Farmland advocates failed to qualify a ballot measure against a 2,400-home expansion of Riverbank to the west.
The petition got 1,173 valid signatures from the city’s registered voters, short of the required 1,227, project opponent Jami Aggers said by email Tuesday.
If approved sometime in 2024, the measure would have required future voter consent for this project, known as River Walk, and for most other housing west of the current city limit. That line is roughly halfway between Coffee and Oakdale roads.
River Walk supporters have said it would provide a variety of houses and apartments amid a shortage of affordable dwellings. Critics complained that it would be built on soil especially suited to farming and groundwater recharge.
The development would stretch Riverbank to McHenry Avenue north of Modesto. It would be bounded on the south by Patterson Road and on the north by the Stanislaus River. The project would boost homes by about 30% in Riverbank, which now has about 25,000 residents.