Winter 2004
PLANS: Two Small Valley Towns Win Awards
for Big Plans
 Farmersville
General Plan a National Award Winner
Farmersville (Tulare County) has demonstrated how a small community
can do good planning. The American Planning Association recently
honored the Farmersville General Plan with the “outstanding
planning award for a small town or rural community.”
Set to guide the community’s growth through 2025, the plan
includes policies to conserve and use land wisely through increased
residential densities, farmland impact fee assessments to purchase
agricultural easements, and establishment of an open space belt
to maintain the community’s edge. Creation of pedestrian-oriented
neighborhoods, walking trails along creeks and a town center are
stressed as well.
The new General Plan was adopted in November 2002 following a
two and a half year process that included monthly citizen committee
meetings and planning workshops to identify community goals. Planner
Karl Schoettler of Collins and Schoettler wrote the document, with
Mayor Paul Boyer and former Mayor Tommy Blackmon and former City
Manager Graham Mitchell also playing key roles in shaping the plan’s
progressive growth concepts. The attention to public involvement
and visioning established strong community support for the concepts
in a place where relations between various segments have been known
to be contentious. “We used lots of visuals — slides,
videos and a Visual Preference Survey — to help community
members define what they want,” explained Schoettler. “Then
we crafted the policies.”
The outcome is a General Plan that embraces smart growth community
design. The plan directs development of a new smart growth zone
to create neighborhoods with homes that have front porches and
garages in the back, well-connected streets and neighborhood parks.
New standards are included for narrower streets with tree-lined
parkways. The City is already seeing some of the principles in
action. A developer that participated in the General Plan update
process took some of the new planning concepts to the street so
to speak in a new subdivision, narrowing the streets to 32’ with
5’ parkway sidewalks, street trees, bulb-out corners at intersections
to slow traffic and brick-paved crosswalks. The City Council recently
approved a new subdivision proposed by the same developer that
will include these features.
The General Plan also calls for steps to create an active downtown,
including establishment of a mixed-use zone and development of
a specific plan. As a start, the City has installed roadside planters
with trees, decorative light poles and textured paving for cross
walks.
The award for the Farmersville General Plan will be given at the
APA conference in Washington D.C., April 24-28. For more information,
contact Karl Schoettler of Collins and Schoettler at: (559) 734-8780.
City of Reedley Puts it All Together
The City of Reedley recently received an award from the Fresno
County Transportation Forum for implementing not just one, but
six separate projects that work together to provide Smart Growth
transportation alternatives for city residents.
Affecting new growth on 1,200 acres, the Reedley Specific Plan
assures that all new development will be contiguous with and connected
to already developed areas and consistent with the Local Government
Commission’s Ahwahnee Principles for Resource-efficient and
Livable Communities. Urban design standards include tree-lined
park strips, landscaped street medians, pedestrian paths, roundabouts
and bike paths.
Over two miles of abandoned railroad right-of-way have been transformed
into a pedestrian/bicycle parkway through the City’s urban
core. It connects residences, the city’s central business
district, the college and the industrial area.
A master plan for a 130-acre site along the parkway designates
mixed-use development, provides for the renovation of existing
building in the area and brings in residential uses.
Other City efforts include the area’s most successful Dial-A-Ride
service, a safe routes to school program and the installation of
in-pavement crosswalk warning lights to define pedestrian routes
and improve safety.
For more information contact Community Development Director Fred
Brusuelas at (559) 637-4200/email: fredbrusuealas@reedley.com.
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