What Do Maple Valley residents most want?
There is a common desire to support development of the Maple Valley Comprehensive Master Plan. The people of Maple Valley are realistic. But they are undecided. They know that in order to build a community, a town, a consensus must be reached. They know that growth will continue. They know for future to retain the core values and economic investment that they moved here for they must work together.
Participants at the charrette expressed a desire for a livable community. Many expressed a desire to keep Maple Valley "rural". What does "rural" mean? Maple Valley has lost many of the qualities most people use to describe rural.
Terms like "livable" and "rural" were used to describe a way of life, or core value, people sought when moving to the area. These words are vague, and mean different things to different people. The charrette defined a number of commonly held community core values in more specific terms. The following are core values which were expressed by both adults and children:
Maple Valley Should Be:
• A place for families.
• A place where people are friendly.
• A peaceful, restful place.
• A place with a strong, vital center -- a true town center.
• A place full of sidewalks, walkways, bike trails and many connections to many places.
• A place with good schools and parks close to where people live. Children can walk and ride bikes safely to and from these schools
• A place with attractive streets where people do not go fast and it is easy to cross streets.
• A place that is safe and secure.
• A place that preserves trees, streams, lakes, and open space. A place left natural, and "rural" in character.
Moving from Values to Vision
How does a town build and preserve these and other core community values? The second step in visioning is to decide those images that best reflect where people wish to head, and which images illustrate the wrong direction to take.
Visual Preference Survey. A number of photos were studied by charrette participants. Images were scored by both children and adults.The resulting scores, ranked from a strong dislike of a minus ten to a strong like of a plus ten, help identify the type of streets, houses, parks, and town center these people seek. The results are presented in the Visual Survey report in the appendix.
How Important Is The Post Office? In the near future a post office will be sited and built. Maple Valley can carry out its vision by purchasing land and preserving the best, most central places for prominent buildings centers, plazas and parks. There is need for a new post office. Post offices invite interaction, communication and chance encounters. Well placed post offices are often the center of where communities come alive. They are places allowing a feeling of rural, small town, village lifestyles, and where core values are expressed, traded and actualized. Incorrectly designed and placed post offices become another traffic snarl and source of discontent.
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