What does crop yield have to do with successful downtowns? Farmers measure the success of a crop by yield per acre. It's time for Oxnard and other Ventura County cities to explore the idea that a 1/20 of an acre downtown mom and pop can and does outperform Chick-fil-A on a per acre basis, and what this really means for the success of our downtowns.
I call on our civic decision makers and housing advocates to begin the local conversation on the concepts and ideas shared in this video.
In the following TEDx talk, he discusses his recent transition from city planning to city managing. He advocates for the radical concept of considering city revenues and expense on a per acre basis, instead of just as line items in a budget. If you've been around Strong Towns for a bit, you know this is something we advocate for too. Wes does some great per acre analyses in his town of Conway and advocates for more productive land use in true Strong Towns fashion.
Roy Prince is a licensed Architect and Oxnard resident. He is an advocate for good urban design and 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 market-rate and affordable housing and mixed-use development in downtown Oxnard, neighborhoods surrounding the downtown, and along Oxnard's main street corridors and civic nodes.
Oxnard is a more than 210,000 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.
Planning for the future is all about Economic Development. Oxnard cannot properly develop economically when starved of planning staff.
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 Revitalization Manager, as recommended in the Vision Plan, has recently been hired by the City and Development Standards and Design Guidelines are being developed for Oxnard.
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. Poor design equates to poor economic development. Who wants to invest in a place that is poorly designed? Not developers for sure...
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.
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OxnardRenaissance.org attempts to improve the discourse in Oxnard by providing insightful planning related information. Be a part of the "Better Planning for Oxnard" conversation at OxnardRenaissance.org
