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Residents of Santa Barbara and Ventura
Counties are increasingly interconnected and existing governmental
strategies and relations are not adequate to address this changing reality,
concluded a recently completed project aimed at creating an “inter-regional
partnership” among local governments and other agencies in the two
counties. The Jobs Housing Project was funded by a grant from the California
Housing and Community Development Department.
While
many housing policy initiatives and
strategies have been advanced by public agencies and well-respected
community organizations in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties over the past
several years, what distinguishes the Jobs Housing Project from other
endeavors is its two-county regional focus. The project is founded on the
assumptions that:
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Regional
problems require regional solutions.
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Meaningful change will require the
development of interregional partnerships and alliances that heretofore
have not been nurtured.
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All local
jurisdictions are related and do not work in isolation of each other.
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Noticeable and positive changes at the
local level will require political influence at the state level that can
only be accomplished through strategic cooperation at the regional
level.
Based upon the insights gained through an
evaluation of existing conditions and regional modeling of potential future
policy scenarios, a series of seven action-oriented “policy clusters” has
been developed to address jobs, housing and mobility issues facing the
region.
Like a
roadmap, these policy recommendations represent the core strategies that
should be utilized by elected officials, community leaders and key
organizations to address the existing and emerging problems that are
adversely affecting the quality of life for residents, workers, business and
industry within the two-county region.
Released in July 2004, both the
executive summary and the
full report are available. In addition, some of the
Tools and Techniques for Achieving Balance
that were used in the preparation of the report are
available. |
