In February I submitted Lodi’s Living Room, a strategy document for the Post Office block and the Lockeford corridor, to the Planning Department. The comment below is not a critique of the Downtown Specific Plan. It is a request that the Council pull two of the plan’s most actionable threads forward and begin implementing them with intention.
Priority One — Restart the Green Line and plan the Lockeford corridor
The energy is already on Lockeford: a modern bowling alley, Papapavlo’s, Guantonios, the Legion Building rehabilitation, and the Priority One catalyst parcel at the center. One spine links the Post Office block east to the Grape Bowl District and, through the existing rail spur, west to Lodi Lake.
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The plan calls for traffic calming and a gateway treatment. The corridor deserves more than a treatment. Direct staff to commission a dedicated walk- and bike-suitability study for Lockeford and to reopen the Green Line discussion as its companion. Calm the four-lane stretch to two lanes, add generous sidewalks, street trees, and protected cycling.
Follow the energy that is already there.
Priority Two — Review the Post Office block as Lodi’s civic living room
Market Tavern, the Oak Valley Community Bank rehabilitation, and Lodi Beer already orbit this block. Appendix II identifies the Priority Two hotel parcel directly facing the Post Office property as a complementary hospitality site. The two parcels read as one opportunity.
Open a formal review of the Post Office block as a civic plaza and curated market in the spirit of Healdsburg’s Plaza or Sebastopol’s Barlow, paired with a parallel review of the adjacent Priority Two site as its hospitality anchor. Begin with pop-up activations on the block to test demand while the review is underway.
This is the highest-leverage move available to activate downtown.
The Ask
Both priorities are already in the plan. Both are supported by the economics in Appendix II. Both have visible private momentum aligned with them.
The request is simply this: direct staff to begin implementation work on the Lockeford corridor and Green Line, and to open a review of the Post Office block as a civic plaza site. The full Lodi’s Living Room strategy is on file with Planning and available on request.
Offered humbly and in support of the work already underway. I am happy to help advance these efforts at a strategic level.
Matt Teresi Inferterra
Find my full activation strategy here:
https://www.inferterra.com/lodis-living-room/
See the full Downtown Specific Plan here.
https://www.planlodi.com
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