Nason Street Corridor Workshop Gathers Many Community Members

The Nason Street Corridor Plan was in full effect on Wednesday night, April 15, as city staff and over 30 community members, contributed to the future plan during the second workshop. The meeting was designed to “develop a shared vision for the Nason Street corridor.” With the ideas from the workshop held Wednesday, Feb. 18, incorporated into the presentation at the second workshop, attendees brainstormed and discussed the many different possibilities that could be brought forth for the project. The official presentation began at 6 p.m. and ran for about two hours. The plan for the night was to go over four specific “focus areas” and present different alternatives and suggestions for each one. After the PowerPoint presentation, which highlighted each focus area, the room opened for discussion. Community members were able to share comments, questions and concerns. The workshop allowed specific questions from the community to be discussed and answered. After the presentation of Focus Area 1, the main question was if there was a desire for cycletrack, a protected bike lane, on both sides of Nason Street or a two-way cycle track on the east side on Nason Street. Other comments or concerns were encouraged to bring forth, as well. Focus area 2 had three alternatives to it: Alternative 'A' - to have a Town Center on both sides of Nason Street; Alternative 'B' - to have a rural residential area on the east side of Nason Town Center and commercial area on both sides of Alessandro Boulevard; and Alternative 'C' - a rural residential area on the east side of Nason and medical employment uses and housing on the south of Alessandro Boulevard. In addition to these alternatives, another option was presented which included the Town Center being on both sides of Nason Street and Alessandro Boulevard with a neighborhood residential transition, a rural residential area to the east, and an area for medical-related uses and housing to the south. Focus Area 3 presented multiple alternatives for the land’s use, as well: Alternative 'A' presented a medical office, medical support, medical labs, and bio-tech; Alternative 'B' stated that medical support would be to the north and south of the medical center, leaving the housing to the west; Alternative 'C' stated that medical support would be to the north, housing to the west, and commercial to the south. The suggested alternative for this focus area stated that medical uses would be adjacent to the hospital and there would be a range of housing types surrounding the medical district, leaving support commercial uses in the south. The fourth and last focus area included a broad overview of the Nason Street Corridor. Alternative 'A' and 'B' were very similar as they stated that the medical use would surround the medical center, commercial would be in the center on Nason Street, and the range of different housing types would surround the neighborhoods; Alternative 'C' offered a mix of medical, commercial and housing around the County Medical Center, a continuum of care facilities around the Kaiser Medical Center and “major” medical-related uses on Nason Street. The suggested alternative included medical-related employment south of County Medical Center. Assisted living, continuum of care, senior and other housing around Kaiser Medical Clinic, and a “drive-home” community commercial center on Nason that offered stores for shopping and eating, etc., lastly a range of housing types in walk-able neighborhoods. Community members were able to visualize each alternative through the PowerPoint presentation; they also received a paper that offered a color-coded illustration of each plan with an explanation attached to it. According to Moreno Valley Planning Division’s Associate Planner Claudia Manrique, the product of these workshops is only a “Visual Plan” for the Nason Street Corridor. “It will be used as a reference document,” she explained. The visual plan’s tentative date of completion is August of this year.