Instead, it's a clover-leaf highway interchange, joked Jackson, the state's top public health official.
And so began the eighth annual Great Valley Center conference Wednesday. The Modesto-based policy center brought 600 local officials and activists to Sacramento to discuss the Valley's booming population and its effect on issues such as air quality, farmland preservation and housing.
By 2040, the Valley population is expected to nearly double to 11.7 million people -- more people that live in New York City.
"The growth is kind of mindboggling," said Ruth Coleman, the state parks director. "We've all seen parts of the Valley paved over."
As part of the two-day seminar, which continues today, Coleman laid out a 20-year blueprint to expand state parks throughout the Central Valley.
"We are looking to the public to tell us what they think are the treasures of the Central Valley," she said. "What are the places you care about? What do you want to save? ... We still have a chance to do things right."
She's been gathering community input in a series of town hall meetings -- one is planned for Modesto in the fall -- to make a wish list of park projects.
With the state's budget crisis, there's no money to buy land. But Coleman wants to get a head start on an anticipated ballot initiative that could raise billions of dollars for park projects.
Similar bond issues in 2000 and 2002 mostly funded projects along the coast and in urban areas. The Central Valley largely was left out because of prearranged rules on how to dole out the money.
The next time around, the Central Valley needs to be ready, she said.
A misconception among policy-makers is that there's plenty of open space in the Central Valley because of the abundance of farms, she said, adding that "kids don't get to play soccer on tomato fields."
The plan doesn't focus on acquiring large, flat agricultural expanses -- too hot in the summer and too foggy in the winter, Coleman said.
Instead, the parks department is looking at expanding corridors on the Sacramento, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Merced rivers for recreational opportunities.
The plan also calls for setting aside blue oak and sycamore woodland and native grassland, building agriculture and Native American museums, preserving prehistoric rock art and developing Highway 99 into a heritage route.
Most of the 278 state parks hug the coastline, Coleman said. Only 32 -- or 7 percent -- are in the Central Valley, which includes a cluster of historical sites in Sacramento.
"Is this all we should have in the Central Valley?" she asks. "Is 7 percent OK? Is that what we want given what's happening in the Central Valley?"
Modesto Bee reporter Eric Stern can be reached at 916-326-5544 or estern@modbee.com.
