Steps to Offset Ag Land Loss Proposed

Tulare - Prodded by the Sierra Club and others concerned by the amount of prime agricultural land that would be lost under Tulare's proposed 2030 land use plan, city officials are recommending an agricultural conservation program.

The program calls for the city to impose mitigation fees on developers who build on agricultural land and transfer the money to a land use trust or other ”qualifying entity,” which would buy conservation easements on other ag properties to make sure they remain in agriculture.

“Visalia is exploring this possibility also and has hired a consultant,” city Planning Director Mark Kielty said.

Tulare's proposed land use plan would convert 16,372 acres of the 27,918 acres of important farmland in the planning area to non-agricultural use. At full build-out, the plan would accommodate 130,455 residents— more than double the 51,477 population reported in 2006.

In addition to purchasing conservation easements, proposed ag conservation policies would allow the city to use developer mitigation fees to pay for fee title acquisition, research, agricultural education, local marketing programs, and capital improvements that clearly benefit agriculture, such as groundwater recharge projects.

The policies are in response to written concerns about the loss of ag land that the Sierra Club's Kern-Kaweah Chapter, the Tulare County Farm Bureau, the County of Tulare and others raised during the Environmental Impact Report process.
“That was the reoccurring theme,” Kielty said.

Writing on behalf of the local Sierra Club, Vice Chairman Gordon L. Nipp wrote: “The plan should include a policy that three acres of equally good, equally at risk farmland be preserved via conservation easements for every acre of farmland converted.”

The city's proposed policies do not include a ratio, but Kielty stressed the proposed ag conservation program is not fully developed yet.

City officials will be watching closely what Visalia does as it works through the details of its program. “They may be creating the blueprint for other cities to follow,” Mayor Craig Vejvoda said.

“We see the writing on the wall,” Vice Mayor Phil Vandegrift said, adding it seems inevitable ag-land offsets will be legally required in the future.

The mitigation fee will be one more cost of doing business and consumers will pay higher prices for homes, a situation that could bring development “to a screeching halt” until consumers can afford them, Vandegrift said.

Tulare resident Don Manro, who has for years criticized and legally challenged the city on its development policies, said he “was actually shocked” to see conservation easements proposed in the final environmental impact report.

“That will be really great,” Manro told the City Council at its March 18 meeting.
He did, however, warn the council he did not think the city had fully complied with what the California 5th District Court of Appeal said was required in an EIR when it issued a 2003 ruling in his favor. In that case, Manro had challenged the city's attempt to expand its planning boundaries through a general plan amendment.

The City Council was scheduled to adopt four updated elements of the 2030 general plan—land use, circulation, conservation and open space—at the meeting but delayed action until Tuesday, April 15 because of the requests it received from individuals to change the proposed designations for their properties.

The council said the requests appeared reasonable and consultant Rick Rust was directed to do the calculations to see how the proposed changes would affect traffic circulation and other aspects of the plan.

The council also heard from several people who voice support for the plan.
“I think it's a good plan—certainly not without fault but it should be adopted,” Tulare resident Mark Richmond said.

Jennifer McCoun, president and chief executive officer of the Tulare Chamber of Commerce, said she believes the plan, along with the land use map, “is reflective of the desires of the community.”

The chamber, long concerned about the lack of property available for industrial development, was particularly happy to see a large portion of properties designated for industrial development, McCoun said.

The city received comments from the County of Tulare and from attorney Michael Lampe, who represents opponents of the Tulare Motor Sports Complex, after the deadline for comment on the Environmental Impact Report, so they are not included in the final document. Kielty, however, responded to the allegations in a staff report presented to the Planning Commission and City Council.

Lampe criticized the plan on several points, especially where it pertained to land with the newly-created entertainment commercial designation. This property, the site of the proposed racetrack project, is near the Tulare Airport and Tulare Golf Course and adjacent to the International Agri-Center.

In his response, Kielty said Lampe's concerns about conversion of ag land, airport impact, noise, traffic, air quality and other matters already are addressed in the report. When specific projects are proposed, they also will be subjected to the California Environmental Quality Act provisions, he said.

The county raised concerns about the city's land use map, including the close proximity of residential and “other sensitive land uses” within one mile of an active dairy. The county is considering a policy in its own general plan that would discourage that.

City officials have objected to that policy, contending it would essentially halt growth in most of the county and would adversely affect major Tulare projects that are in the planning stages, including the motorsports complex and meat packing facility.

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More Clean-up Planned at
Proposed Shopping Center Site

Tulare - The Tulare Redevelopment Agency is awaiting permission from the state Water Quality Control Board to begin the next phase of cleanup required on the southwest corner of Cross Avenue and J Street, where the Monterey-based Orosco Group wants to build a shopping center.

Earlier this month, the agency had a company remove a 350-gallon fuel tank and four concrete foundations that were buried on the property.

The agency is now awaiting permission from the state Water Quality Control Board to remove an estimated 700 to 1,000 cubic feet of contaminated soil from the site, said Betsy McGovern, the agency's project manager.

“Conservatively speaking, we're six to eight week—probably eight weeks out from moving dirt,” McGovern said.

While the site cleanup continues, the Orosco Group and the agency are working on a development and disposition agreement that will allow for the sale and development of the land.

Anchor Found

Chris Orosco said his company is working with an anchor for the center, but cannot announce who it is before the project is approved and a lease is signed.

While the downturn in the economy does not seem to be affecting major companies, such as the unnamed anchor which is committed to building a certain number of stores a year, it is making it harder to find smaller local shop owners to lease space in the center, Orosco said.

Nevertheless, he reports the project is moving “full speed ahead” and McGovern said the Redevelopment Agency is “super excited about this project and getting them moving forward.”

Across Cross Avenue, directly north, work is continuing on Jim Pidgeon's quick lube and smog check center. That project is also being constructed on former railroad property that the Redevelopment Agency acquired and sold to Pidgeon.
Quong Enterprises of Orange County is also interested in building along the tracks on the southwest corner of J Street and Inyo Avenue on property the agency wants to acquire.

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Budget Cuts Likely Mean Larger Classes

Tulare - Many Tulare students in grades four through eight will find themselves in larger classes next school year because of the governor's proposed budget cuts.
They also could find themselves without a summer school option in June 2009, if those proposed reductions become reality, as Tulare City School District officials suspect they will.

“Everybody is sure this is going to happen,” said Clare Gist, assistant superintendent for finance.

The district expects a 2.4 percent drop in the $46 million the state provides for general fund operations. In addition, another 6.5 percent average cut is expected in funding for special categories, including the class-size reduction, special education and transportation programs.

“Those are three big ticket items for our district,” Gist said.

Two of those categories already are underfunded by the state and require general fund assistance, Gist said, reporting the general fund this year kicked in $1.5 million for special education and $250,000 for transportation.

The state also has told school districts it will withhold their July apportionment checks, which amounts to more than $3 million for Tulare City Schools, Gist said.
While the state has said it will give the money to the district later, Superintendent John Beck is not optimistic this will happen.

“Last time this was done, they never gave us our apportionment,” Beck said. “They were going to give it back to us in September and then they decided we didn't need it.”

Contingency Plans

With these cuts looming on the horizon, the district is looking at ways to cut costs without laying off teachers, dropping art and music programs or otherwise reducing the quality of education, Beck said.

The district class-size reduction program will continue in kindergarten through third grades, but the district will make a big push to make sure each teacher has the maximum 20 students and not 17 as some do today, Beck said.

Students in grades four through eight would have at least 30 students but no more than 33—the maximum allowed under the district's current contract with teachers, he said.

“If we do that, even though we may experience some growth, we won't need additional personnel,” Beck said.

Maximizing the student-to-teacher ratio will have the most impact on the budget because 86 percent of the district's expenditures are salaries, Gist said.
Because of the cuts, the district may have to cut the summer school program next year, which Beck said is a shame because “it is a big interventional tool” that helps children who need help.

This makes him angry. “On one hand they [state officials] are telling you you need to do a better job and on the other hand they're taking away your money and telling you to find a way to do it.” Beck said.

In the area of transportation—which is already hurting because of high fuel costs—the district will continue to look at ways of minimizing cross-town traffic by buses.

Changing boundaries this year helped, but the district will have to also look at such things as field trips to make sure the impact on learning goals justifies the expenses, Beck said.

The district also will continue to work with Southern California Edison to cut energy costs. “We've had a substantial savings in our energy costs already,” Gist said.

General Fund Reserves

The district is fortunate to have $14 million in its reserves but, that said, it also has big ticket items coming down the track.

With 70 to 100 more kindergarten students expected next year, district officials must decide soon when to build a new school on the land it owns next door to the new Mission Oak High School, which is under construction in East Tulare. They also are looking to purchase land for an additional campus in West Tulare.
The district will also need to replace buses, another costly endeavor.

“To replace one bus, we'll have to buy two because of the seat belt issue,” Beck said.

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Waste Generating Big Money for City

By Rick Elkins

Tulare - Tulare's Public Works Director Lew Nelson is looking forward to presenting the City Council next Tuesday with a large check – large both figuratively and literally.

He will present an enlargement of the $4.05 million California Self-Generation Incentive Program check the city recently received from Southern California Edison for installing three fuel cells at the wastewater treatment plant. The cells are powered by waste from dairy processing plants, Nelson said.

On top of the incentive payment, the city is generating roughly $2,500 a day in electricity and the cells are using up waste that was once burned into the atmosphere.

“There are no air emissions from the fuel cells,” Nelson said.
The $7.1 million project is expected to pay for itself in about four years, Nelson said.

This is because, in addition to the incentive check, the city is saving $912,000 a year in electricity costs and is no longer required to purchased $600,000 of emission reduction credits, which would be required with traditional on-site power equipment, according to Nelson and FuelCell Energy Inc., the company that installed the equipment.

“It's a definite improvement in air quality,” Nelson said. “We should get air quality credits, but we haven't applied for those yet.”

According to FuelCell Energy, wastewater treatment facilities are ideal for DFC power plants based on their ability to operate on anaerobic digester gas, which Nelson said is 60 percent methane gas. It is also classified as a renewable fuel and eligible for incentive funding.

The Tulare fuel cells, which became operational in December, produce 900 kilowatts of electricity instantaneously, which are 21,600 kilowatt hours a day.
“We use it all,” Nelson said, reporting the fuel cells produce about 45 percent of what the wastewater treatment plant needs each day.

In addition, according to FuelCell Energy Inc., the surplus heat generated from the plant's operation is being used in generating the gas to be used as fuel, boosting the facility's overall energy efficiency.

“At the moment, Fuel Cell Energy tells us this is the largest fuel cell installation at a wastewater treatment plant in the state,” said Nelson.

He added the plan is to add another fuel cell and increase the output to more than 1 megawatt of electricity a year.

The city is constructing a new wastewater treatment plant at the site of the existing operation and that $78 million project will produce more digester gas, thus enabling the city to fuel another cell. Each fuel cell produces 300 kilowatt of power.

When the new plant is complete and the state raises the cap on how much power will trigger an incentive, Nelson may have another large – although not as large – check to give the council.

The city was forced to rebuild its plant because it was not meeting state discharge requirement, said Nelson. The project is expected to be completed in November 2009.

Fuel cells are not the extent of the city's “green” efforts.

Nelson said there is a solar carport at the treatment plant that produces 30 kilowatts of power and the city is looking at installing another solar carport at the police department. City officials are considering finding a private investor who would construct the carport and get the tax incentives and tax credits. That is what California State University, Fresno, did with its solar carport near the Save Mart Center.

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