Dozens of ‘tiny homes’ could be built behind a Chinese restaurant in Riverbank. Here’s why

Winnie and Yongwei Huang have nourished people in Riverbank with their Chinese food since 2002. They hope to soon provide shelter, too.

The couple just won city approval for 38 small, detached dwellings behind their Patterson Road restaurant, just west of downtown. The eatery has been called Lucky House since it started in 1982, so named because the original owners felt fortunate to have come from China to America.

The Huangs are still seeking some of the funding for the project and do not have a construction timeline. They plan to rent the units to low-income people but have not pinned down the monthly amounts.

The Riverbank Planning Commission voted unanimously for the project June 18. It is on 2.25 vacant acres owned by the Huangs and stretching south to Ward Avenue.

The plan falls under the city’s new “tiny house” ordinance, which allows units as small as 150 square feet. The Huangs’ will be similar to apartments in size. The 24 one-bedroom units will be 426 square feet. The 14 two-bedroom units will be 805 square feet.

“Not everybody in the younger generation can afford a $500,000 house, but they can get a tiny house,” Winnie Huang said at the restaurant on Thursday, June 27.

She sat down with The Modesto Bee at one of her tables half an hour before the 11 a.m. opening. Yongwei was busy preparing lunch ingredients with some of their four employees. Both owners immigrated from China about a quarter-century ago.

Winnie Huang said her husband got the idea for the houses and she has helped move it through the process.

“It’s a very fresh concept, and it’s very new to this area,” she said.

Singles, retired couples could find homes

Winnie Huang said the project would be ideal for single people, retired couples and others not needing full-size residences.

The 38 homes would all be one-story, with an entry porch and front and side landscaping. Residents would park off a rear alley and have sidewalks out front. Two interior streets would connect with Ward on the south and Ross Avenue on the north.

The only concern raised at the commission was from Smooth as Glass, a fiberglass repair shop next door, about speeding that already plagues Ross. Project planners said this is unlikely to increase because this street will become private within the development.

One of the 38 houses will be for a property manager. The Huangs plan to retain ownership of the entire complex.

The project funding could come from a bank loan, federal tax credits for low-income housing, and other sources. The Huangs might build in phases as the money becomes available.

The Planning Commission decision will be final unless someone appeals it to the City Council within 10 days. That had not happened as of noon Friday, the final day.

This is the largest project so far under the new ordinance. And yes, the owners are calling it Lucky House Tiny Homes, at least for now.

Residents could walk to some places

The Lucky House project will encourage walking, said Miguel Galvez, a private land use planner who handled the application for the city.

It sits amid single-family houses and businesses in one of Riverbank’s older neighborhoods. Downtown is three blocks to the east, just across the tracks for freight and Amtrak trains.

“It is in close proximity to the commercial businesses,” Galvez told the commission, “and it really minimizes the amount of traffic impacts that you have because people will be able to walk rather than drive.”

That’s not to say this is a pedestrian paradise. Patterson Road is part of state Highway 108 where it passes Lucky House, with a fair amount of traffic. Some is generated by Galaxy Theaters, a 13-screen venue about a quarter-mile to the west.

Riverbank’s downtown revival has lagged, but a 2015 plan envisioned hundreds of high-density homes mixed with businesses. This could include the former peach and tomato cannery next to the tracks, now leased to a cannabis grower.

Local firms help with Lucky House

Galvez works for J. B. Anderson Land Use Planning, based in Ripon. The city of Riverbank hired him as it transitioned to its new director of community development, Joshua Mann. Donna Kenney had overseen the function before retiring earlier this year.

Mid-Valley Engineering, based in Modesto, also is working on the Lucky House project.

Tiny homes are part of efforts in Stanislaus County and beyond to address the shortage of places to live. They are truly tiny — 70 square feet — in a just-approved project in Modesto. It will serve 42 people with serious mental or substance-use issues on Ninth Street.