2005 General Plan - City Of Ventura

21 S T C E N T U R Y T O O L K I T2 1 S T C E N T U R Y T O O L K I TPreludeThe 2005 Ventura General Plan envisions a new direction to protect and preserve its citizens' quality of life. This direction is based on the recognitionthat zoning and land development, as practiced for the past several decades, has not served our citizens, our city, or our environment as well as itshould.Currently, the two most successful movements created to alleviate this situation are "Smart Growth" and "New Urbanism." Smart Growth is agovernment initiated approach against sprawl that addresses underlying policy from the top-down, and is primarily marketed by government andsimilar agencies. New Urbanism is a grass roots, market response to outdated zoning and land use policy as it impacts development and the physicalproperties of the public realm. Its chief advocates are architects and town designers.Smart Growth grew out of early New Urbanist work, and both are concerned with the real outcomes of the built environment and how it affectscommunities environmentally, economically, culturally, and socially.The Ahwahnee Principles and the Charter for the New Urbanism, listed below, were created early on as "constitutions" that governed thesemovements. Both are valuable tools that Ventura would be wise to include in it's 21st Century Tool Kit to understand and solve long-standingproblems associated with growth and change.AHWAHNEE PRINCIPLESPreamble:Existing patterns of urban and suburban development seriously impair our quality of life. The symptoms are: more congestion and airpollution resulting from our increased dependence on automobiles, the loss of precious open space, the need for costly improvementsto roads and public services, the inequitable distribution of economic resources, and the loss of a sense of community. By drawingupon the best from the past and the present, we can plan communities that will more successfully serve the needs of those who liveand work within them. Such planning should adhere to certain fundamental principles.Community Principles1. All planning should be in the form of complete and integrated communities containing housing, shops, work places, schools, parks and civicfacilities essential to the daily life of the residents.August 8, 20052005 Ventura General PlanG-1