01/14/2026
Planner’s Corner – Guest Columnist
Del Puerto Health Care District’s Long View: Planning Ahead for the West Side’s Health Care Needs
By John B. Anderson
Founder, JB Anderson Land Use Planning, Inc., Ripon, CA. Mr. Anderson has practiced as a professional land use planner in Stanislaus, San Joaquin, and Merced counties for more than 41 years.
Have you heard? On December 8, 2025, the Del Puerto Health Care District (DPHCD) Board of Directors voted to move forward with filing applications with the City of Patterson to develop a state-of-the-art Health Care and Mixed-Use Campus on 38.5 acres in central Patterson.
The proposed site—currently mostly fallow ground—is located west of Ninth Street, east of Ward Avenue, and north and south of Las Palmas Avenue. The project represents a major step forward in a vision that the District Board first articulated more than two decades ago and formally adopted in DPHCD’s FY 2024–25 Strategic Plan: expanding healthcare infrastructure through a comprehensive Master Plan to meet the needs of a growing community.
As referenced in a December 12, 2025 Modesto Bee article, the District’s Master Plan outlines a multi-phased approach to building critical healthcare and community-serving facilities for the west side of Stanislaus County. The initial phase focuses on construction of two facilities: a Combined Clinic—bringing together a Community Mental Health Clinic and a Rural Health Clinic—and the Del Puerto Ambulance and Administration Center (DPAC). Future phases include medical office space, senior living, a 25-bed hospital, mixed-use commercial development with multi-family housing, and townhomes overlooking the future Centennial Park.
The purpose of this article is to pull back the curtain on the work undertaken by the DPHCD Board and administration to turn that long-standing vision into a realistic, implementable plan. In the coming months, the District will submit formal applications to the City of Patterson to begin the entitlement process. These materials will provide the public with an opportunity to review a refined Master Plan shaped by thousands of hours of community surveys, town halls, focus groups, and collaboration with planners, architects, engineers, and urban designers.
Patterson—and the broader Del Puerto Health Care District—continues to grow in population, fueled by new developments such as the Zacharias Master Plan. Population projections suggest the District could reach 63,000 residents by 2050. That growth is driving the need to restore, expand, and introduce new healthcare services to serve residents of all ages.
Since 2021, the District has taken deliberate steps to prepare for this growth. These include conducting community needs assessments, pursuing state and federal grant opportunities, updating its list of needed healthcare facilities, and modernizing development impact fees tied to new construction. One of the most significant milestones was securing a $27 million state grant through the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program (BHCIP) Bond Round 1: Launch Ready. This grant funds 50 percent of the construction cost of the Combined Clinic and provides a foundational investment in the campus, allowing the District to deliver integrated physical and behavioral healthcare in a purpose-built facility.
Readers of this column may recall previous discussions about Patterson’s successful use of Master Plans to guide growth. The Health Care and Mixed-Use Campus follows that same planning philosophy. From a planner’s perspective, the selected site occupies a central location within the community—serving as a bridge between Patterson’s history and its future.
Beginning in early 2025, the District retained experts to evaluate site conditions, including soils, traffic, environmental constraints, and infrastructure. That due diligence informed development of the Master Plan. In April 2025, the District engaged HDR, Inc.—a global planning, architecture, and engineering firm—to lead the Master Plan effort alongside JB Anderson Land Use Planning and North Star Engineering. The DPHCD Healthcare and Mixed-Use Campus Master Plan has several guiding principles including: preserving history of place, appropriate mix of uses, creating active frontages and destinations, connected to multi-modal mobility and plan for sustainability. Architecturally, the Master Plan embraces the vision of the Patterson Downtown Design Guidelines and the Spanish Colonial theme. Many of the conceptual building renderings represented in the Master Plan illustrate the Spanish Colonial theme. The Master Plan goes on to detail acceptable architectural elements “kit of parts” which serve to strengthen the architectural ties of the Master Plan to Patterson’s historic downtown. Multiple land use concepts were evaluated against community values and project goals, with a final concept selected featuring a central paseo that provides a welcoming entrance from Las Palmas Avenue and clear visual connections toward Centennial Park.
What should we expect next? The District team plans to file appropriate applications with the City of Patterson wherein all aspects of the Master Plan will be evaluated. It is anticipated that a formal application will be filed with the City no later than February of 2025 and that an Environmental Impact Report would be prepared during the ensuing 12 months. While the application is being evaluated by the City, the District in collaboration with the City will continue to conduct workshops and respond to questions and comments from the community. Groundbreaking on the Combined Clinic and the DPAC is scheduled to begin late fall 2026 or early 2027.
There are many sources of detailed information on the Master Plan. I encourage you to reach out to the DPHCD website and link provided below for more detailed information concerning the project.
More information about the project is available on the District’s website at:
www.dphealth.org/building-better-care-for-patterson
