BAKERSFIELD CITY COUNCIL MEETING –- AGENDA --- CITY CENTER

It was most interesting listening to all the City Council comments regarding the City Center Project last night. 12/12/01

Here are some further considerations noted from the City Center Project discussions. There are many more items to consider to reveal a better way to redevelop downtown.

Further consideration should be given to “thumb rule” calculations and modeling needs to suggest a base for forecasting a reasonable mix of land use “density” for downtown. Expectations of future uses in downtown should be carefully determined. This should reveal a pattern from which to create better traffic circulation and parking structure requirements.

One should consider reducing uncertainty for both public and private redevelopment activities, with a smarter legislative integration between the RDA and the City Council.

One should consider the basics of all projects as Design, Site Planning and Finance. Maybe it requires one oversight committee constituted with a mix of people from each of these areas of knowledge and expertize as being necessary for future redevelopment projects.

One should consider that “Project Development Costs” are borne by both public and private sectors in development. They are twofold. The “soft costs” that are the man hours involved with program development; the setting of consultants (or City Staff Team) team; then the hiring of disciplines needed to create the elements which should be project specific. The “hard costs” are cost estimates of the preliminary measured ideas before a commitment is made to move ahead. Both these soft and hard costs should be assessed before deciding on actions.

Finally in conclusion one should more seriously consider it to be most prudent having a “back-up” plan. If the proposed initial development plan fails for some reason or other, another plan should be there to replace it.

BY Graham Kaye-Eddie – Master Urban Designer.

Makabusi Inc. – Bakersfield – California

Email – makabusi@pacbell.net

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