Clovis’ vision for Loma Vista takes shape with long-awaited community space | Opinion

In the eastern reaches of Clovis, within touching distance of the foothills, city officials and residents celebrated the grand opening of a community space (“park” isn’t quite right) two decades in the making.

It won’t take nearly that long — three to five years seems reasonable — to find out if the original vision for Loma Vista comes to fruition.

Or whether the land immediately surrounding the Village Green gets filled in by more cookie-cutter sprawl. With little character or differentiation from anyplace else.

Loma Vista, as envisioned by city planners and leaders who in 2003 approved the specific plan, was designed to be more than a bland expanse of single-family homes. Rather, this “urban village” included a variety of housing options — some totally new to Clovis — along with parks, schools, retail and business parks linked with vibrant streets and trails meant to encourage walking and biking.

At the “heart” of this new growth area (as described in city brochures) lies the Village Green, a 7-acre public gathering space with a clock tower at its center.

No longer just a schematic, the Village Green actually exists. It sits north of Gettysburg Avenue between DeWolf and Leonard avenues — just north of Clovis East High, for those only vaguely familiar with the area. Construction took about two years and was paid for with $8 million in developer fees.

The Village Green makes an elegant and novel first impression. Elegant because it’s tasteful and graceful in design, novel because there’s nothing else like it in Clovis. Or Fresno, for that matter.

The eye is immediately drawn to the five-story clock tower, which stands 56 feet, 6 inches tall and includes a 42-foot high observation deck. A separate building containing nine restrooms (all gender neutral) is attached. Both are painted off-white with brown trim, Spanish tile roofs and decorative tile work.

Next to the clock tower and restrooms is a large plaza with a decorative fountain at its center, a few seating areas and ample space for food trucks. Right now, besides a pergola, there isn’t any shade. But three coastal live oak trees, each growing inside their own circular cement planter, should provide future solutions to that problem.

Except for the clock tower plaza, the Village Green is predominantly green space. The north side contains an expansive lawn amphitheater with a covered stage. The south side contains more lawn, plus picnic areas, walking paths and room for playground equipment that will be added “at a later date not yet determined,” according to a city press release.

A total of 189 trees were planted, mainly london planes, olives, palms and jacarandas. (Recycled water is used for irrigation.) There are also plans to link the Village Green to other Loma Vista neighborhoods with a bike path that includes an underpass crossing of Shaw Avenue.

“With the diverse spaces offered and its unique design, the Village Green is more than a park,” Clovis city planner Lily Cha said. “It’s designed as a very active community space.”

Community hub or a park?

Whether the Village Green truly becomes the “active community space” as intended by planners, or just a spacious park that occasionally hosts events, depends on what happens next.

In the Loma Vista specific plan , properties surrounding the Village Green are zoned for high-density residential, mixed use retail and residential and public facilities like a library and post office so that people who live nearby can shop, dine and be entertained without having to drive everywhere.

The result would be a quasi-downtown area to supplement Old Town Clovis. Create an actual sense of place out of farm and ranch land.

But besides the construction of a new fire station, that doesn’t seem to be occurring. The type of housing that has sprung up near the Village Green, while higher-density than other parts of Loma Vista, is nothing new or distinctive. The same can be said for the commercial center going up nearby.

Another McDonald’s and a Chipotle with a drive-thru pickup lane . Big whoop.

Open land remains to the southwest and west, plus an almond orchard to the northwest, where the “urban village” concept could still be realized. But for that to happen, Clovis leaders must stay the course of the original vision rather than cave to developer pressure for more featureless sprawl.

The next three to five years will be telling.