Packwood Creek Lawsuit Dropped
Visalia - A lawsuit challenging the environmental impact review of the proposed Packwood Creek shopping center has been dropped this week confirms the litigant's attorney, Dick Isham. The suit brought by Uhlmann-Visalia Limited Partnership against the City of Visalia was filed after the project was approved in April. Isham who spoke at the public hearing when the council approved the 1 million sq. ft. shopping center, said the city had not taken in consideration the economic damage the center would have on the rest of the city's shopping areas. His clients - the Uhlmann's - own the Kmart shopping center on Mineral King. Joining the lawsuit was Visalian Barbara Greaver and Jim Reese. Reese told the Voice that Isham was speaking for him as well.
Dropping the suit means the project developer, Monterey based Don Orosco, has free hand to develop the approved center on both sides of Mooney beyond the city's historical development boundary - Packwood Creek. Mr. Orosco was out of town this week and could not be reached for comment.
Vice mayor Bob Link says the council is aware the matter is going to be resolved but they are awaiting one signature by a person on the east coast that won't be available for another few days. "This is good news for the city," says Link who supported the project in April when the council voted 4 to 1 to approve it.
City planner Steve Brandt says Orosco is nearing all his approvals to break ground on the east side of Mooney with the final piece being the official notice that an annexation of a small piece on the east side is complete and is part of the city - a matter that will be official September 9th. There are a few "ministerial actions" need to be approved by council with the likelihood a permit to begin construction of a new Lowe's and Best Buy anchored shopping center on the east side will get underway would be issued by early October or sooner.
In the meantime, Orosco has been busy with the plans for the proposed new Target store on the west side of Mooney that Brandt says is nearly ready to submit as well.
"What happened was that the lawsuit slowed the plans for the development of the east side center a little and the wish for Target to get going sooner made it likely both east side and west side centers might be built closer to the same time frame," says Brandt.
Orosco has filed part of an application for a conditional use permit to build the 140,000 sq. ft. Target, says Brandt - all he needs to begin developing on the west side of Mooney. He says there is no indication that Orosco has a deal with Costco for a store next to the Target although that name was filed on a recent site plan. The planning commission may hear this west side request in a month or so, says Brandt - a matter that could be approved by the commission and not sent on to city council unless it is appealed by someone. That appeal, however, by somebody is considered likely.
The decision by Uhlmann to throw in the towel on this lawsuit came just as the suit appeared to be coming to a head with a December hearing scheduled.
However, sources say the cost of litigation or the potential of a countersuit by Orosco may have been a major factor in the client's decision to order a settlement.
"We're bound by a confidentiality clause," says Isham who just weeks ago suggested he had a strong case. "We've agreed to stop yelling at each other," says the former city attorney for Visalia - now in private practice.
Some had speculated that a further phasing of the big Orosco center could placate opponents or even that Uhlmann may find some tenants to fill their center after an agreement was reached. If there is any change of money in this deal the public may never know.
The lawsuit did cost the city money and the developer Orosco plenty of heartburn. But if they delayed the project enough to make any difference to the eventual size and success of this commercial center it is in doubt.
The fate of Costco remains in doubt too, with continued reports they are working with the next door owner of the former House 2 Home building. Other smaller investors who have been waiting to decide whether they will put new stores or restaurants will now see the dirt fly south of Packwood Creek perhaps in less than a month.
Kings County - Kings County's long term dairy plan - passed by the Board of Supervisors July 30th has survived a 30 day waiting period without a legal challenge. The plan that allows development of new dairies in the county without filing an impact report is considered a breakthrough since no new dairy permits have been approved in the county or the south valley for more than three years due to environmental and legal challenges.
"I was waiting until 5 p.m. Thursday and then Friday and nothing happened," says chair of the Board of Supervisors Tony Borba. "I was just astounded" that no suit was filed.
The group most active in challenging the adequacy of the environmental reviews for new dairies has been the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment (CRPE) who originally battled Kings County over the Boswell dairies in 1998. CRPE went on to file challenges to dairies up and down the valley including here in Tulare County and in Kern. An approval on the first dairy permit in Tulare County is to be heard by the Board of Supervisors September 17.
CRPE attorney Caroline Farrell told the Voice that "our clients didn't want up to pursue" any more challenges to the Kings County plan.
They passed the new dairy element of the Kings County General Plan in order to allow the dairy industry in the county to grow as well as to set standards to guide that growth and protect the public, says member of the board Tony Oliveira, himself a dairyman. "There's only about 137 dairymen out there but 137,000 people in Kings County," says Oliveira. "I'm not surprised that CRPE decided against another lawsuit given that this is the best dairy element produced in the United States."
It allows dairymen to come into areas approved for dairies and sets guidelines where dairies must keep out." Instead of reviewing each dairy's impact on the environment, the dairymen can simply apply for a construction permit provided he meets the dairy element requirements.
Mr. Borba says it's his understanding there are a couple of new dairies in the pipeline that will apply for permits but that "the price of milk has drastically reduced interest in expansion right now."
Among other things the new dairy element caps the number of milking cows that can be accommodated in the county at 381,980 milking and 870,191 animal units total. The county has some 126,000 milking cows right now. Kings recently landed one of the biggest mozzarella cheese plants in the US with construction of the new Leprino cheese plant near Lemoore dependent on the continued growth of the dairy industry here.
The dairy element was challenged in testimony by CRPE at the public hearing with the environmental group suggesting that not enough had been done in the plan to safeguard groundwater and air quality. But the element lays out what dairymen can do to mitigate any problems but suggests there are some impacts are unavoidable - particularly air quality problems. The EIR suggest there are significant impacts that are recognized by the plan that there is no reasonable alternative to address. An example would be ammonia emissions that neither the EPA, CARB or the Valley Air Pollution Control District has jurisdiction over. CRPE has argues that dairymen could reduce animal emissions by pasturing them. But the county's response is that collection of disposal measure is more difficult in a pasture setting.
Efforts by some to promote methane digesters to reduce air pollution problems were rejected by the county after a number of experts suggested technology wasn't yet proven to mandate that approach. Tony Oliveira says that methane digesters or something akin to reduce emissions as well as the smell will be proven in the near future and that the dairy industry will be asked to adopt it once it gets to that stage.
Oliveira says the plan does include a water monitoring system to insure that salt loading and nitrogen leaching doesn't cause problems below dairies. The plan points to the high clay nature of much of the soil under dairies in Kings County providing a non porous layer to protect ground water.
Opponents have pointed to the fact that the valley is in a severe non attainment area for PM10 but that dairies are not included in the plan.
The EPA has suggested they want dairies and other farm operations to be included in the Clean Air Acts jurisdiction. But in the meantime counties like Kings can say they've done all they can do by law without asking dairymen to go out of business.
Low Moody's Bond Rating
KDDH Weighs Bottom
Line
Visalia - Kaweah Delta Hospital is monitoring the district's bottom line very closely this fall after this summer's poor bond rating by the investment firm Moody's shook the hospital's staff and directors. Chief Financial Officer Gary Herbst told the board about the downgrading from a stable A2 rating to a negative A3 rating for the next two years at a July 29 Finance Committee meeting. The lower rating means the district borrows money at a higher rate because investors look to the bond rating to gauge risk.
The news affected just how the planned $100 million expansion of the hospital downtown would go forward and be financed with the district opting to contract out the first major piece of the puzzle, construction of the new 5 story support building to a developer - Mangano Homes. Herbst told the Finance Committee that despite a negative operating margin of $200,000 for last fiscal year the hospital comes out with a $900,000 positive line because of its investment portfolio.
But the bad news is forcing the district to closely scrutinize each of its programs and already has caused the board to slow some projects and pull the plug on others.
This week the board ratified an end to a 50-50 partnership with a Hanford medical group managing the Exeter San Juan Health Center after the clinic saw visitations by patients drop by some 55% of normal. The hospital had been testing an idea to jointly own the clinic with San Joaquin Medical Group but as of late August their partnership was abandoned and KDDH replaced management with their own administrator. The hospital will try to bring visitation back after considering a sale of the clinic as well.
Also this week the hospital board discussed sale of the shuttered Exeter Memorial Hospital building that has been closed this past year due to the red ink from low reimbursement. The hospital is considering a sale to a group who would run a Veterans Administration contracted agency for homeless veterans or to a local skilled nursing company. "We want to get the building off our balance sheets," says CEO Lindsay Mann.
There are other red flags the district is watching closely including the district's Mental Health Program at Cypress Mental Health Center (CMHC) on Akers. The district has been losing money since it opened in the year 2000 - losing over $700,000 the first six months it operated. Now in August 2002 administrator for KDDH Ken Stone told the board that it continues to lose money although the addition of Dr. Beber to staff and Dr. Reddy continuing half time this fall will allow the census at the former Mill Creek Hospital site to increase and thus raise the operation to profitability. The board set a profitability goal of December 31, 2002.
"Failure to meet the December 31 deadline or any consecutive quarter with a financial loss for CMHC will result in the service being discontinued," says a memo from Ken Stone. That would be the same fate as the former privately owned Mill Creek Hospital at the same site.
There are other cost cutting measures as well. This week the board approved a plan to out source management of food services, housekeeping and laundry services to Aramark expected to save $470,000 this fiscal year and over $1 million off actual expenses paid out in 2002 for these services. Savings are expected to come in reduced staffing allowed by attrition and better management. Aramark would remodel the hospital's cafeteria at Aramark's cost of $500,000. Mann stresses that the employees affected will still be KDDH employees.
This week the board also approved a cost saving plan to convert the Transitional Care Unit (TCU) beds at the Court St. campus - Community Health Care - to subacute beds. At the 51 bed former Visalia Community Hospital some 20 of those beds are set aside for the Transitional Care Unit. These beds actually lose money, says a memo from Ken Stone, but are used to discharge acute care patients from the main hospital that would otherwise have to recover at the main hospital - filling beds that are needed by new patients, the memo suggested.
There is an average census of 16 TCU patients at the Court St. campus. Now the proposal is to discharge these patients to the district's other skilled nursing facility on the Cypress campus - Cypress Rehab which has 31 beds. That will allow the district to convert the Court St. building to all subacute beds - 54 in total.
A memo from administrator Ken Stone August 28 says the hospital's strategy is to target MediCal funded patients for the subacute unit. Subacute patients are long term patients often on a ventilator who have serious long term illnesses or injuries and a patient who remains bed ridden for life.
Another project that won't be funded in the near term was a potential $150,000 budget item that would have funded a lobbyist - the Alpine Group - to help obtain federal monies for the hospital's expansion.
One department doing very well at KDDH is the Lifestyle Center that showed a new profit of $659,000 in the latest fiscal year more than double the number projected, says VP Dena Cochran. The club has nearly 9600 members that include 50 disabled adults and over 100 who are on medically referred scholarships, says a report to the board.
Hospital Expansion Work Could Begin
Next Month
Visalia - Kaweah Delta's ambitious Downtown expansion could begin as soon as next month now that the KDDH Environmental Impact Report nears certification. The KDDH board is expected to certify the document September 16.
That will allow the district hospital to begin clearing land for the first phase of the project including the new "support building" - a 65,000 sq. ft. multi story complex on Mineral King at Willis/West.
To clear the way for the project the hospital will move or demolish a number of buildings to make way for parking lots or later expansion plans. The demolition and removal of buildings is the first thing the public will see this fall as the district plans to remove 13 buildings in this phase (see chart).
"We're meeting with the City of Visalia Wednesday (September 4) to finalize the master agreement on our expansion with the city and sign the agreement by this Friday. He says that the hospital "knows this is an ambitious schedule but we would like to begin construction of the support building by January."
To allow staff to move out of a number of the buildings to be removed, the hospital will temporarily lease some space nearby.
The new support building likely to be 5 or 6 stories will be built by the Mangano Company and leased back to the district - an arrangement that allows the district not to borrow funds and to speed the building's construction.
Phase one of the expansion of Kaweah Delta that includes the big northern expansion of the ER and the heart building will take the number of acute care beds from 300 today to 412 and the total square footage from nearly 574,000 to 717,000 sq. ft. according to the hospital EIR. The report suggests an increase in some 300 jobs to the area.
Besides the plan for the new KDDH support building, Mangano is reportedly looking at building an office complex for private physicians nearby that would offer proximity for doctors to the new expanded campus.
Environmental issues related to the overall expansion include the fact the district will cover Mill Creek in its next phase of building when it needs to enclose the areas just west of the main building. In addition, the EIR points out that the expansion will mean the removal of 18 trees, four large oaks in the first phase.
Visalia Is Home Of Produce
Business Cluster
Visalia - Citrus giant Sunkist recently announced closure of nine Sunkist sales and regional offices around the country after closure of eight offices last year. The closure of these offices has prompted the Sherman Oaks cooperative to focus more attention on Visalia where it has placed its national account sales offices serving many of Sunkist's larger customers.
Sunkist isn't the only company in the fresh fruit and vegetable business that has discovered Visalia as a business center - a hub for a network of competitors and affiliates and firms large and small that are here because of the central valley's bounty.
Not only are we in the middle of the orange growing and packing area, Visalia is the home to over 20 fruit and vegetable brokers listed in the phone book along with hundreds of growers, grower associations, shippers and packers, trucking companies, marketing firms and all their suppliers. Together this business cluster offers a chance for face to face to business dealings by people involved in the day to day business of shipping produce world wide from the richest ag region in the world.
Broker Tony Taviano, regional manager for Westendorf Produce, says he opened an office in Visalia some four years ago for San Clemente based Westendorf Produce and this year began shipping vegetables under the Birds Eye Fresh label.
Taviano explains Visalia's popularity this way, "Visalia is centrally located between fruit and vegetable growing regions including citrus right here, stone fruit between here and Fresno, grapes in Fresno and Kern counties and westside areas for vegetables, lettuce and cantaloupes.
"We're right in the middle. Any day I know I can hop in the car and inspect the merchandise that is about to be shipped." He says the fact that the fruit is located here, that the packing happens here and the shipping takes place nearby makes Visalia attractive as a base of operations.
"Plus you can live here and raise a family here, it's better than Fresno."
Indeed many of the brokers and other industry affiliates have modest offices in Downtown Visalia enabling them to walk to the Vintage Press restaurant with the clients to hob nob. "I'm sure Mr. Vartanian appreciates the business," says Tony.
Transportation brokers are another sub cluster in the produce business filling less full truck loads of cross country trucks.
One such brokerage that recently opened in Visalia is Fresh Network Logistics that opened in January in Visalia. Office manager Jerry Parkison says his business is dependent on good relationships with his shippers. "It helps to be close by," says Parkison. "Other than that I can do this anywhere I have a phone and a laptop computer." As a transportation broker Fresh Network based in Salinas arranges loads for retailers, wholesalers and exporters all of who are part of this business cluster.
The fact that Visalia is near so many fruit and vegetable growing regions appears to be the main factor why not just the sales but the packing and packaging business is near Visalia as well. Recently Alcoa purchased Visalia's Ivex Corp., Visalia operations that makes paper packaging for fruit along with box company Weyerhouser that is expanding near Exeter.
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
September 4, 2002
