Buckeye Farms at
Park Ranch
Buckeye Farms at Park Ranch is an agrihood community proposed for the Park Ranch Holdings 1,250-acre parcel located off Buckeye Road, adjacent to the towns of Minden and Gardnerville. The concept is dedicated to preserving the rural character of the Carson Valley while providing smart, long-term land use and growth strategies. The Park 2500 as it is called, is an extremely controversial issue in Douglas County, which is seeing an uptick in new housing construction for the first time since the Great Recession, much to the horror of this small, rural community that voted in a Slow Growth Initiative in 2004.
At the heart of the matter is Muller Parkway, a proposed roadway that will cut directly through Park ranchland and alleviate traffic on Hwy 395, which winds through Minden/Gardnerville and acts as a main thoroughfare as well as a main trucking route from Southern California/Las Vegas through Northern Nevada and beyond.
The county has been obligated to build a by-pass route for decades. The proposed Muller Parkway is considered an alternate route and is a compromise on the original obligation, made possible by Mr. Park agreeing to a right of way through his property, floodwater mitigation, and connecting walking and biking paths to existing county paths currently leading nowhere to ensure a more walkable, bikeable downtown.
The agreement between Mr. Park and Douglas County also includes a number of conservation easements totaling thousands of acres, in exchange for a receiving area swap from south county to infill area in the center of Douglas County, with a cap of 2,500 homes proposed to be built over the next 20-30 years.
SERVICES: Media and Public Relations, Social Media, Web Design and Management, Community and Government Relations, Project Management, Email Marketing, Photography & Videography
WHAT WE DO
Website: IPSM was hired to promote the concept of the agrihood, an idea that is catching on with over 90 such developments across the U.S. and Canada. We built the website in three weeks using aerial drone photography and videography in three weeks.
Social Media: Social media is an important piece of our early engagement with Mr. Park, in order to educate the public about what an agrihood is, and how it works to retain the agricultural heritage and character of Douglas County. We are now entering our second phase in which we discuss the benefits of the receiving area swap, Muller Parkway, conservation easements and floodwater mitigation. Our work includes social listening and responding as appropriate to public questions, concerns, and comments, both positive and negative. Since our work began on June 1, 2020, our Facebook page has enjoyed more than 22,700 impressions, 3,440 engagements for an 18.25% engagement rate. In 90 days, we’ve reached 1,859 clicks for a 9.86% click-through rate (Facebook’s average is 2%). Our videos have been viewed more than 2,300 times.
Community and government relations: We are entering phase II of our project with Mr. Park as we are drawing nearer to having the final drawings completed for the planning commission. Our plan involves media relations, email marketing, virtual and public events, mailers, radio, digital and print advertising, social media, and working with county, town and GID boards and staff.
Photography and videography:
With the highly visual nature of the agricultural character of Douglas County and this project, and to combat misconceptions about land viability in south county, we shot aerial drone footage of each of the three parcels in question along with hundreds of photos of the area and of the ranch life Mr. Park wishes to sustain.
