Auto Mall On Scenic Corridor
Visalia - The Visalia city council is likely to be handed another hot potato issue that may mean altering the city’s 2020 growth plan.
The council has commissioned a study of alternate locations for Visalia auto dealers that may want to expand and relocate. The study, done by an LA consultant, looks at north Ben Maddox, south Ben Maddox, West 198 at Shirk and Plaza interchange sites. Assistant city manager Dianne Guzman says the city council should take a look at the report within the month.
The news comes only weeks before construction is complete on the new Shirk interchange on West 198 that is expected to be both the top choice of auto dealers and the consultant. The city has grappled with the idea of a West 198 auto mall for decades.
“We know this will be a hot potato in the community,” says Guzman. “It will be up to the community to sort out their vision for Shirk and 198 now that the interchange in nearing completion.”
A vision of a West 198 auto mall danced in dealer’s heads till the late 80s when the city made a political decision to build an east Visalia auto mall on Ben Maddox. Still dealers have sought the freeway access and visibility and high traffic counts that such a location would bring. Plans for such a West 198 mall at the location have been put forward in the past few decades, but ultimately turned down.
Thwarting any attempt to site a West 198 auto mall in the past were both local preservationists who see the community’s famous “scenic corridor” of farmland and oaks as the wrong spot to showcase cars as well as existing dealers who have invested millions in their new showrooms in east Visalia, including a new Giant $7.5 million GM facility opening on south Ben Maddox this week.
It was the coming of the West 198 freeway project that caused the relocation of the Nissan dealership into east Visalia when CalTrans demolished the old Bookout car dealership on Shirk.
Nissan dealer Don Groppetti who met with the consultant says he favors expansion on south Ben Maddox - on 25 acres across from the new Giant showroom but the consultant told him that dealers didn’t want to go there. In addition surrounding home owners may complain. But Groppetti remembers that dealers didn’t like the east Visalia auto mall either, when it was proposed by the city but now there is an investment nearing $20 million in new facilities in that part of town, he estimates. “I found there is no small irony that they are proposing dealerships out where I was stuck for years” - at Shirk and 198. He says locations west of town, Plaza or Highway 99 “aren’t convenient for buyers.” The city has been concerned that Visalia car dealers may relocate to Highway 99 if they can’t get the location they want in the city. Visalia would then lose the sales tax revenue.
Shirk and 198 was never seriously considered for intense development in the past because it didn’t have a safe interchange for 198 traffic and has been one of the bloodiest accident corners in Visalia. In fact all the accidents helped the West 198 freeway project to move up on the state priority list over the years.
Meanwhile, development has crept westward in the past few years and now there are new developments on all four corners of Akers and 198. The biggest is a planned 30 acre shopping center that will be built over the next year by Westland Development. That project has pushed the city the city to plan for the extension of Cypress to the west - now planned to connect to Shirk - a move that may well stimulate more development proposals.
The big Westland shopping center itself will force the city to reopen the West Visalia Specific Plan when it changes the city’s 2020 growth plan to accommodate the new shopping center. That center is being planned on land that is zoned for agriculture in the city limits right now.
Changing the West Visalia Specific Plan for Akers may force the city council to look at the long term for the entire corridor including the Shirk interchange that currently has a 600 ft. conservation easement on the north side of the freeway - meaning no development is allowed. There has been discussion of re-looking at the depth of that easement with some council members favoring a more limited scenic easement that varies along the freeway but does reach deeper than 50 ft. allowing development behind it.
Despite the easement, a City of Visalia proposal to Kaweah Delta hospital in recent months suggested the north side of 198 east of Shirk as a possible future hospital site for KDDH if the downtown sites didn’t work out for a new hospital. Kaweah Delta is assessing its options since the state is insisting on seismic upgrading of facilities.
Triggering a new look at west Visalia are plans by Westland Development to build a new shopping center at Akers and 198, a plan to expand the Sierra Village retirement community and plans to build about 9 acres of new medical offices by a local doctor. Portions of these projects need not just city approval, but County approval to allow annexations, meaning the County will also become involved in the development decision on West 198.
Last time around when Greg Collins was mayor, the city decided not to tackle the long range plan for the Scenic Corridor preferring to leave some of the land in the County and zoned ag. That works fine for some farmers on West 198, while others would rather sell out and see a development plan that would allow office complexes, commercial centers and residential behind now that the 198 freeway project is nearing completion.
Clearly the completion of the big artery is growth inducing, likely to speed more cars up east/west in coming years than ever before. Plans to improve the freeway to Hanford will mean more traffic coming from Kings County in the future as well.
The lure for the City of Visalia is the possible relocation of downtown’s Razzari Ford/Mitsubishi dealership and Surroz Chrysler dealership off Mooney allowing other development to fill in those locations. Both car dealerships are interested.
Pulling the Razzari dealership and the GM/Chrysler dealerships out of downtown would mean some 3 to 4 blocks of former car sales area would be available for other “more appropriate” development some proponents feel. Pulling Surroz off Mooney would allow some big retail to come into the big parcel that Mr. Surroz leases.
So if you’re tired of hearing about the Kashian, Costco and the TID controversy, here’s a new one that could have big implications for land use here - just like at the rest of them.
In traditional Democratic strongholds like Fresno County to Tulare, Kings and Kern, the GOP has been piling up a new majority in voter registration numbers on the eve of a hotly contested general election.
In Tulare County Republicans now outnumber Democrats by some 10,000 voters in a county that until recent years had a strong Democratic majority - 58% in 1980 for example.
In Fresno County where the Democrats outnumbered Republicans 68% to 30% in1960 and had a nearly 20,000 voter registration edge over Republicans as recently as May 1998, Republicans are now the majority. The GOP has apparently gone on a voter registration blitz cutting the Democrats majority in Fresno County to about 10,000 voters in February of this year and by October 10, 2000 deadline outnumbering the Democrats for the first time ever by a couple of hundred votes.
In Tulare County the GOP added nearly 7000 new party members between February 2000 and October 10 - while Democrats added less than 3000. Total registration in Tulare County is now 60,112 Republicans vs 50,362 Democrats.
Kern County too, has seen a GOP steamroller add some 8000 new registrants between February 2000 and September 13 - the latest figures that are available - bringing the totals to 125,732 Republicans to 99,725 Democrats. In February there were 117,321 Republicans registered and 97,333 Democrats meaning Democrats added only a couple of thousand while the Republicans added 4 times that number.
Kings County in February 2000 had about 500 more Democrats than Republicans registered. By October 10, 2000 the Kings County elections department says there was an 1800 GOP vote increase meaning the first time in history there was a Republican majority.
Marlene Sario who heads up the Tulare County George Bush campaign, says enthusiasm for George Bush and readiness for a change from the Clinton-Gore years, has a lot to do with the surging numbers. “We have over 400 volunteers helping on the Victory 2000 campaign,” says Sario who runs an Exeter contracting business. “There has been an outpouring of signs and bumper stickers,” says Sario. “We hand them out as fast as we get them.”
Besides the enthusiasm, Sario says it is true the party paid for signature gathering that helped boost the numbers.
But Sario says the big increase in Republican numbers have come from volunteer efforts and not just paid bounty hunters. “We’ve had lots of Democrats who came out to our table at the fair this year saying they wanted to switch.”
The strong showing by Republicans could impact close races in the Central Valley such as Cal Dooley’s 20th Congressional battle with Republican challenger Rich Rodriguez. Democrat Dooley has been counting on piling up a voting edge in both Fresno and Kern Counties to offset what could be a very tight race in Kings and Tulare counties where Rodriguez out-polled Dooley in the primary.
In the primary Dooley beat Rodriguez by some 3000 votes. But the GOP has added more than 25,000 votes in those three counties, only some of which are in Dooley’s district, of course.
As of February 2000 Dooley enjoyed a 52% to 34% Democratic majority in the 20th District because the lines are drawn through much of hte lower income portions of Kern and Fresno counties. The number of registered voters listed as Democrats is nearly 100,000 compared to 65,000 Republicans in the February 2000 count.
How the new voters have changed the picture in the 20th district is not known yet.
Of course, now Democrats will have to get out the vote for Dooley as it seems some of that big Democrat advantage has been pared down by this Republican registration drive. Both campaigns say they are ahead in the polls.
Congressman Dooley’s press secretary, Adam Kovacevich, says that when bounty hunters sign up voters because they earn $8 per head - the voters aren’t really committed. “Cal doesn’t think the new voters will make a big difference.”
While Republicans have become the majority in the central valley, statewide California still shows a Democratic majority of 45-35% about the same as it was four years ago.
More new voters are marking the Declined to State box on their forms however, making predictions on voter outcomes tougher. For example, the number of voters in Kern County claiming no party affiliation is nearly 30,000 and more than 30,000 in Fresno County.
Tulare County - The State Department of Fish and Game has become involved in the Tulare Irrigation District canal controversy now that opponents of the project, expert witnesses and even TID officials agree that some portion of the canal maybe a natural steam bed. If so, TID may not have the right to remove the big oaks there - the heart of the hot button controversy.
Officials of Fish and Game flew over there last week after receiving reports from opponents of the project, that there may be jurisdiction issues says Fish and Game environmental specialist Michael Mulligan. “We’re just beginning what will be a complete investigation” of the waterway to see just how much of the 9.7 miles may be considered a natural waterway. “There is very definitely a portion” that was a natural stream, says Mulligan.
If TID wants to alter a portion of natural streambed, they must request a streambed alternation permit from the state agency. Mulligan says they should know more in a few weeks. “We want to study the history of the area,” he says.
The involvement of the agency comes only days after a Tulare County Superior Court judge barred TID from any canal lining activity granting a preliminary injunction to opponents of the controversial project to lay concrete over nearly 10 miles of earthen canal east of Visalia. The injunction will stay in effect until a full trial over property rights and water right issues can be litigated. Some speculate that could be as long as a year off.
But TID this week sought “clarification” from Judge Pat O’Hara as to whether the irrigation district could proceed on lands where they have a clear property right. “Our interpretation was the judge denied plans to line the canal where there is only an easement,” says Gerald Hill, TID’s general manager.
18 property owners sued TID saying they didn’t have the right to line the canal unless they condemned it - attempt to buy it outright from property owners. Judge O’Hara said he would likely rule that lining the canal appear to put a burden on the lands adjacent to the canal - cutting off the seepage that it formally enjoyed. Critical to the issue is whether the waterway was a natural one - a natural slough - that would of course seep water to surrounding lands, oak trees and wildlife. Opponents dug out a 1981 testimony in a case that featured testimony by a former TID general manager that the land being litigated in that case - Hutchenson property - was probably a natural waterway. TID claimed that since they did not want to pay damages to Hutchenson because a big oak tree next to the canal fell. TID argued at the time that the oak tree was not their problem - that it belonged to the land owner.
Now revisited with their conflicting testimony made by a former general manager, TID now makes the argument that only the Hutchenson property - a few hundred feet of the canal - was a natural slough. But Judge O’Hara said “the court finds it very difficult to imagine a natural slough on only one piece of property without any natural means” of bringing in water and exiting the slough.
The judge said he was granting an injunction because it appeared property owners had riparian rights and removing the oak trees, as TID wants to, would take away land owners rights.
Gerald Hill is seeking clarification on land along the canal the district owns so that the district may start lining those portions of the canal. But POWER attorney Don Mooney is responding to the TID clarification request by asking the judge to deny TID the right to move forward on virtually any part of the project including lands owned by at least 30 other property owners who also have declared opposition to the lining. “We believe that TID owns outright only about a quarter mile south of the canal along the nearly 10 mile length,” he says. Gerald Hill says the district owns a large portion of the canal outright.
The idea that the irrigation district could start the lining process on a limited amount of the canal rubs Mooney the wrong way, noting that Mr. Hill in a declaration in the Mitts trial said lining only a portion of the canal would cause excessive damage to other parts of the canal since it could speed the flow of water. But Hill says now the reality is that the district may be only able to line that portion of the canal the judge allows although the objective of the $10 million project is to line the entire length.
What if Fish and Game won’t allow the lining of the natural slough, Hill says an option would be to go around that portion. Public agencies that want to build in a natural streambed first negotiate with Fish and Game and try to come to some agreement, says Mulligan. If that doesn’t work out it goes to arbitration, he says.
The upshot of the legal tangle is Hill now agrees that the canal will not be completed this year but still hopes that the judge’s clarification will allow some canal lining activity. The district needs to complete the canal before the spring irrigation season begins.
Opponents are betting there will be none. “We’re telling the judge that if they try to come on to private property we’ll be back in court again,” says Mooney - which would be a waste of money and the court’s time, he says.
Thwarting the effort for another year will drive costs higher to line the canal with a contract in place and a contractor that can’t go to work. TID has suggested delays are costing them millions.
In granting the injunction the judge asked the opponents to put up a bond of $100,000 which they now have. TID had requested they put up over a million.
This week the district is starting a series of property owner meetings to lay out the district’s case to land owners. Some property owners opposed to the project are being told they should not attend certain of these meetings. But Mooney points out that all TID meetings should be open “if not they will hear from us.” He wonders if TID will have to explain “why they have nothing to show for the $4 million they have spent on this project.”
Hill says the high cost of federal water may force the district to cut back the water it takes in the winter only to sink. Hill says they may take only the water from the Friant Kern that can be applied to farmlands to grow a crop - during the spring and summer months.
Opponents of the lining project had attempted to negotiate with TID to “compensate” them for the seepage water lost as it traveled the ten miles in the district. But the two sides could not come to an agreement last October setting up the court battle.
Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District and the City of Visalia have expressed concern that TID would no longer import the average amount of water it has imported since 1949 when Friant Kern started delivering water. During most of the decades TID imported 130,000 acre feet of water into the Kaweah Delta area on the CVP contract. A draft agreement was an attempt to get TID to agree to bring in at least 80,000 acre feet in hopes of sustaining our ground water levels. But if TID, the only CVP contractor in the area that takes this supplemental water, only receives this conjunctive use supply during irrigation season - that amount could fall well below the historical average.
TID’s next board meeting is November 14. Hill says that Friant water users are “very close” to an agreement with the CVP over long term contract although is possible they will need another interim contract when the current one runs out by February.
by Miles Shuper
Visalia - A Visalia firm, Financial Credit Network, has secured a major contract with a nationwide wireless telephone company to provide customer service calls creating 100 and possibly more new Visalia jobs.
With the new hires Financial Credit Network will have a workforce of about 175 by early next year.
Paul Flannery, president of Financial Credit, said the company will open a second office on Mooney Boulevard to serve the needs of the new client whose name has not been released. The site is an existing building which will be leased, he said. Flannery said the new location is expected to be open in January and its targeted to “go live” Feb. 1. A job fair and hiring campaign are planned for later this month. Financial Credit, established in 1954, is partnering with the County of TulareEmployee Connection, the Employment Development Department, Office Team and the Visalia Adult School as employment resources.
Flannery said his company considered several different California locations prior to deciding to open a second Visalia office. The company headquarters are at 1300 W. Main St., commonly referred to as Wesley Hall, which received a major restoration and remodeling when purchased by Financial Credit Network then owned by Frank Cavale.
Flannery, a longtime friend of Cavale’s, purchased the company about a year before Cavale was killed in an airplane crash.
“There are many reasons we chose Visalia for our second location, the most significant being the access to a large number bilingual labor pool. This area isn’t affected by the labor shortage many of the metropolitan areas are currently experiencing, Flannery said.
Assistant City Manager Dianne Guzman says they have been working with the company to provide assistance. “There’s more things happening with call centers in the area,” she says. A few weeks ago the Tulare EDC hosted a call center site selector who said that Tulare County was definitely on the radar screen because of the available workforce. Many other parts of the country don’t have that labor force available. Both Visalia and Porterville have some call center training programs to help train workers for the positions.
Flannery said the new division on at the Mooney site will service the accounts receivable need of major clients. He also said his company is activity seeking additional new clients needing what he termed “call centers.” Securing the new contract with the wireless company took several months, Flannery said, adding that a tip from a current client helped make him make contact with the wireless firm which serves clients in most of the nation. The wireless company does not yet serve California, he said, but might in the not too distant future.
While a major job recruiting effort currently is being formulated, inquiries are being taken at the Main street location. The contact is Kris Davidson at 7337550.
Visalia - Illinois-based IVEX Packaging Corporation, a maker of plastic and paper containers and liners for the food industry along with technical packaging for a variety of uses, has signed a lease for some 235,000 sq. ft. in the Visalia Industrial Park.
Its customers include supermarkets, food companies, fast food restaurants and medical equipment supplier among others. The manufacturer will distribute packaging product out of two large industrial building along Plaza Drive in the new Mid State 99 industrial park being built by the Allen Group. The transaction is the largest industrial lease ever done in Tulare County, says broker Doug Burr of Burr Commercial who handled the lease.
“We hope to have them operational by February 1,” says Harvey May of the Allen Group, “but that depends on the weather.”
May says the first three industrial buildings in the Mid State Industrial Park would be filled with this deal and a second expected in the next few days that would fill 60,000 sq. ft. remaining in Mid State, number one, the building closest to Plaza and Goshen Ave. This week the Allen group filed plans for more than 500,000 sq. ft. in three buildings to be started this winter at the Ferguson and Plaza alignment across from the new Jo Ann Stores building.
The Allen Group also has an even larger industrial park in Shafter and is working on a large office complex in Bakersfield.
IVEX will consolidate its distribution at the new Mid State park but will keep its Visalia manufacturing facility on Goshen Ave.
Visalia Industrial Park is a beehive of “tilt-up” industrial buildings this fall as the Allen Group works up plans for 5 industrial buildings across from Frito Lay and construction is underway by one of Fresno’s largest builders, Diversified Development of three 100,000 sq. ft. buildings just south of Plaza Drive.
More tilt-ups are under construction on Doe Ave. and along Sunnyview that is being extended another quarter mile to the west this month.
IVEX is a vertically integrated company with market capitalization of $200 million and sales of $643 million last year. The company has 4384 employees. It is publically traded (NYSE:IXX).
Tulare - The Tulare Industrial Site Development Corporation has entered into an escrow for the sale of 6 plus acres of land to Tosca Ltd., of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Tosca Ltd. is a container manufacturing, and container management firm, specializing in plastic containers used in the cheese making industry. Additionally, Tosca manufactures beverage kegs, plastic containers, and bins used in the food processing industry.
Jere Dhein, President of Tosca Ltd., and other Corporate officials spent three days in Tulare reviewing potential sites, interviewing prospective contractors, and utility company representatives. Dhein was very pleased with the efforts and assistance of Robert Reynolds, Tulare Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Director, the Chamber Staff, and Frank Hulbert, Secretary of the Tulare Industrial Site Development Foundation. He also credited Karen Ford of the Tulare County EDC for her assistance.
Hulbert reports that Tosca intends to purchase the 6 plus acres, and construct a 50,000 sq. ft. plant, with plans to expand to 100,000 sq. ft. Tosca has also been given the right of first refusal on an adjoining 5 acres of land. “Even though Tosca will start with on 10 to 12 employees, they are making a substantial investment in Tulare, and expect employment numbers to grow significantly in the future,” says Hulbert.
Tosca partner John Frey says large cheese makers in California like Land O’Lakes and Hillmar Cheese are drawing the Wisconsin company to California now that more cutting is done in the state. “It used to be California sent cheese back to the Midwest for cutting.” But that is not true anymore.
Frey says they make plastic containers that are used over and over in the cheese business. They will recondition and ship containers from the new Tulare facility. “We hope to be in by this summer,” says Frey. He says as more cheese related companies come to California, it is likely to draw other companies.
Tulare is getting the reputation as the cheese making capital of the Golden State.
The Tulare Industrial Site Foundation originally developed the Tulare Industrial Park north of Paige in the late 60s. That development is now full and the nonprofit group moved south of Paige in a joint venture with property owner Manual Faria to develop land near K and Commercial where Tosca purchased near the old Texas Tom’s building - now being used as a dairy instructional processing plant by COS.
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
