Lodi Sees Growth As Families, Businesses Seek Lower Cost Than Bay Area
LODI (CBS13) — Leaders in the City of Lodi are seeing a welcome change in the community. There are more people moving in and the number of businesses coming to town is also growing.
When it comes to affordable housing, senior planner Craig Hoffman said Lodi is a great community to raise a family. It's also a perfect place for people who work in the Bay Area or those looking to retire.
"It's centrally located. It's close to San Francisco. It's close to the mountains, you know you're close to Sacramento. Just, geographically it's right in the heart of the central valley and people want to be here with everything that is going on with the wine industry," said Hoffman.
This year, Lodi's population reached a little over 67,000.
"Lodi is growing, San Joaquin County is growing, all the cities around Lodi are growing and California is seeing the pint up demand. It's all flowing together and Lodi is part of that," he said.
A total of 210 single family homes are going up in Lodi including 80 just for seniors. The growth is keeping realtors like Scott Sherman of Stockton busy as he handles an influx of people coming from the Bay Area.
"It's no longer the investor, it's more of the person," he said.
A growing community also means more services to create or expand in order to properly serve the community. Lodi is exploring the possibility of bringing on more staff or even offering Internet-based services to keep up.
"Lodi, compared to San Francisco, it's better to rent in Lodi, there are jobs around. They are not necessarily the highest paying jobs, but they are affordable for rent, although purchasing makes more sense because the price of purchasing is less than it is if you rent it," he said.
There are people opposed to the growth, but not willing to talk about it. They said it's like a new city being built in south-east Lodi, with all the new housing and shopping centers going up. They worry their small town will turn into another busy Bay Area city.