Building a Future: Planning experts share wisdom at summit

The Modesto Bee
Sunday, October 10, 2010
by Garth Stapley

Standing alone may have served a romantic image of the great American West in years past. But for today's San Joaquin Valley, isolationism is death.

That's what planning experts said over and over when asked how the historically undervalued valley can expect to climb out of California's center rut and into a bright, vibrant future.

"The most important thing is coalition building," lobbyist Mark MacDonald said last week at a summit in Modesto, where planning specialists from near and far gathered to ponder valley strategy for hitting up money powerbrokers. "All your battles (must be) internal, before you get up to Sacramento."

No county is an island, these growth gurus said, urging hands to join from Stockton to Modesto to Bakersfield and all points between to create strong coalitions, develop sound land-use plans and build efficient transportation systems.

"We are a family. And just like in a family, we may have arguments and disagreements, but when you walk outside, usually a family tries to put on a face that's acceptable."

— Dejeuné Shelton, interim executive director, Great Valley Center (Modesto)

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