“Preserving Small Town Character”

Many of Lodi’s natural attributes, the Mokelumne River, a Mediterranean climate accentuated by cooling Delta breezes, and four distinctive seasons have been the palate on which Lodi’s citizens built, grew and maintained a compact and charming community. Always an agricultural community, Lodi is kindred to the bounty of the land which encircle Lodi and creates value and distinction to the small town atmosphere. We have deep community pride, respect for our culturally diverse community and dedication to see its future improve upon the contributions of its cherished past. Maintaining these qualities will be a critical determinant on the success of our city in the coming years.

The General Plan for the city must seek to sustain the qualities, elements and factors that will shape our community and its sense of place. Maintaining the quality and appearances of our city and especially our public places becomes of paramount importance if we are to attract visitors and tourists. Everything we do as a city must have a mind set toward quality and maintaining that quality.

Our vision of Lodi’s future is one of economic prosperity, fueled by moderate job expansion through a master-planned business park encompassing offices, manufacturing, warehousing, and retail. Within the expanded park, new high job-density, multi-tenant complexes will make maximum use of available land with the greatest number of jobs-per-acre possible. We also see a continuation of the wine-growing and wine-making industries as well as a cluster of businesses servicing this expanding market.

Success of the Lodi Appellation is creating a “new to Lodi” opportunity which is ag-tourism. Wine-tasting visitors want to spend time in the community which means additional revenue streaming through hospitality and service businesses. Many new retail, entertainment and other ag-tourism opportunities can be launched in the near future that were never viable before.

The Chamber’s Task Force believes the 2% self-imposed growth limit created by citizens and affirmed by their city council has served the community well in terms of preserving its small town character. The Task Force believes it should be continued for the life of this next General Plan. It, among other factors, has slowed the development of residential well below the residential average growth rates of the rest of the central valley. In recent years the percentage of Lodi’s recorded residential growth has been well below 2%. Residential growth has never hit its 2% annual cumulative cap since its inception, and as of late has hovered at ½ percent or less.
The Chamber would like to see growth between one & two percent. We believe this is important to provide adequate housing to meet requirements of increasing employment.

NOTE: The newly annexed developments, Gateway, Westside and Reynolds Ranch have begun to create a new belt of residential on the southeast and western edge of Lodi. When residential development connecting these projects is approved, the combined build-out of these developments, at our 2% cumulative rate (or less) will take 25-plus years at the earliest! We base this on historical build out numbers from City Of Lodi Community Development Department. The growth mandate allows planners to calculate the space requirement needed and the time it will take to build out. Remember, since 1986 the yearly 2% cap has never been reached, even through the years of the most recent real estate “boom” market.

Infill housing (inside current city limits), should be encouraged and not subject to allocation under the 2% growth cap. New “Infill Construction” will retard demise of urban areas, reclaim “brown fields” and will identify vacant property for redevelopment aided projects. Zoning, changes in the building code, plus new ordinances to promote the construction of “vertical” living spaces should be fast-tracked and expedited by Community Development. Ordinances should allow new 3 to 6-story buildings in the downtown core and along Cherokee Lane. This construction would clear the way for condominiums, mixed use buildings and add a new element of vibrancy to the downtown core.

Lodi in the future should maintain a parks system that adequately provides space for recreation, soccer fields, baseball diamonds, tennis and basketball courts as well as walking, jogging and cycling paths. Planning should recognize culturally diverse populations increase the demand on city parks for soccer fields in particular. Development agreements, if used in the future, should weigh the community needs and value of adequate park facilities.

First Impressions
In a sense the arterial entries to Lodi set the expectation for community visitors and work to maintain the city’s individuality and uniqueness. Open space between cities is seen to be of maximum importance to Lodi residents and residents of all other San Joaquin County cities. (See foot note on page 4) That said, the Lodi Chamber supports property rights of any impacted land owners, “open space” must be attained working in and with the cooperation of land owners.

A concerted effort and a “community branding statement” should be made to enhance the attraction of Lodi on major Highways 99 and I-5. If tourism is to play a major role in Lodi’s economic future, we should capture a portion of the 100,000+ people that travel the north south corridors daily. One important entry point is Turner Road coming from I-5. This road should at all costs remain “rural wine country” in feel and appearance as it is an attractive conduit to many popular tasting rooms, lovely vistas and leads straight to the Visitors’ Center.

Highway 12 east from I-5 is also of critical importance and fragile in terms of aesthetics. Currently, mixed use from tasting rooms to trucking depots can be found on this stretch of state highway. Any influence the city can use over growth at Flag City should be employed. AL-5 Zoning can be a big benefit in this case (see Agriculture & Greenbelts White Paper).

This stretch of highway between I-5 and Lodi’s western border would be a prime location for a large gateway object de’ art to define the importance of agriculture in the Lodi region. Highway 12 east of CA 99 is also fragile in its potential usage and aesthetics. From the Highway 88 junction, coming west toward Lodi Victor Road is also important to the “Wine Trail” of Lodi. Several more wineries are planned for this stretch of highway. Much of Victor Road is lined with large beautiful trees. Even though this highway is outside of the Lodi City limits, Lodi should encourage its beautification. With the annexation of land along Victor Road for Delta College the City will have a great responsibility in the transition from the urban to the rural. While the college’s early idea sketches look good the city must insure that this entry to Lodi is harmonious with the surrounding agricultural setting it bisects. Other key entry points identified below are worthy of improvements as they also are the first impressions of our city:

* Highway 99 Southbound Turner Road Exit
* Highway 99 Southbound Highway 12 East & Victor Road
* Northbound 99 Harney Lane
* Northbound 99 Lodi Exit
* Northbound 99 Kettleman Lane

Something visual to welcome visitors and tourists at these points of entry would enhance Lodi’s first impression. Signage surrounded with colorful flowers as an example makes a statement of quality and pride.

Although much of this last topic takes place outside the city limits it works to promote the defined boundaries of the community and speaks to Lodi’s uniqueness by maintaining the rural atmosphere it sends a powerful message that one is truly entering a very special community.

Concerted effort should be made to build transit-oriented housing on the east side of the UPRR rail lines that runs through the center of Lodi. As California’s Central Valley population triples over the next 40 years, we must prepare for other modes of transportation. Rail from Sacramento South to Bakersfield will become increasingly important for commute and tourism. Lodi is perfectly situated to take advantage of workers commuting to Sacramento and tourists coming from the north, south and the bay by rail. Now is the time to position Lodi, its citizens and business owners for the benefits rail transit will bring to Lodi in the future.

The City’s Planning Commission must work harmoniously with developers to have all future commercial development design be consistent with the “attraction and destination” appeal of our evolving community. Incorporating written design guidelines that allow the developer flexibility but work together uniformly in an aesthetically planned manner.

Footnote:
In 2007 the SJC Council of Governments “Blue Print Project” surveyed over 500 people in 15+ focus groups throughout the county to name the features they most wanted to see in the year 2050. Their top (#1) answer was: “that the cities of SJC maintain their individual identity and not geographically grow together.” (Seven of the 15+ focus groups were in Stockton, Lodi hosted one group meeting.)