jail cells or prison cells now.
Seriously, who would want to live in that area of North Texas?