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Turlock Mayor Curt Andre takes a bow: City gains reputation for thoughtful growth(Modesto Bee, The (CA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Dec. 10--TURLOCK -- After almost 17 years as mayor, Curt Andre is stepping down Tuesday. Under his watch, the city population has climbed a staggering 30 percent to almost 68,000 and the physical landscape has never changed more. Though some many not always agree with his policies, his supporters say no one can doubt his dedication. After a state raid on city coffers in 1992, the City Council had to lay off six staffers to avoid bankruptcy. Half a dozen people lost their job. "It was awful," Andre remembered. "The employees and their families were sitting just across the room from us. You could see them right there. There was nothing I could do." When the meeting ended, he walked into the dark parking lot thinking no one was around. His head spun. His stomach was in knots. He vomited. The first generation of Andres in the United States, Curt's great-grandparents, moved to Turlock in the early 1900s from the Azores, but went back because of a lack of development. The next generation of Andres, Curt's grandparents, returned in the 1920s. Curt's father, Clarence, was born and raised in Turlock and was a well-known Foster Farms milkman. His mother, Marvee, was born in Livingston and raised in Turlock. She was a homemaker. Just south of California State University, Stanislaus, Andre Lane intersects with Curt Court. It marks the site of the 20-acre family farm where he, a brother and two sisters were raised. Enamored with flight from an early age, he worked cleaning planes at Turlock Air Park as a teenager in exchange for flight lessons. He was a pilot at 17 and worked through part of high school flying sick animals to a veterinary clinic at University of California at Davis. Shortly thereafter, he enrolled in Davis' School of Physiology, and on graduation went to UC Berkeley's School of Optometry. In 1977, Andre moved back to Turlock, opened his practice and volunteered for the Planning Commission. He served 12 years on the commission, eight as chairman. During those years, his optometry practice grew, and he married the love of his life, Julie, and settled into family life. In 1990, Andre ran for mayor against incumbent Councilman Tom Howard. Andre collected almost 60 percent of the vote and was unopposed for three consecutive terms, the longest serving mayor in Turlock's 98-year history as a city. He decided not to run this year. His 17-year-old, Meredith, is a senior at Turlock Christian and his 14-year-old, Morgan, has kept the couple busy with volleyball and a host of other activities. Curt promised Julie that he'd rest for at least a year. "He never has time for himself because he gives so much to the family, to his practice, to the city, to his friends," she said. "I asked him to not say yes to everything that comes down the pipe for at least a year." As Curt once put it, "I hear I have a very nice vacation home in the mountains." For Andre, the plotting of Turlock's physical future came to a head with one decision. Long before Monte Vista Crossings was a reality, the national retailer Target optioned a property at the corner of Geer Road and Monte Vista Avenue, just across from California State University, Stanislaus. A big-box store on that corner wasn't in the city's plan but would have instantly boosted city property and sales taxes. To allow the store or not became a City Council decision. It was a split vote, two for it, two against it. Andre cast the deciding vote against it, pointing to potential traffic problems. "Target said they would never come back and, well, here they are, with one of their largest, best-producing stores in their chain right here in Turlock," Andre said at the Starbucks in Monte Vista Crossings. "Now they want to expand. And they've been one of the anchors here. If there was a turning point in terms of Turlock's future, this is it." As developer dreams conformed to city plans, the regional shopping area off Monte Vista Avenue and Highway 99 was born. Through property and sales taxes, the new businesses added more than $2.5 million to the general fund their first year, which has paid for road improvements, new firefighters and new police officers. It's those "nuts and bolts things," Andre said, that make Turlock different. "One looks around the Central Valley and every other city is having trouble with water or sewer or storm drains," he said. "Turlock has never had issues like that because we do plan those things and have managed to keep our development careful and ahead of the growth." And if the rest of the Central Valley were to look at Turlock, one issue makes it instantly recognizable: Wal-Mart. The City Council stopped the big-box retailer from building a supercenter on Countryside Drive, just down the road from Target. The city's approach -- an ordinance banning discount stores larger than 100,000 square feet and devoting at least 5 percent of their space to groceries and other nontaxable goods -- was recently mirrored by San Diego. "It was never about Wal-Mart and their practices," Andre said, standing near the massive open lot, which the retailer still owns. "It was about land use, about the traffic gridlock it would have caused. They took us to court and we won. We won four times." Turlock spent about $370,000 fighting Wal-Mart and fought again to recoup that money. State law prevents governments from collecting legal costs when they win civil cases. A Senate bill the state Legislature passed sought to overturn the law, but the bill was vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. The city now isseeking reimbursement in federal court. During the campaign to get the money back, Andre and Mayor-elect John Lazar made trips to Sacramento to talk to Senate and Assembly members. "It was his finest hour, in my opinion," Lazar said. "There is no question he has a future in state and even national politics if he chose to run." At Latif's Restaurant downtown, Joyce Runyan, a Turlock resident for 79 years, said Andre has plenty of reasons to be proud. "I knew his mom and dad," shesaid. "I went to high school with his dad. Curt has done a lot of good stuff." Though the city has tripled in size and number of people over the course of her life, Runyan said, it's remained a community. "We didn't need another (Wal-Mart)," she said. "We already have one." Driving south on Golden State Boulevard in his daughter's Jeep -- "five-star crash test rating," he said -- Andre thought about the next plan, growing Turlock from within. "Turlock has a very problematic area in the south," he said. "There's room for 16,000 people down there, but first that area needs to be repaired. That's only possible if we set urban limits and refuse to grow west into farmland." Down Lander Avenue, he drives to the exit off Highway 99 and pulls the Jeep over to the side of the road. "We referred to Monte Vista when it was in a conceptual stage as the golden triangle because it was shaped like a triangle," he said. "We refer to this area as the platinum triangle because it would be the next and last major retail opportunity in Turlock." A tractor-trailer truck rolled by rattling the car and the wind cut across a stretch of open field. "Maybe my daughter will be mayor when this area succeeds," he said. Bee staff writer Michael R. Shea can be reached at 667-1227 or [email protected]. Copyright (c) 2006, The Modesto Bee, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |