City, county developing master plan

The city of Clovis and Curry County are in the process of drafting master plans for the future, which will focus on growth and infrastructure, according to officials.

Using funds provided through state grants, the city and county hired an Albuquerque firm, Consensus Planning, in May to draft the plans, officials said. Combined, grants received by the city and the county for the plans total $110,000, according to Curry County Manager Dick Smith.

The plans will address several topics, including future land use, transportation, housing, and parks and recreation, according to Consensus senior planner John Valdez.

“We are working to ensure that the city and county have a strategy for how they will address issues related to those topics,” Valdez said.

In a series of upcoming public meetings to be launched next week, Consensus planners will “identify what the average Curry County or Clovis resident’s vision is for the community — how they would like to see the area grow, what they cherish about the community, what they would want to change,” Valdez said.

“Basically everything that makes a community function,” he said.

The firm will develop a separate plan for the city and the county, as well as a joint city-county plan, according to Smith.

Currently, the county does not have a master plan. The city does, but it was drafted in 1992, and needs to be updated, according to Clovis Planning and Zoning Administrator Louis Gordon.

Gordon said most cities have master plans. Such plans make it easier for cities to acquire grants and funding, he said. Growth is also smoother for cities equipped with comprehensive plans, he said.

Officials said the master plans are not directly related to the Air Force identifying a new mission for Cannon Air Force Base, and would have needed to be drafted regardless.

The base, however, will be considered in the plan, officials said.

“Basically, the city and county would do this plan regardless of what would happen with Cannon, but the timing is right because we know there will be a new mission,” Valdez said.

“We have more an idea of what will happen, but we don’t know yet the magnitude of the growth,” he said.