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| SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY BLUEPRINT NEWSLETTER |
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Blueprint Process Makes Progress
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According to the Department of Finance, the population of the San Joaquin Valley (Fresno, Madera, Kern, Kings, Stanislaus, Tulare, San Joaquin and Merced counties) is projected to grow 139% by 2050.
The San Joaquin Valley Blueprint process is developing tools to help shape a regional vision for the San Joaquin Valley’s land use and transportation needs that will define where we are heading as a region while respecting the specific characteristics of each of the counties in the Valley. In order to address this desire, two concurrent processes were started, involving work on the local and regional level.
The regional process began last summer when more than 700 residents from around the Valley attended a regional kickoff summit designed to engage residents from throughout the region. A Blueprint Regional Advisory Committee (BRAC) was then formed to take on the task of amalgamating the local information with the regional data collected to help mold the regional vision. Each of the eight counties nominated individuals to serve on the BRAC. Also included were regionally-recognized representatives of the public agencies and constituent groups whose input is essential to implementing a regional vision.
Following the kickoff summit, each of the eight Councils of Government from the Valley began community outreach within their respective jurisdiction.. Workshops were organized by the Council of Fresno County Governments, Kern Council of Governments, Kings County Association of Governments, Madera County Transportation Commission, Merced County Association of Governments, San Joaquin Council of Governments, Stanislaus Council of Governments, and Tulare County Association of Governments.
Contained in this newsletter you will find updated information on the status of the BRAC activities as well as the local work in each of the counties. For more information on San Joaquin Valley Blueprint Planning activities please
click here
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Regional Meetings Discuss Vision
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The Blueprint Regional Advisory Committee (BRAC) met for the second time on March 22 and took a first look at regional values and vision.
The meeting took place in Kings County and the Kings County Association of Governments was the first COG to volunteer to host a meeting of the BRAC.
Armed with draft values and visions from several of the counties, the BRAC began preliminary discussions about what values Valley residents held true and what they want the Valley to look like in the future. The BRAC will continue to refine these during future meetings.
A regional Blueprint document will ultimately be developed that will incorporate information from each of the eight counties as well as additional input from the BRAC committee. Each jurisdiction will have an opportunity to review and make comment on the Regional Blueprint prior to it being finalized. For more information on Blueprint Regional Advisory Committee activities please click here
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The Fresno Council of Governments is now in Phase II of their Blueprint effort, with the Vision and Values phase now complete. In all, 20 public outreach events were held throughout Fresno County. Fifteen of the meetings were prearranged “stakeholder” meetings, designed to gather public input from representatives of 40 different community, government, business and cultural groups. The other five events were fairs, fiestas and summits with communitywide attendance.
To effectively assess what the public’s values and visions are for Fresno County’s future growth, each participant was asked to fill out a survey. The 2,340 surveys collected were used to develop Vision and Values Statements that were prioritized via clicker technology at a January 2007 Blueprint 2050 event. For more information about Fresno county blueprint activities please click here
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The Kern County Regional Blueprint effort formally kicked off in March with an event in Ridgecrest that followed with more than 16 town hall-style meetings around the county. The Blueprint process is designed to help the region plan for future growth and quality of life through the integration of transportation, housing, land use, economic development and environmental protection.
Elected officials from each city and county throughout the valley will determine how their jurisdictions will accommodate the regional vision based on the public input received during the town hall meetings. For more information about Kern County Blueprint activities please click here
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Kings County Association of Governments (KCAG) has finished coordinating an extensive public outreach effort in synchronization with the first phase of the Blueprint Visioning process. Kings County is one of the smaller, rural, agricultural- based counties in the San Joaquin Valley, with only 149,758 residents.
The public outreach has focused predominantly on gathering the values and vision of Kings County residents for the year 2050. At various locations throughout the county, stakeholder meetings and public workshops were held, and surveys were used to identify the primary values of the community. A wrap-up workshop was held in Hanford in February, 2007 to prioritize the values that were collected from the various public outreach events. The event was attended by over 60 community members with a high percentage of elected officials and city/county staff participating.
The workshop featured interactive clicker technology which allowed the audience to anonymously vote their vision and value preferences throughout the evening and to instantly see results of the voting.
The workshop polling identified the participants’ top three values as follows; healthy and sustainable environment, well designed communities, and natural resource protection. In comparison, the survey of Kings County residents recognized safer communities, increased affordable housing, and clean air as the respective top three values.
The information gathered in this first phase will create the foundation for the Kings County Blueprint Vision. For more information on Kings County Blueprint activities please click here
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During the week of February 21, 2007 the Madera County Transportation Commission hosted three visioning workshops for the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint. Using state–of-the-art polling technology, over 100 participants gathered in Madera, Oakhurst and Chowchilla to voice their concerns about future growth in Madera County to the year 2050 and discuss their opinions on community values, long-range planning, transportation, and housing. More information about the results can be found at www.maderactc.org/blueprint.htm
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In February, Merced County finished its 24 visioning sessions, half of which were included within the county’s general plan update meetings. Over 700 county residents participated. By far, the top theme from workshop participants was, ‘We cannot continue doing business as usual and expect different results.’ Participants also echoed a theme heard in other recent outreach programs - a desire for all decision-making organizations to work together. When imagining the year 2050, Merced County residents want to still see plenty of productive agricultural land preserved, and a transportation system that anticipated and stayed ahead of the growth curve. For more information about Merced County Blueprint activities please click here
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Fourteen community workshops on behalf of the San Joaquin County Valley Blueprint effort were held during March and April in cities and the unincorporated area throughout the county, and including a Spanish language workshop.
The workshops, designed to be interesting and fun, provided the Blueprint team with information on growth and the future of the region. Participants shared ideas on values and goals and give input through both large and small group "hands-on" activities. For more information about San Joaquin County Blueprint activities please click here
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Stanislaus County began its community workshops with a well attended March kick off event in Salida. Follow up workshops were held in Turlock, Patterson, Modesto, Oakdale and Ceres. The month of April concluded with a Spanish language workshop. Each workshop involved large and small group exercises to document participants’ views on their preferred values and vision for the future of our region out to the year 2050. Small groups, with 6-10 people at each table, participated in specific activities designed to bring out their individual views. Their opinions on regional issues such as education, transportation, housing and air quality were then given to planning officials. For more information about Stanislaus County Blueprint activities please click here
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Looking ahead 50 years, Tulare County residents have a clear vision for their county. They envision a county that has better air quality, well-designed communities, a thriving economy, more housing choices, and improved educational opportunities for its residents.
To gather input for that vision, several methods of questioning were used — focused meetings with stakeholder groups, a survey that asked residents what they valued most in Tulare County, and electronic voting.
The approximately 1,000 surveys that were turned in showed the top three issues that mattered to county residents were air quality, economic development, and housing.
The top issues voted on at a workshop held in February were air quality, well-designed communities, and improved educational choices.
Both the surveys and the voting results will help the Tulare County Association of Governments develop a vision for Tulare County that can move ahead as a part of the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint. For more information about Tulare County Blueprint activities please click here
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