San Joaquin Valley Blueprint - 1645

The San Joaquin Valley Regional Blueprint will provide a planning process and products to support long-range planning for the eight San Joaquin Valley MPO's and compliment the work of the San Joaquin Valley Partnership.

The San Joaquin (SJ) Valley is a large, diverse, and complex area that contains millions of acres of the world’s most fertile farmland, a wealth of natural resources, and large urban environments. The 240-mile long valley stretches from Stockton to Bakersfield and encompasses the eight-county region (Kern, Kings, Tulare, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin).

Today, 3.3 million people live in the SJ Valley. According to the Department of Finance, the SJ Valley’s population will have grown to 8 million by 2050. How will the region accommodate this anticipated growth? Will it be through expansion of current cities or the development of new ones? How will intra and interregional transportation accommodate commuters, travelers, and goods movement? And how will the balance be maintained between the development of new infrastructure and the need to preserve the region’s most important resources?

A look at the current economy of the region points to agriculture as the SJ Valley’s economic base. While growth of agriculture has altered some of the natural environmental landscape over time, perhaps even more concerning is the rate at which prime agricultural land is being converted to urban uses. Much of the land conversion is due to the attractiveness of SJ Valley home prices to residents of the Bay Area and Los Angeles regions. However, these new SJ Valley residents often commute back to their place of origin for employment compounding transportation impacts, air quality dynamics, and presenting significant civic engagement challenges.

Highway 99 bears the yeoman’s share of commuter traffic, and is also burdened with extraordinary truck traffic transporting goods. Insufficient for current traffic loads, Highway 99 is further impacted by industrial growth and new distribution centers, especially in the Southern SJ Valley.

At both the federal and state levels, policymakers have begun to recognize the extraordinary challenges facing the SJ Valley. Through executive orders issued by two presidents (Clinton - 2000, Bush - 2002, 2004), the Federal Interagency Task Force for the Economic Development of the San Joaquin Valley was formed to help coordinate federal efforts within the region.

In June 2005, Governor Schwarzenegger elevated the focus of state resources and the importance of the Central San Joaquin Valley to California when he signed an executive order creating the California Partnership (SJVP) for the San Joaquin Valley. The SJVP is a state effort to direct resources to prime agricultural region of the Central SJV. The Central SJV region is a unique part of California that has received little fiscal resources from both the state and federal government to address critical issues: economic development, unemployment, infrastructure needs, poverty, crime, education, resource conservation, air quality, jobs, affordable housing, and healthcare access. The SJVP Governing Board and work group participant collaborated from June 2005 to September 2006 on creating a Strategic Action Proposal (October 2006) that addresses the needs of the Central SJV. The Strategic Action Proposal is currently under review by the California Legislature.

In August 2006, Caltrans announced the creation of the California Regional Blueprint Grant Program. This program allowed Metropolitan Planning Organizations the opportunity to acquire grant funding to address Regional Blueprint Planning that will contribute to the vision of improved quality of life within a region by addressing future growth, integration of transportation, housing, land use, environmental resources, other infrastructure, and services. Regional Blueprint integration is to result in a more efficient and effective transportation system and land use pattern to achieve the three outcomes (3Es) that define quality of life – Prosperous Economy, Quality Environment, and Social Equity.

The California Regional Blueprint Grant program includes the following criteria:

The Regional Blueprint Plan shall be developed in collaboration with a broad range of public and private stakeholders, including local elected officials, city and county agencies, civic organizations representing business, labor, environmental, community leaders, neighborhood groups, and the general public. Connection to existing interregional partnerships, studies in progress, modeling enhancements is essential. The Regional Blueprint Plans shall be based on a minimum twenty-year horizon. The resulting Regional Blueprint Plan shall identify the most efficient and effective transportation system and preferred land use pattern possible that will:

Improve mobility through a combination of strategies and investments to accommodate growth in transportation demand and reductions in current levels of congestion.

Reduce dependency on single-occupant vehicle trips, fostering neighborhood and project designs that enable more walking and bicycling for healthier communities by:

• Reducing the growth in traffic congestion and making more efficient use of existing transportation infrastructure through comprehensive transportation system management.
• Encouraging public transit usage, ridesharing, walking, and bicycling;
• Deploying transportation demand management practices (which may include economic incentives and value pricing);
• Promoting mixed-use development and increasing housing and commercial development around transit facilities and in close proximity to employment centers.
• Promoting equity in growth and development by rehabilitating, maintaining, and improving existing infrastructure that supports infill development and appropriate reuse and redevelopment of previously developed land.

Accommodate a sufficient housing supply within the region (and within each sub-region and jurisdiction to the extent possible) to accommodate the projected population and workforce needs for the full spectrum of the population (very low, low, moderate and above moderate income households) over the next 20 years.

Minimize impacts on valuable habitat and productive farmland.

Increase resource use efficiency, including energy, water, and building materials conservation.

Establish a process for public and stakeholder engagement that can be incorporated into future planning processes.

On January 19, 2006, the eight Council of Governments (COGs) of the Central SJV were awarded $2,000,000 of Blueprint grant funding to develop a SJV Regional Blueprint. For the last 11 months, COG Blueprint staff, Great Valley Center staff, San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District staff, Local Planning Agency staff, and other stakeholders have been collaborating on a SJV Regional Blueprint and have produced the following products to date that have been formally adopted by each of the eight SJV Councils of Governments Governing Boards:

• SJV Regional Blueprint Institutional Structure
• SJV Regional Blueprint Decision Matrix
• SJV Regional Blueprint Project Schedule
• SJV Regional Blueprint Citizen Participation Plan

In June 2006, GVC facilitated the San Joaquin Valley Regional Blueprint Summit that was attended by 630 participants from through the Central SJV. A San Joaquin Valley Blueprint Video was produced by KVIE and released during the summit. The Public Policy Institute performed a special public opinion survey for the Central SJV Region that was released during the summit.

In the Governor’s May Revised budget, he included an additional $5 million of funding dedicated to the continuation of the California Regional Blueprint Grant Program in FY06/07.

On November 28, 2006, Governor Schwarzenneger again continued the focus of state resources and the hope of a brighter economic future for the Central SJV with authorization of a second Executive Order (S-22-06) continuing the SJV Partnership through December 31, 2008.

The eight SJV Councils of Governments again applied for additional Blueprint grant funding for FY07. On November 29, 2006, the eight SJV Council of Governments received notification from the outgoing Business, Transportation, and Housing Secretary, Sunne Wright McPeak, that they were awarded $1,950,000 of Blueprint grant funding for 2007.

Each of the eight SJV Council of Governments are currently in the process of conducting public outreach visioning workshops to create the Blueprint Vision. Visioning workshops will conclude in March 2007.

Through the Blueprint process, regional leaders will work closely with the Partnership to address the significant issues facing the region. Teaming with the SJ Valley Partnership will enable pooling of resources, consistency of vision, and combined momentum to solutions to the forefront.