Vision Festival Summary

Summary

On October 8-10th, 1999, Action Pajaro Valley hosted a Vision Festival Weekend for community members of the Pajaro Valley. The Vision Festival was one of the initial outreach efforts aimed at involving community members in the creation of a vision for the future of the Valley. The Festival included a range of activities and opportunities for community input and dialogue addressing diverse issues including business, government, agriculture, education, labor and the environment. This report summarizes the results of the weekend.

The weekend began with an opening reception that included two guest speakers, Dr. Manuel Pastor and William Fulton. Both Dr. Pastor and Mr. Fulton discussed the importance of creating a community vision in the Pajaro Valley and encouraged residents to get involved in the process.

The Festival weekend continued the following day with a community workshop. Over 150 community members attended the all day workshop that was designed to identify the initial components of a community vision, the issues and opportunities effecting the Valley, and some possible strategy ideas for implementing a vision.

The weekend concluded with a Family Vision Festival held in the Watsonville Plaza. The festival was an effort to involve families and community members unable to attend Saturday's workshop in the visioning process. The Plaza contained six interactive booths designed to obtain community input as well as over twenty resource booths that distributed information on various organizations in the Pajaro Valley area.

Summary of Vision Points from Festival Weekend

While more elements of the vision will continue to surface throughout the next several months, the following is a summary of the key vision points raised by community members during the first vision workshop.

• Create powerful educational opportunities for the Valley's young people.
• Celebrate and capitalize on diversity.
• Develop a strong economy.
• Having a healthy downtown.
• Create a sufficient balance between jobs and housing.
• Develop diverse employment opportunities.
• Balance agricultural preservation with urban development.
• Maintain the agricultural economy.
• Create the Valley as a model of organic farming.
• Provide mixed use and infill development.
• Secure comfortable, safe and affordable housing for all Pajaro Valley residents.
• Provide protection of environmental resources.

Summary of Assets and Challenges from Festival Weekend
The findings from the morning group discussions are summarized within this report.

Summary of Strategies from Festival Weekend
The results of the afternoon group discussions are presented within this report.

Summary of the Festival Weekend

The weekend was just the first attempt to involve community members in defining the Valley's vision elements. There will be several additional outreach efforts and community workshops throughout the coming months to continue identifying elements of the vision. The diagram to the right outlines the additional documentation that will come out of the visioning process.

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