BY ALEX CANTATORE
Staff Reporter
Over the course of the next 40 years, Stanislaus County’s population is expected to more than double. By 2050, more than 1.2 million people will call this county their home.
To Lark Downs, senior regional planner with the Stanislaus Council of Governments, it’s easy to foresee how that could happen.
Not too long ago, Downs grew up in a sleepy farming town known as Turlock. One day a copy of the Turlock Journal, then a daily paper, landed on his doorstep with the headline, “Turlock Hits 10,000.”
“And I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I live in a big city,’” Downs recalled.
Today, Turlock has more than 70,000 citizens. By 2050, that number could easily grow to 150,000, a population which almost rivals that of Modesto today.
“If you took a hot air balloon ride in 2050 and looked down on the Valley, what would you want to see?” asked Downs.
In hopes of finding out just what Valley residents would like to see from that hypothetical balloon ride, Downs has been helming the local branch of the San Joaquin Valley Regional Blueprint process for the past year and a half.
Eight counties in the San Joaquin Valley, from San Joaquin County to Kern County, have partnered up in a four-year, state grant-funded project to determine a plan for the future of the Central Valley. At the direction of the Great Valley Center, the blueprint process will develop a regional framework to address growth-related issues such as transportation, housing, land use, economic development, and the environment.
Turlockers will get their own chance to have a say in the future of the Valley 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday with the Turlock Town Hall meeting to be held at City Hall, 156 South Broadway Ave.
“The town hall meetings are an opportunity for everyone here in Stanislaus County and throughout the Valley to make their voices heard,” Downs said.
During the first round of town hall meetings, which took place last year, Turlock was the community with their voices heard the loudest. Almost 100 people, the most of any Stanislaus County meeting, attended Turlock’s last workshop.
High school teachers brought their students, and the meeting quickly became standing room only. Due to the unexpected turnout, Turlock Planner Debbie Whitmore was forced to carry in extra chairs.
As a result of the feedback gathered from the last round of town hall meetings, eight guiding principles were drafted for the future development of the Valley.
“One the main guiding principles we came up with was reserving ag land, green belts, good transportation corridors, and clean water,” said Downs.
In this second round of meetings, attendees will be asked to review the eight guiding principles created during the first round, as well as give feedback on four alternative growth scenarios based on population density levels.
“We want to ask new people, is this still what you want, what you believe in, what you think should be the future of the Valley?” said Downs. “And, obviously, the question is where we’re going to put these people, (if we’re going to embrace) smart growth, to grow up not out.”
The feedback from the Turlock meeting will be returned to the StanCOG Policy Board in August, where it will be assessed along with feedback from other local communities.
After all of the Valley counties have held workshops and researched what they believe is best for the future of the region, a Valley-wide summit will be held in November, most likely in Fresno. Stanislaus County’s preferred scenario will be combined with the preferred scenarios of the other seven counties involved in order to draft a document that will guide the future of the region.
“This valley right now is just like the LA basin in 1966,” Downs said. “It could go one way or it could go the other, and we don’t want to go the way of LA County.”
To contact Alex Cantatore, e-mail acantatore@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2005.
Originally published in the Turlock Journal 6/18/2008.
Retrieved from the Turlock Journal Web site.