Report and Commentary by Patric Hedlund

To those who have been involved in the "envisioning the future" Synergy Summits, it was as if she reached into a time capsule to pull out a treasure map. Lorelei Oviatt, Kern County Planning Division Chief, renewed many people’s awareness of the 2003 Lebec- Frazier Park Specific Plan on Thursday, March 15 at a meeting hosted by the Mountain Communities Town Council. The plan is said to have cost over $180,000 and hundreds of hours of community involvement. It is a road map to planned, "values based" change. Meanwhile, the school district is preparing for a $69,000 public Master Planning project with an architect. Then, just as we were going to press this week, a notice landed on my desk from the Kern Council of Governments (KCOG), announcing …yes…yet another planning workshop to be held in Frazier Park on April 10. I immediately called Robert Phipps, KCOG’s Administrative Analyst.

The plan, he explained, is financed by a $2 million grant to eight San Joaquin Valley regions to conduct ‘scenario planning’ during 2006-07 for what they call Regional Blueprint Development. The goal is to plan for transportation and growth needs over the next 50 years. Councils of government in each county (Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tulare) are to administer the grant.

KCOG’s Regional Blueprint Planning Workshops are slated from the end of March through April 12 in Arvin, Frazier Park, Delano/McFarland/ Wasco, Kern River Valley, California City/Mojave/ Rosamond, with a Bakersfield/ Shafter area workshop at a later date. The invitation is upbeat: "Kern Council of Governments will host a public workshop for residents to decide how their communities will grow over the next 50 years. This fun-and gamefilled workshop is designed for residents to determine what visions and values will help motivate development during the next four decades, and what trade-offs will be necessary to realize those goals. Food will be provided.

"The public will be invited to pick the values they want to help guide future development, such as farmland and open-space preservation, water and other resource conservation or affordable housing. Using a series of maps and innovative land use design software, planners with Kern COG and Kern County will demonstrate what the communities look like today and how growth will change their look and feel over time.

"In a second round of workshops, planned for summer 2007, the public will be asked to help develop a landuse design that incorporates and reflects those values.

"The workshop is part of a Regional Blueprint process designed to help cities and counties plan for future growth and quality of life through the integration of transportation, housing, land use, economic development and environmental protection…Elected officials from each city and county throughout the valley will determine how their jurisdictions will accommodate the regional vision.

"The final product, known as the San Joaquin Valley Regional Blueprint, will include a visual representation of the goals expressed in general plans and Regional Transportation Plans."

"This process will help our region grow in a rational, coordinated fashion that’s consistent with both public sentiment and local general plans," Kern COG Executive Director Ron Brummett was quoted as saying in the release.

KCOG’s Robert Phipps said he did not believe they were acquainted with the work that is underway here, or the work that has already taken place, so I wrote a short overview and asked some questions.

The first questions to KCOG were: Who are you working with locally to coordinate? Who have you talked with from the Mountain Communities Town Council? Who have you talked with from the Mountain Communities Chamber of Commerce? How have you researched what Frazier Mountain has already accomplished to articulate our region’s future visions?

Coordinating is critical. Just last week in The Mountain Enterprise (March 16, page 1) we carried a story about a disconnect between Frazier Park Public Utilities District and plans generated out of Bakersfield for beautification of Monterey Trail.

The water company invested about $2.1 million last year and is seeking several million dollars more to complete replacement of 1926 water pipes installed under the streets before expensive new curbs and landscaping are installed. Hopefully the miscommunication has been caught in time and FPPUD and Kern County Roads Department will be able to work together.

The El Tejon Unified School District’s $69,000 "Master Plan" effort has engaged an architect to launch community forums for a public process to articulate a vision for the future of the schools here.

The Mountain Communities Town Council’s March 15 seminar reviewed how the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) provides for community input about the impacts of development on existing habitat as well as infrastructure and economic concerns. Review of the Lebec-Frazier Park Specific Plan reveals excellent, detailed work already accomplished in our community toward defining both vision and implementation plans.

The Synergy Summit meetings held in November 2006 and February 2007 are generating task forces seeking ways to implement the values and visions that were articulated in that multi-year plan.

A key part of the Lebec- Frazier Park Specific Plan is the desire to retain the rural mountain feel of this area.

Synergy Summits are focused on identifying infrastructure needs and coordinated marketing opportunities for developing an ecotourismbased economy serving the urban clusters surrounding us. Main Street Revitalization is one priority.

Another is a well-articulated Cuddy Creek Renovation Program already drawn out, with the help of Kern County engineers, which incorporates a trail and park system from Lebec to Frazier Mountain Park. It had been funded with $1.6 million. Ray Watson told the Synergy Summit on February 15 that the money had been withdrawn, with little to no communication with the people here. Even our County Planner, Lorelei Oviatt, said she did not know the money had been re-allocated elsewhere. She was as surprised as many of our residents. She said she would try to find out what happened.

The population here has already invested in blueprints for our future. We are ready for coordinated action to secure meaningful funding and to apply volunteer efforts to make visible change happen, now.

In what ways can KCOG help with that? Participating on April 10 will be useful if we recognize we are not starting from scratch. This is a time for generating the action that will make these many years of planning yield visible results.

This is part of the March 23, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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