Place-Making in California’s Central Valley: Redesigning the Avenue 12 Corridor, Madera County
The CRP Department developed a series of studies for the improvement of Avenue 12 in Madera Ranchos under a contract with the Madera County Planning Department. This community-based project included participatory visioning workshops, traffic studies and a transportation plan, and an urban design plan. The final reports were submitted to the county and the community, and the proposals are currently undergoing the public review process prior to adoption. Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/focus This Faculty and Student Work is brought to you for free and open access by the City and Regional Planning at DigitalCommons@CalPoly. It has been accepted for inclusion in Focus by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@CalPoly. For more information, please contact mwyngard@calpoly.edu. Recommended Citation del Rio, Vicente; Nuworsoo, Cornelius; and Toker, Umut (2011) "Place-Making in California’s Central Valley: Redesigning the Avenue 12 Corridor, Madera County," Focus: Vol. 8: Iss. 1, Article 9. DOI: 10.15368/focus.2011v8n1.3 Available at: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/focus/vol8/iss1/9 faCulTy and sTudenT work focus Vicente del Rio, PhD. is Associate Professor at Cal Poly’s CRP Department. Cornelius Nuworsoo, PhD. is Associate Professor at Cal Poly’s CRP Department. Umut Toker, PhD. is Assistant Professor at Cal Poly’s CRP Department. The complete reports for this project are available at: http:// www.madera-county.com/ rma/planningdept/planning_ dept_docs.html plaCe-making in California’s CenTral valley: redesigning THe avenue 12 Corridor, madera CounTy viCenTe del rio, Cornelius numorsoo and umuT Toker The CRP Department developed a series of studies for the improvement of Avenue 12 in Madera Ranchos under a contract with the Madera County Planning Department. This community-based project included participatory visioning workshops, traffic studies and a transportation plan, and an urban design plan. The final reports were submitted to the county and the community, and the proposals are currently undergoing the public review process prior to adoption. In 2008 the City and Regional Planning Department was approached by the Madera County Planning Department for the submission of a joint grant proposal to Caltrans. The county needed a plan on how to adapt Avenue 12 --one of the counties’ major thoroughfares-and the community of Madera Ranchos to increasing development and traffic demands in the region, and to a new Caltrans road planned to by-pass the community. Starting in July 2009, CRP’s contract with the Madera County Planning Department resulted in the Avenue 12 Corridor Enhancement Project which had three distinct, but interrelated parts: (a) Community Visioning, (b) Transportation Plan, and (c) Corridor Redesign. The purpose of our work was to outline the impacts of the planned by-pass road and the increased traffic demands, to mitigate their impacts, and to present a redesign project for the Avenue 12 corridor which could help Madera Ranchos become a walkable and attractive community with a quality urban design and a strong sense of place. In the summer of 2009 a visioning process with a series of community workshops in Madera Ranchos was conducted by assistant professor Umut Toker. This process resulted in the Madera Ranchos Vision Plan indicating the community’s perceived problems, their needs and desires, as well the community’s general ideas for the Avenue 12 Corridor. From the fall of 2009 to the summer of 2010, a series of transportation studies were carried out by associate professor Cornelius Nuworsoo, resulting in the Transportation Plan and a series of scenarios and recommendations. In the spring of 2010 a joint urban design studio with CRP and Landscape Architecture students --led by instructors Vicente del Rio and Vangeli Evangelopoulos—developed the Avenue 12 Corridor Redesign Plan, encompassing ideas for the street itself as well as for public and private development along it. Finally, in the summer of 2010, final reports and recommendations were put together and submitted to the Madera County Planning Department, and are presently in the process of final approval by the community and the county planners. Avenue 12 and Madera Ranchos Avenue 12 is a two-lane country road that lies in the southeastern area of Madera County in the California Central Valley. It connects Highway 99 (SR 99) to the west and Highway 41 (SR 41) to the east and bisects the community of Madera Ranchos, concentrating sparse commercial and service uses. The Madera Ranchos area is a low density, middle income community with approximately 8,000 residents. It is surrounded by agricultural uses and the community’s main features are the Madera Ranchos Liberty High School --located in the north-west corner of Road 36 and Avenue 12-and sparse commercial and service uses along the avenue including a small outdated shopping center. In its present conditions, the two-mile strech of Avenue 12 crossing the community -the object of our projectsis an unsafe and unattractive thoroughfare for both pedestrians and motorists, and development along it is of low aesthetical quality, very limited in terms of servicing the community, and unattractive to passers-by. There are no recreational opportunities and few places to meet, the community of Madera Ranchos is not memorable, and sense of place is practically nonexistent. f o c u s | 2 0 1 0 | v o l u m e V I I 30 The study area is adjacent to the northwestern boundary of the City of Fresno and serves as a de facto expansion area for the Fresno metropolitan area. There are several projects in the pipeline for new residential and commercial developments both to the east and west of Madera Ranchos, many of which adjoin Avenue 12. The additional vehicle trips associated with these developments are anticipated to severely impact traffic flow on Avenue 12 and on the community. There were no viable alternatives to the private automobile at the time of this study. Thus the need was identified to address transportation alternatives in the plan.