NO more sprawl. When our urban core and corridor areas and nodes – are suburbanized and underutilized, why would Oxnard decision makers consider areas protected by SOAR for suburban expansion? It was suggested that some future Oxnard expand into the area east of Rice and south of PCH and wrapping around to Pleasant Valley Road…
Don’t let people park for free Apr 8th 2017| AMSTERDAM, BEIJING AND TOKYO EVEN if the new headquarters that Apple is creating in California does not prove to be “the best office building in the world”, as Steve Jobs boasted shortly before his death in 2011, it will be an astounding sight. The main building…
Oxnard Boulevard is key to downtown revitalization success. We must not forget Oxnard Boulevard. Oxnard City revitalization must not ignore Oxnard Boulevard and only concentrate on the areas around Plaza Park. I strongly feel that only when Oxnard revitalizes Oxnard Boulevard, will Oxnard’s downtown come fully alive: Remove the medians from 3rd (where Oxnard Blvd widens going south)…
The following is a VERY informal phone survey conducted by Roy Prince [ OxnardRENAISSANCE.ORG ] in early September 2017. While most Ventura County (VC) cities have about one planner per 10-12,000 – Oxnard has one planner per 34,000 people. Other VC cities have about three times the number of planners per resident than does Oxnard….
ROBUST GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT MANDATING PARKING What happens when you get rid of minimum parking requirements in a downtown district while also adding 4,500 people to the downtown? Many would suggest that adding so many people in a short time while removing parking minimums would be bad for businesses because parking spaces would be…
Oxnard Community College District Sounds great, doesn’t it. The VCCCD is building a beautiful new Ventura campus like gangbusters – yet our style conscious Oxnard youth are being shortchanged with an unappealing campus and limited class offerings. WHY? There are many more Oxnard CC students than in any other part of the county – yet the technical…
Welcome to my Oxnard Renaissance Blog. My commentary on better planning for Oxnard –
The Five Cs of Neighborhood Planning This is a brilliant article on Placemaking by CNU-CA’s Howard Blackson. It’s a short easy read if you skim it – it’s a deep treatise on Placemaking if you think about each of the C’s and how it applies to your daily civic meanderings and our city. How does Oxnard…
The Public Realm Complete streets are more than bike lanes, crosswalks, sidewalks, and vehicle lanes; they are buildings that engage the people in the right of way. Well-designed plazas, squares, and greens are framed by landscape design and architecture that relates to local culture, history, and climate. New urbanists have long advanced the idea that…