Temecula's Jefferson Avenue Project Honored For 'Great Planning'

The following is a news release from the City of Temecula: 

The American Planning Association has announced that the City of Temecula’s “Envision Jefferson Avenue” project was awarded the Inland Empire Section 2013 “Education Award”.   The APA Inland Empire Awards Program celebrates great planning work occurring throughout Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. The Program acknowledges quality in planning and hopes to increase public awareness of the planning profession and its achievements within the local community and region.  The “Education Award” presented to the City of Temecula honors public outreach projects that use information, technology, media and creative public engagement strategies to educate the community and stakeholders about the value of planning and how planning can improve a community’s economic prosperity, visual character and overall quality of life.  

The Envision Jefferson Avenue project has included extensive work with the community to imagine the future opportunities for the 560 acre Jefferson Avenue Study Area. In an effort to determine how the Study Area could revitalize and spark renewed community interest and private investment, the project team conducted a multi-pronged public outreach campaign, and a creative and engaging series of community-based visioning workshops involving a wide range of stakeholders.  Community members learned about, and discussed, a full range of planning topics including urban design and placemaking, transportation and mobility, streets, open space, parks, housing, economic development, and economics/market analysis. The outcome of this process was a vision and policy framework for the area; representative of stakeholders’, policymakers’, and the broader community’s needs and interests.   “Public outreach and participation is exactly why the City of Temecula has grown into a great place to live and work,” stated Mayor Mike Naggar. “The current planning of the Jefferson Avenue area is another excellent example of citizen-city collaboration.”    

The Envision Jefferson Avenue project also won an honorable mention award for the Southern California Association of Governments 2013 Compass Blueprint Awards Program. Council Member Jeff Comerchero and Council Member Ron Roberts are leading the planning efforts as members of the City’s Jefferson Corridor Ad Hoc Subcommittee.  “The City learned in our early days that great communities are created through outreach and citizen participation.  I’m proud of these awards because they represent the tremendous public interest that exists for this area by Temecula citizens and stakeholders,” stated Council Member Ron Roberts.  Council Member Jeff Comerchero added, “The City has held several visioning workshops with the community and one of the essential goals is to enhance the economic vitality within the Jefferson Avenue project area. The new plan will provide additional development opportunities which should encourage new growth. We’ll begin another series of public workshops this summer as we draft segments of the plan.”              

To learn more about the Jefferson Avenue Study Area, visit http://www.envisionjefferson.org/.