Outreach

Since 2007, the Valley Planner's Network has provided a platform for networking, collaborating, and engaging with fellow planning professionals throughout the San Joaquin Valley. The network has evolved as various projects and activities have moved through initiation and into completion. In 2015, CRPC took on a larger role in the organization of future activities of the Valley Planner's Network.

SB 375/Sustainable Communities Strategies

SB 375 is a California state law that became effective January 1, 2009. This new law requires California's Air Resources Board (CARB) to develop regional reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and prompts the creation of regional plans to reduce emissions from vehicle use throughout the state. California's 18 Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) have been tasked with creating "Sustainable Community Strategies" (SCS). The MPOs are required to develop the SCS through integrated land use and transportation planning and demonstrate an ability to attain the proposed reduction targets by 2020 and 2035.

Prop 840- Blueprint Integration (Circuit Planners)

The SJV Blueprint Integration Project is a valley-wide program funded through Prop 84 grant funds providing assistance to the 46 smaller cities (populations under 50,000) of the Valley in integrating Blueprint principles into their general plans and other guidance documents. For those small cities that elect to participate, this program will provide local circuit planner technical assistance aimed at integrating the 12 Blueprint Smart Growth Principles into their general plans and ordinances. For questions regarding Prop 84-Blueprint Integration activities, please contact Fresno COG Senior Regional Planner Rob Terry, who can be reached at rterry@fresnocog.org.

Demographic Forecasting

The Valley Regional Planning Agencies contracted with a firm to develop demographic forecasts for the San Joaquin Valley, including each of the eight counties of the Valley, to assist in determining the impact of various development densities on the fiscal health of cities and counties in the Valley and identifying market demand for higher density residential housing projects associated with the Preferred Blueprint Growth Scenario. The provided demographics were used to formulate items such as Sustainable Community Strategies associated with SB 375 and to provide further cohesive insight to the RPAs and their member agencies regarding regional and local demographics for modeling and housing studies and allocation with updated projections that take into account the economic downturn.

Valley Goods Movement

The San Joaquin Valley Interregional Goods Movement Plan will identify a future preferred goods movement system for the Valley implemented through a comprehensive interregional strategy. The planning effort began in May 2011 and includes numerous stakeholders including Federal Highway Administration, Caltrans, ports, private trucking industry, railroads, regional transportation agencies, the agricultural industry and others. The plan process has included such reporting efforts as existing conditions and industry specific profiles, and will culminate in a preferred goods movement system for the Valley.

Fiscal Analysis Tool

The Valley Regional Planning Agencies are formulating a fiscal analysis tool intended to provide local governments with an excel-based tool that will allow for the fiscal impacts of plans and developments proposed within their community to be analyzed; showing the immediate and projected long-term revenues/costs associated with land use approvals. The contact for Fiscal Analysis Tool activities is Fresno COG Senior Regional Planner Rob Terry, who can be reached at rterry@fresnocog.org.

 

Launched in fall 2010, the toolkit is an online educational guide for communities who want to translate Smart Growth Principles into action. The toolkit is designed to evolve and expand over time as conditions change and new challenges emerge. The toolkit is overseen by an Administrative & Maintenance Committee, which includes city and county planning representatives from throughout the Valley, who consider input from the Peer Review Network-a group made up of both private and public sector individuals who provide feedback for changes, additional tools and updates. The toolkit may be accessed at toolkit.valleyblueprint.org.

 

The Greenprint Program, a counterpart to the Blueprint Program, is currently focusing on data collection, mapping and the description of opportunities and challenges for open space, water, farmland, habitat corridor preservation and urban/rural connections, which will culminate in a State of the Valley report. These tools will then be used to identify and evaluate resource management options and strategies to be published and disseminated as a Guide to Resource Management.

 

The San Joaquin Valley Housing Collaborative (SJVHC) is a regional nonprofit organization formed to specifically address housing issues in the eight-county San Joaquin Valley. SJVHC not only serves as a much needed forum to discuss regional challenges and strategies to address the Valley's long-and short-term housing goals; it also serves as an invaluable tool for the region to organize as one voice when communicating with state and federal policy makers and regulatory agencies.

Housing Action Plan