Collaborative planning is multi-agency, inter-jurisdictional planning that integrates land use and infrastructure planning to meet the community's needs while addressing economic development, environmental protection and equity. Collaborative planning includes community involvement to ensure that development meets the vision and needs of the residents of the region. It involves early involvement of stakeholders and sharing of data. New graphic techniques for displaying the results of land use decisions enhance community involvement and integrated planning.
The collaborative planning capacity assessment for Highway 99 corridor for San Joaquin Valley focuses on a rapidly growing area of the Central Valley with significant natural resources to preserve as well as great need for economic development, job creation and affordable housing. This project resulted from the commitment of three California state agencies and the support of their sub Departments to promote specific collaborative planning efforts.
This assessment looks at developing new partnerships and ways of doing business. Corridor-level environmental studies, combining transportation planning with habitat and conservation planning, corridor-wide programmatic mitigation agreements and improved environmental consideration in the long-range regional transportation plans may all be parts of the solutions. Influencing local land use planning and regional jobs/housing balance is also within the scope of the collaborative planning effort. Collaborative decision making at the local, regional and State levels requires better mapping and analytical tools and sharing of data.
