Ranchos folks have chance to plan (June 22)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
Folks in the Madera Ranchos have wisely been working with county planners and a design team from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo to come up plans for that part of Avenue 12, which runs through the Ranchos “downtown.”
On Wednesday, at a workshop on the redesign of that corridor, they will get a chance to see some of the work that has been done.
The citizens of the Ranchos made it clear that they don’t want the Avenue 12 corridor to be any busier than it is. Instead, they want a bypass to handle expected heavier traffic of the future. And they want Avenue 12 to be more pedestrian friendly, more business friendly and easier to navigate.
The Cal Poly team and Planner Scott Harmstead have put together some options, and those who attend the Wednesday workshop, 6:30 p.m. at Liberty High, can have a look at them and provide their opinions about which options they like the best.
The Avenue 12 draft vision has been available for public review and comment since December. If you live in the Ranchos and haven’t had a chance to see it, you can find a copy at the Ranchos Public Library, or you can pull it up on the Internet. A copy also is available at the Resource Management Agency offices at the Walmart shopping center in Madera.
This is an example of good and much-needed community planning. The Ranchos area has been targeted by developers who want to plant some 28,000 new homes in the future. Those new developments could turn the present very pleasant Ranchos into a rural slum without good planning. It’s good that county planners are taking the lead.
