There’s no doubt Tracy has plenty to offer its residents — and potential future residents. The question is, what else does it need?
Community Development Director Tom Dobson brought to Wednesday’s EDA meeting a comprehensive list of all Tracy has to offer. It took seven pages to detail all of Tracy’s assets, broken down into a number of categories, including eduction; health and human services; industrial/ commercial/ag services; building and contracting offerings; service businesses; retail; housing options; and recreation and entertainment opportunities.
“This would be nice to get to everybody, and maybe we can put in some contact information,” Dobson said. “One of the things we got on our survey was we need to do a better job of letting individuals in town know what is available.”
The eighth page of Dobson’s detailed report might have been the most important one: Things the town needs. At the top of that list was a fuel center or second gas station and a hotel/motel. Both of these have been on the City and the Tracy Development Corporation’s radar for years.
Other items included a new car wash — on a positive note, the current one has been sold — a newer apartment complex, body shop and more dining options.
EDA Chair Tom Morin said instead of casting a wide net of needs, the EDA should focus on one or two wants for the coming year.
“Let’s pick something that’s practical for us to help work on,” Morin said. “If we were going to develop a housing project, it would be out at Orchard Lane. But what are the most important things on the list?”
Most of the conversation Wednesday revolved around the two elephants in town: a gas station and hotel/motel.
“I would say we need another gas station in town,” said EDA member Sis Beierman. “Three weeks ago when we needed to leave town, everything was down at this gas station — we could not get a drop of gas. We went 30 miles and it was 20 cents cheaper.”
Dobson said the EDA can only do so much financially, and asked the board if something more were to move forward with a gas station or hotel/motel, would it be able to substantially contribute.
“Most of it is going to be asking around (to potential investors), and we’ve been doing that, believe me,” he said. “We’ve got the space.”
