Valley Springs community plan in works

A series of workshops to develop plans for the future growth of Valley Springs will begin May 28.

The Valley Springs Community Plan began as an effort of community groups in the town with an eye for updating a 35-year-old plan currently on the books with new input for the Calaveras County general plan. Members of the MyValleySprings.com nonprofit organization secured more than $200,000 in funding for the community plan through a Caltrans Community-Based Transportation Planning Grant.
 

MyValleySprings.com President Joyce Techel said once it became clear the county could not fund an update to the aged plan, volunteer grant writer Muriel Zeller set to work trying to secure a grant with considerable success.

The Valley Springs Community Plan workshops will start with the opening meeting from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Valley Springs Elementary School multi-purpose room at 240 Pine St. The workshops will continue on from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 30 and 6 to 8 p.m. June 2 at the same location.

All residents, property owners, and interested stakeholders are encouraged to attend, said Calaveras Council of Governments Transportation Planner Tyler Summersett. The community plan project partners include CCOG, who will host the meetings, the Local Government Commission, MyValleySprings.com and Calaveras County, according to Summersett.

“We’re looking for a high level of participation from the community and a good gathering of what they want,” Techel said. “We just want them to have an opportunity to contribute ... for their children’s and grandchildren’s sake. We’re working hard at reaching out to every part of the community we can get to.”

The community plan will ultimately determine transportation, land use, future growth and community boundary issues in the Valley Springs area, Summersett said.

The community boundaries aspect will consider the lines between locales within the Valley Springs Benefit Basin such as Wallace, Burson, Campo Seco, Jenny Lind, Rancho Calaveras, Paloma and Toyon, as well as Valley Springs proper.

“Someone may have a Valley Springs post office box but they live in Gold Creek or Rancho Calaveras or Jenny Lind,” Summersett said.

A second workshop series is scheduled for late August. May’s meetings represent “square one,” Summersett said, as “no decisions have been made. We want to hear from the community about what they want for where they live.”

Prior to the workshops, a short survey will be mailed to residents, property owners and businesses in the Valley Springs Benefit Basin. The survey may also be taken online at http://www.surveymonkey.com/Home_Landing.aspx. It is designed to help determine who in the area considers themselves a resident of Valley Springs or otherwise and how much the community has grown since the 1974 plan.

In addition to the workshops, the community design team for the plan will host drop-in hours from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 29, 3 to 4 p.m. May 31 and 10 a.m. to noon June 1 at the Community United Methodist Church at 135 Laurel St.