Sounding Board: Bakersfield's general plan
Six Opinion section Sounding Board members were asked to comment on plans to revise metropolitan Bakersfield's general plan.
CITY, COUNTY WORK TOGETHER ON PLAN
It is very important to fully update the metropolitan general plan for the growth of greater Bakersfield. Our community is growing too rapidly for planning to be done on an approval-by-approval basis.
We need an urban policy directive that can come from a full update of the plan and address the cumulative effects of air quality, agricultural land conversion and traffic.
In the recently conducted first quarter (first five years) update of the Vision 2020 Action Plan, 88 percent of the respondents indicated that it is "important" or "very important" for "the city and county to work together on land use and development so that growth is acceptable and desired." (See the full update at www.bakersfieldvision2020.com).
To move the process of fully updating the metropolitan Bakersfield general plan forward, city and county staff have already met with Vision 2020 to outline a unique and trendsetting public-private collaboration. Greater Bakersfield Vision 2020 will partner with the city and county for the purpose of enhancing participation by the general public in the update project.
The Vision 2020 framework and philosophy of openness and inclusivity will not only encourage public participation, but will provide for incorporation of many of the goals and action items identified in the original Vision 2020 Action Plan.
Community participants will have the opportunity of seeing their input actually translated into public policy. Increased public participation will also, ultimately, lend credibility to the outcome.
Sheryl Barbich is a management consultant, facilitator and community activist. She is the president of Vision 2020.
IT'S NO LONGER A SLEEPY TOWN
On a warm day in 1975, I was moving to Bakersfield from Los Angeles in a bright orange VW bug. The confident words of L.A. friends were still ringing in my ears: "You'll be back."
I didn't know what to expect, traveling up the steep, curvy Grapevine. All my driving experience had been on the frantic, but flat, Hollywood freeway. I entered Bakersfield through the eucalyptus grove lining the old highway. John Denver was singing "Country Roads" on the radio, as I arrived in what seemed like a magical land.
In contrast to the stressful big city, Bakersfield, I discovered, was filled with lots of nice people and minimal traffic congestion. Dodging fast cars in L.A. traffic had been a vital survival skill. But in Bakersfield, drivers rarely honked. Strangers made an effort to be courteous.
Now, however, 30 years later, Bakersfield isn't the peaceful town it was in the 1970s. Our community is growing in every direction. Even in east Bakersfield, Mount Vernon Avenue has its share of traffic jams, just like Rosedale Highway.
Bakersfield still offers special places of beauty -- mountains and open spaces that haven't been crowded out by housing development. These areas of open space need to be protected. Hopefully our city leaders will work hard to preserve our quality of life when pursuing economic growth. The metropolitan Bakersfield general plan should be revised to meet the needs of our rapidly expanding population.
Can we afford to take the impact of growth in Bakersfield for granted? Los Angeles was once also a sleepy farm town.
Kathleen Arnold Chambers is a mental health clinician for the Kern High School District.
AGRICULTURAL LAND MUST BE PRESERVED
Serious planning should be consider what our grandchildren (and their grandchildren) will need and want.
Unless Americans stop having children, our country will continue to grow and those children will need food, milk and clean air. The question is whether Kern County can continue to provide those things. Once we lose our precious agricultural land to development, it cannot be reclaimed.
Whether we like it or not, Bakersfield will become a big city. However, we can decide what kind of city we will be. I hope we will not choose more and more sprawl and congestion, bad air quality and struggles over water.
I have a vivid memory of seeing in 1984 a skyscraper in Japan alongside a lush rice field. We have not yet come to that point here. But we surely should think seriously about restricting the size of lots for new homes and promoting in-fill development closer to the center of town.
Allowing buyers to have whatever they can afford is unwise stewardship of the land.
Some of my environmentalist friends may disagree, but I also believe that, for the sake of future generations, we should give priority to preserving farm land over preserving a view.
Bruce Jones is a retired professor of religious studies at Cal State Bakersfield.
GROWTH PRESSURES FELT ON BAKERSFIELD
The Bakersfield City Council and Kern County Board of Supervisors need a major update to the 2010 Plan as amended in 2004. Bakersfield has flourished with growth and development, leapfrogged over rural areas and put pressure on our schools, police, fire, public services and labor and businesses of all kinds. This is an underlying reason for a new and improved version of the 2010 Plan. The new version must not duck these issues, but instead come up with a sensible "quality of life" plan for the future. Decisionmakers must not be swayed by outside pressures.
The dairies' expansion into our way of life certainly comes to mind. The influx and impact of the existing dairies and the ones waiting to come on stream, pending the outcome of the current environmental impact study, will measure the quality of life today and tomorrow. As sure as Tuesday follows Monday, housing is going to increasingly encroach on the dairies with each passing day. The revised 2010 Plan must address this contentious issue.
Our existing road and freeway system is inadequate to serve the growth and development of the past few years. A recent article in The Californiandiscussed pending road projects in 2006 and beyond. We all know how construction dates get set back for many reasons. This reason makes it even more critical that the city and county take an in-depth look at the 2010 plan as amended in 2004.
My mother used to say, "Haste makes waste." I feel that still applies today.
Dale A. Lindsley is retired after a lengthy career with Shell.
VISION 2020 GOALS
NEED TO BE ENACTED
Soon the Bakersfield City Council, along with the Kern County Board of Supervisors, will meet to make a decision regarding revising Bakersfield's Vision 2020 Plan. Due to the growth and development in our community since the last revision to this plan in 2004, I have concerns that we are simply rushing to another revision when we really should be concerned with making the current vision our reality.
The 2020 plan is full of vision and ideas. One strategy states that we will "target growth companies that meet clean air requirements and create sustainable employment in jobs paying higher wages... Reduce emissions from mobile sources by improving traffic flow...Create buffer zones between city and farmland."
It also states that "Greater Bakersfield is a community with a clear set of development and land use...with policies that encourage in-fill development, while discouraging urban sprawl and leapfrog development into prime agricultural lands. ... We actively seek to revitalize blighted areas."
I believe we are not following our current vision plan well in these areas (think big dairies, Wal-Mart and unbridled urban sprawl and traffic jams toward the canyon and to the west, while we still have blight and high-crime in the east, southeast and central sections of our city).
I am concerned that we still do not have affordable housing, health and child care. I would also like to see every child attend college and obtain a degree; however, I am worried that we continue to have inadequate school-to-career and vocational programs that will help prepare tomorrow's workforce here in Kern County.
A vision is a mental image of what organizations and leaders want to create in the future. It should reflect what is important and what we care about most. If used correctly, the 2020 Plan would be the framework that guides the actions and decisions of our leaders; nonetheless, it can and will become nothing more than empty promises and a doorstop if we do not follow through with actual decisions and actions that address and improve our quality of life here in Kern County. Our future -- our children, our grandchildren and our community-at-large -- deserve better than that.
Dr. Michelle McLean is the former principal of Horace Mann Elementary School. She is the author of several books on education.
DEMAND MORE FROM
NEW HOME BUILDERS
There was a time, like it or not, in which this area was extremely hungry for growth. The city, county and private industry did much to encourage that growth, even though that appeared, at least to me, to be less demanding of developers than I think appropriate.
As an example, in the northwest, the site of very significant growth, we have parks that are not built for lack of funding -- meaning that developers were allowed to build without providing adequate infrastructure.
Things have now changed, at least as to housing. Today the cost of living in Los Angeles and environs is so high that we are experiencing enormous growth. If there was ever a time for governmental entities to demand high quality development with complete infra-structure support, the time is now.
This is the time to ensure both new homeowners' and the existing population's quality of life by providing parks, schools and the like.
David B. Stanton is a semi-retired Bakersfield attorney.
