Regional planning in California aims to address cumulative impacts of issues like poor air quality, congestion, environmental degradation and loss of farmland/open space through a collaborative framework involving federal, state, regional and local levels. The Fresno County Blueprint Process developed scenarios for future growth through 2050, evaluated impacts on farmland loss, vehicle miles traveled, greenhouse gases and resource use, and established a consensus vision to guide plans and investments.

1. “There are only two things American don’t like, density
and sprawl.”
-Rural Planner, Randall Arendt
The San Joaquin Valley Blueprint Planning Process
Presented By
BHARAT SINGH

2. Planning at a Regional Level in California
Historically Regional Planning in the
US has been minimal. Transportation
Cumulative impacts of poor air
quality, congestion, environmental
degradation, distribution of water Air Quality
and loss of farmland/open space
necessitated the need to envision
regional futures. Water
Recent realization of global warming
and climate change has expedited
the need to plan with a regional MPOs & COGs
vision.

3. Planning at a Regional Level in California
Regional Framework for
Collaboration Transportation
• Federal and State levels
provide forums, funding and
guidance
Air Quality
• Regions have transportation
planning process, corridor
and landscape scale vantage
point, framework for
convening stakeholders Water
• Local level makes land use
decisions
• Community level provides MPOs & COGs
public input on needs and
desires

4. Planning at a Regional Level in California
• Planning has been
compartmentalized – Land Use, Transportation
Transportation, Environmental,
Land resource management,
housing, economic development Air Quality
etc.
• Agencies created to help guide and
manage urban agglomerations Water
(ABAG, SANDAG) - Metropolitan
Planning Organizations (MPOs)
• Smaller urban clusters are MPOs & COGs
managed by County level agencies
call Council of Governments (COG)

6. California Blueprint Program
State initiative to promote:
 Linking land use, transportation,
housing, environment, economic
development, equity
 Consensus on preferred growth
scenario - “Blueprint” - for each
region identifies transportation
impacts of land use
 A more efficient and effective
transportation system
 Sufficient housing supply to
accommodate population
growth in each region

7. California Blueprint Program
Desired Outcomes
 Improve mobility
 reduce auto dependency,
congestion
 increase transit use, walking and
bicycling
 Land use
 encourage infill development
 accommodate sufficient housing
supply
 minimize impacts on farmland
and habitat
 Establish a better process for
public engagement in planning

8. California Blueprint Program
Blueprint Regions
• MPOs
• Rural Counties

10. San Joaquin Valley Regional Blueprint
• 8 Counties
• Central Valley
• Agricultural Heartland
• Seen rapid suburbanization – loss
of Farmland/Open space
• High Poverty
• Lack of housing option
• Poor Public Transportation
• Running out of Water

11. San Joaquin Valley Regional Blueprint
• Each County responsible for
running individual Blueprint
Process
• Process to include Consensus
Building amongst communities
• Developing data to model land
use and integrate better
transportation modeling tools
• Develop alternative scenarios
• Achieve ‘Preferred Scenario’ by
consensus

13. Fresno Blueprint Process
Key Hurdles - Political
• Public Outreach to bring all
communities and jurisdictions to the
table.
• Developing Consensus on regional
issues, assets, need & goals.
• Convincing communities of regional
issues such as limited resources and
need for affordability and choice of
housing types.
• Assuring local governments about
their authority of planning and
developing their communities.
• Establishing a Vision for the Region.
From the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint Website

14. Fresno Blueprint Process
Key Hurdles - Technical
• Poor Land use Database
• Lack of professional capacity to
develop data collection land
use/transportation modeling
standards .
• Establishing a graphic vocabulary
and language to explain technical
results to decision makers.
• Identifying technical methods to
evaluate alternatives.
• Educating decision makers and
community leaders about
development alternatives.

15. Fresno Blueprint Process
Resulting Process
• Fresno COG conducted outreach to
develop a vision and set of goals.
• Got assistance for Data development
• Developed four alternative future
scenarios for the County by the year
2050.
• Accepted a 5th Alternative advocated
by the City of Fresno
• Comparatively evaluated all
alternatives on several parameters:
• Loss of Farmland/Open space
• Reductions in Vehicle Miles travelled
• Reduction of green house gasses
• Consumption of electricity and water
• Presented finding to decision makers &
community leaders to establish
consensus on preferred future for
Fresno County
• Established Blueprint Vision to guide
future growth, General Plans, Zoning
and transportation investments.

16. Fresno Blueprint Process
Resulting Process
• Fresno COG conducted outreach to
develop a vision and set of goals.
• Got assistance for Data
development
• Developed four alternative future
scenarios for the County by the year
2050.
• Accepted a 5th Alternative
advocated by the City of Fresno
• Comparatively Evaluated all
alternatives on several parameters:
• Loss of Farmland/Open space
• Reductions in Vehicle Miles travelled
• Reduction of green house gasses
• Consumption of elctricity and water
• Presented finding to decision
makers & community leaders to
establish consensus on preferred
future for Fresno County

18. Web Resources
• San Joaquin Valley BLUEPRINT • California Partnership for the San
http://valleyblueprint.org/ Joaquin Valley
• California Regional BLUEPRINT http://www.sjvpartnership.org/
http://calblueprint.dot.ca.gov/ • Community Design + Architecture
• UPLAN Land use modeling Software http://community-design.com/
http://ice.ucdavis.edu/doc/uplan
• Smartgrowth Transportation
Planning
http://www.smartgrowthplanning.org/

19. THE END