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© OxnardRenaissance.org         Roy's Oxnard Renaissance Placemaking Newsletter         2018 ~ #16b
 

A Personal Note from Roy

Hello All,

It's been a while since I sent out a personal OxnardRenaissance Newsletter, and I want to catch you all up on my perception of urban planning issues in Oxnard.

First, please accept my apology for the last newsletter. I had two newsletters queued up and sent the wrong one (16 instead of 15), one that I had not fully edited so there was some strong language about killing economic development in Oxnard. My process sometimes is to write it all out and then go back and edit out what, after cooler heads prevail, is less than effective to get my message out. So again please accept my apology.

After what has seemed like forever, the Oxnard planning log jam seems to be breaking up. There are several factors at play here but I think the most important is the City, after a year of delay, filled the Downtown Revitalization Manager position. Claudia Pedroso, an architect and planner, is having a positive effect on urban design for the CBD. Old and conflicting zoning codes (development standards) and almost non-existent design guidelines are being addressed by Sargent Town Planning in positive and creative ways. I understand that this work will be completed within the next several months.

There is still much to do. Architectural review in Oxnard does not exist and the Downtown Design Review Committee (CBD) is flawed. The new development standards and design guidelines are a positive step.

Hopefully, with priority-based budgeting and more creative ways of bringing income to the City, there will be more funds to move the development of the CBD forward in years to come. 

Recently the Oxnard Community Planning Group (OCPG) and the Oxnard Downtown Improvement District (ODID) presented an update of the work Sargent Town Planning is doing as well as began a community dialogue about Oxnard planning issues. And on a very positive note, Ashley Golden, Douglas Spondello, and Claudia Pedroso from Oxnard Planning and the City Managers office participated.

The rift between myself and the OCPG is healing. I will continue to operate as OxnardRenaissance, but there is a more open collaboration between us and from my perspective, this is a very good thing. We all want to contribute to making Oxnard a more successful place to live, shop, work and play, we just have slightly different perceptions on how to get there. The separation of our two groups allows each of us to advance our similar agendas with more freedom and ease.

I have been involved in Oxnard planning issues since late in 2013 when Oxnard planning hired a street engineer instead of an urban design firm for the OCCTIP process. The OCPG was formed when a series of City workshops for the repurposing of Oxnard Boulevard failed to address walkability and urban design issues. I want to see Oxnard Boulevard become a more walkable and economically successful place in downtown Oxnard. The OCCTIP emphasis was on moving cars - not making better places for people. 

Oxnard has been dragged through a number of painful transitions. Planning movement has been slowed and stalled because of these significant distractions. And today a significant and unwarranted distraction is the recall of all the Democrats on the Oxnard City Council. I want to say a few words about the upcoming Recall election: Vote NO RECALL.

I am always interested in your thoughts and suggestions to improve the OxnardRenaissance Newsletter.
 

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Welcome Oxnard PlaceMakers

Roy Prince is a licensed Architect and Oxnard resident. He is an advocate for good urban planning and runs the OxnardRenaissance.org website/blog and newsletter.

OxnardRenaissance.org focuses on Oxnard placemaking and planning issues. We support infill incremental and small-scale walkable appropriate housing and mixed-use development in downtown Oxnard, neighborhoods surrounding the downtown, and along Oxnard's main street corridors and civic nodes.

Oxnard is not that sleepy farm town of the past. We are a more than 225,000 strong multi-cultural population, and if we do not plan properly - sprawl will continue to be our future. Current Oxnard zoning and design guidelines incentivize sprawl, lousy architectural design, and poor planning.

Oxnard City Planning currently has about 7 staff planners, when it should have 20 to 25 staff planners. How can Oxnard deal with its current workload as well as properly plan for the future with this kind of large planning staff deficit? In September of 2017, I did an informal survey of Ventura County cities for the number of planners they have compared to the number of planners in Oxnard. The results showed that Oxnard has 1/3 the number of planners per capita than other VC cities larger than 30K people. Click to check out the survey.

Currently, Oxnard does not have appropriate Development Standards and Design Guidelines to allow for the proper implementation of the Downtown Oxnard Vision Plan Charrette. However, the good news is that a Downtown Development Manager, as recommended in the Vision Plan, has recently been hired by the City.

There is no Architectural Review in the entire City of Oxnard (except for a very limited and flawed Downtown Design Review Committee). This is hard to believe - a SoCal coastal city - and developers can do whatever they want in terms of architectural design. Unacceptable.

We post on placemaking and planning subjects that we think will inform and educate - while posts may not be specific to Oxnard - all will assist us to deepen our appreciation for and understanding of universal Traditional Neighborhood Development and New Urbanist planning principles and issues.

We hope you will stick around, but should your interests be elsewhere - you can opt-out of our posts by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this message.

OxnardRenaissance.org attempts to improve the discourse in Oxnard by providing insightful planning related information each week. Be a part of the "Better Planning for Oxnard" conversation at OxnardRenaissance.org

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