Hanford Mall Sale Underway

Target/Michael’s Center To Break Ground

Hanford - Hanford Mall is being sold to a L.A. based real estate company Passco - the same company that owns the Home Base (Sequoia Plaza) center in Visalia. The current owners, Hanford Mall Partners (Crumpler and Kruger), reportedly expect the sale to be complete by year’s end. The mall is managed by General Growth Properties - the same company that owns and manages the Visalia Mall.

Passco is based in Santa Ana. The company buys and holds real estate and hands management off to an affiliated management firm who manages over 3 million sq. ft. of retail space in the state. Earlier this year they bought the Puente Hills mall for $129 million and currently manage it.

The 483,000 sq. ft. Hanford Mall was built in 1993 and is anchored by Sears, Penney’s, Gottschalks, Mervyn’s and Ross. Altogether the mall has some 70 stores. However, the mall has over 20 spaces for lease according to the General Growth web site.

Sources say Passco operates as a management company for investors who are seeking tax free exchange of property - a big market these days for many investors who have soured over the past few years on the stock market in favor of real estate investments.

The sale of the mall comes only weeks after the announced sale of the Sequoia Mall in Visalia to a new company backed by Australian capital. That sale is expected to close in mid October.

Unlike Visalia - Hanford is a one mall town since all three major anchors relocated from Downtown in 1993.

The Hanford Mall is slightly larger than the Visalia Mall although it doesn’t do nearly the volume in sales, sources say. However, it is in a growth area in Kings County next to other major retailers who are planning to expand next door including Walmart and Target. The mall also enjoys easy freeway 198 access.

Also in Hanford, developer Dave Paynter is ready to break ground on a new shopping center near the mall anchored by Target and Michael’s. The center is expected to open by July 2004.

Next door the planned Walmart supercenter will be the subject of a full EIR to be released in draft for in coming weeks, says city planner John Stowe. The project has galvanized some opposition in the community as Walmart’s projects tend to do around the country.

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Air Board Weighs Traffic Fee On Development

San Joaquin Valley - Under pressure to clean up our smoggy air, the Valley Air Board announced October 7th they would move toward new regulation of development that generates traffic and air pollution in the valley. The agency said they would vote on a possible new rule by next July.

The plan to monitor and regulate “indirect sources” - land uses that attract or generate traffic trips - is likely to generate complaints from some. The proposed rule could add a fee for the home builders, trucking and distribution centers and even retail and restaurants sites that attract traffic and thus might be forced to pay new fees.

The logic of the proposed regulations is that while the Air Board clamps down on stationary sources of air pollution and farmers are now folded into the plan - pollution from mobile sources still account for 69% of the NOx emissions in the valley - one of the major contributors to smog formation.

The Air Board can’t regulate how clean or dirty the cars and trucks are but that can force reasonable mitigation measures to reduce emissions. The Air Board said in their 2003 PM 10 plan submitted to the EPA they estimated reductions committed to amount to 6.2 tons a day of PM 10 and 4.1 tons a day of NOx .

Number one on the list will be new home subdivisions that have spread - some say sprawled - across the valley landscape in the past few decades generating more traffic for the air basin. A fee on each home - says $1000 per home - would be collected by the Air Board to pay for projects that would help clean the air in other ways.

Some five years ago a plan to put a $5000 per lot fee on homes in the valley got massive opposition from the home building industry. But today a more modest fee to be discussed with stakeholders in the next few months and coming when air pollution has received top of the mind status in the valley - this initiative may be more likely to survive.

The Air Board says that while new cars pollute far less - 75% less than 1994 models - the growth in the valley population and the increase in number of vehicle miles traveled offset the cleaner cars. California’s Department of Finance estimates that the valley will grow some 24% between 2000 and 2010, meanwhile vehicle miles traveled is expected to increase 27% from 2002 to 2010.

The Valley Air Board points out that a number of jurisdictions permit indirect sources including Mendicino, Placer, and Shasta counties. Cities like Visalia and Bakersfield have traffic impact fees on development that are not air related, however.

Air Board staff say some talk of how fees on development could be eased if the development followed a smart growth plan such as building within the core of the city would offer credits to developers to carry our such projects. In addition, companies who incorporated emission saving technology could be credited and even funded by these new fees. Fees could be used to reduce traffic by promoting mass transit for example.

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Fewer Hunters Greet Open Season

by Peyton Ellas

San Joaquin Valley - Hunters in the Central Valley and Statewide are finding fewer of the easy opportunities their grandfathers found to practice their sport. At the same time "wildlife viewing," has become a growing cottage industry. California is becoming more urbanized, with less open land for hunting. The Central Valley has joined this trend, and the region's hunters are now feeling its effects.

According to statistics compiled by the California Department of Fish and Game (DGF), the government organization responsible for issuing licenses and administering hunting and fishing throughout the state, revenues from the sale of hunting licenses in Tulare, Kern, and Kings Counties have decreased from 1994-2002. And although they have rebounded somewhat from the drought years of the 1990's,revenues from fishing licenses are also on the decline, from an average $22,513 in 1994 to a three-county average of $19,487 in 2002.

Opportunities for hunting and fishing still do exist, according to Rod Goss, Senior Biologist Supervisor for the Department of Fish and Game's Fresno office, especially for fishing. "Fishing success is a function of water availability," he says. “There are still plenty of easy fishing opportunities in California.”

Goss believes that opportunities for hunting still also exist, although he admits, "You don't have the easy access you used to have."

Easy access seems to be the key factor. Both public and privately owned lands have responded differently to the public's changing values, but both have become harder for hunters to use.

The California Department of Fish and Game regulates hunting on public lands, divided into hunting "zones." In the Central Valley region Zone 7, in Eastern Fresno County, is administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Zone 8, which stretches across the Sierras from Kern through Tulare County, is managed by the United States Forest Service (USFS).

"Public lands still offer good opportunities for hunting," says Goss, stating that his Department's goal is to work with the Federal agencies that own the land to encourage good land use that benefits everyone, including hunters.

Many hunters, however, cite burdensome and conflicting government regulations as a major factor that discourages hunting on public land.

Distance is another factor. "Public land is hard to get to and there are too many regulations for most hunters," says Mike Curran, a licensed State guide with ten years' experience. "There are a lot of conflicting regulations between agencies, so it is a lot of effort for hunters."

David Stuck, a longtime hunter agrees, adding, "When you have to drive hours to get to an area open to hunting, you can't possibly know the terrain and local wildlife patterns well enough to be successful."

Hunters often cite the increased difficulties in getting permits to hunt on public lands, and the increased fees. According to the DGF, however, fees have not increased dramatically and, according to Goss, “Zone 8 deer tags are not even sold out yet this year.” He also notes that the number of reservations for selected hunts on protected lands "has not changed much" in recent years.

Hunters such as Stuck also cite declining wildlife populations, which means less chance of success, a fact Goss disputes. "Deer populations, for example, have not decreased in California, actually they have increased," he says. "Harvest in Zone 7 has actually improved."

Statistics kept by the DFG shows deer populations have declined since their high in the 1960's, although they are still in the population range labeled "common" --that is, relatively easy to find.

California's wildlife populations do not match those of the heady, timber-economy days of the 1930's-1960's, when land use practices created an abundance bordering on over-population of many wildlife species. But "the opportunity is the same as 10-20 years ago,” says Goss. Hunters who believe the population levels of 50 years ago are necessary to guarantee acceptable success rates often choose to not hunt in the region at all. As David Stuck says, "When I get serious about hunting, I leave the state."

Besides public lands, privately owned lands have been traditional areas open to hunting. According to Mike Curran, who does not escort hunters onto public lands, “the best hunting is on properly managed private property." Lands that are managed well, where habitat is provided, selective harvesting methods are used, and poaching is controlled, have seen an increase in animal populations, he says.

The State-sponsored Private Lands Management Program, which offers landowners economic incentives to manage their lands for the benefit of wildlife, has not been enough of an incentive to stop the decline in private lands open to hunters.

And even though being escorted by a licensed guide onto well-managed private lands may "guarantee a reasonable chance of success," according to David Stuck, "this is expensive to the hunter,” apparently too expensive to lure many hunters into this practice.

For those hunters unwilling or unable to afford licensed guides, the number of land owners willing to allow unescorted hunters on their farms and ranches have declined even more dramatically.

"Private land use has changed," says Goss. “Owners do not want people on their land for any reason” he says, “because they just had too many problems” such as litter, vandalism, and livestock harassment.

Changes in agricultural practices in the Central Valley are another problem for hunters trying to find an easy place to hunt successfully. "Concrete ditches and herbicides," states Curran matter-of-factly. Goss agrees, adding, “In the past, weedy canals and fallow fields encouraged wildlife, especially pheasants and doves.”

With so-called "clean" farming practices, wildlife has been pushed off the areas where intensive farming takes place, and the annual pheasant hunts which used to be a popular autumn activity in the Central Valley --“Hunters used to shoot pheasants by the thousands,” says Goss-- are largely a tradition of the past.

And in the foothills, development has meant land once available for hunting is now neighborhoods with gun-control ordinances and where habitat has largely been eroded or destroyed.

In Goss' view, because hunting is more difficult than it was in the past, the sport, which is largely built around family traditions, is not being practiced and passed along as much as it once was. As the state becomes less rural and more urban, people find other activities to take up their time, activities with less regulations, lower costs, and easier access. Goss calls this, "the changing of values." Curran and hunters like Stuck put it bluntly as "anti-hunting."

As the land available for wildlife has decreased, the public, with its changing values, has supported efforts both private--through donations to non-profits whose stated mission is purchasing land for preservation-- and public-- through bond initiatives, Environmental License Plates, and demands made to legislators-- to conserve habitats and species.

Although hunters and wildlife biologists such as Goss agree that hunting and viewing both rely on habitat protection and good land management, the public has increasingly supported land-use policies with hunters and fishermen being purposefully excluded. While the public may urge modifying farm practices to foster wildlife habitats, or encourage responsible use of the Region's waterways and forests, this urging has largely not been with the hunter or fisherman in mind.

Meanwhile, businesses and non-profits organizing excursions for everything from bird watching to “Photography Safaris,” have found a public willing to support this cottage industry devoted to conservation of habitat and species, and offering opportunities of wildlife viewing as a side benefit.

Public lands offer far fewer restrictions for “viewing,” which can often be combined with other recreational activities such as hiking and camping. Although the costs for these, as well as organized group excursions may be nearly as high as for hunting, as Goss puts it, "People are willing to pay money to view wildlife in ways they were never willing to do to hunt."

It is considered by many hunters to have become too much effort to continue hunting or to encourage their sons and daughters to take up the family tradition. There may have always been more "wildlife viewers" than hunters. The difference is now it is an industry that can be tracked and counted alongside hunting and fishing. An industry with its own goals and policies, ones that increasingly have left hunters pushed out.

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Local Passenger Service Eyed

San Joaquin Valley - They’ve spent $14 million to build up the infrastructure for an ag based economic revival. Now local leaders believe that the same infrastructure can carry us to cleaner air.

That’s what more than a score of federal and state funding agencies contributed to improve the old Cross Valley rail line - a project that makes it more economical for ag based shippers on the line to send and receive freight. Now local leaders are saying the next step for the joint power authority that created this project is put in passenger rail service. “I’d say if the outcome of a feasibility study in the next few months is positive, we could see passenger rail service connecting Naval Air Station Lemoore to Visalia in as little as three years,” says Lemoore City Manager Steve Froberg.

“I think we can get funding for a pilot project to run for a few years to see how ridership develops,” says Froberg. He says funding agencies would be particularly likely to participate if the technology to drive the train were low emission or even “no emission” like fuel cells.

“We can go back to the same agency” that funded the original application, he says. With the valley-wide consensus to clean up our air and even discussion of a development fee (see other article) the Valley Air Board would be a logical partner.

“We will depend on stats and federal funds for what could be a $6 million project. Clearly “ever widening roads is a failed technology,” says the city manager. Budget cuts have hurt the planned widening of 198 between Visalia and Hanford. The city of Hanford is being asked to join JPA along with Visalia, Lemoore, and Huron.

Froberg made a presentation to the Visalia City Council this past week to bring the city – a founding member of the JPA – up to speed on the completion of the project. The project laid down 47 miles of new track and all that goes with it, enabling heavy railcars the move quickly back and forth on the route. Leprino Foods was a major beneficiary of the heavy rail addition. The last of the rail repair was done in the Visalia Industrial Park a few days ago.

Then, last week the line had a celebration staged in front of the Depot Restaurant down the street from the new Visalia bus depot under construction along Oak St. and the same rail line. That depot will now function as a rail depot if this passenger rail vision comes to pass.

The passenger train could connect Visalia with Naval Air Station Lemoore. Lemoore. It could connect to Amtrak in Hanford as well as to a future high speed rail stations that could be built in coming years.

Visalia’s commuters could travel from downtown to the industrial park in the future some believe and homes and offices built along the corridor could offer a new transit option and could change where development in town occurs as has happened in other urban areas served by light rail systems.

“I could see people riding their bike in the morning to the local station to catch the train to work taking their bike with them when they get off, says Froberg. The city of Lemoore recently purchased an old railroad station for their downtown from Strathmore to serve that town’s passenger depot for the future. Visalia now has one too, expected to open in a matter of months.

Already the Cross Valley Rail has pulled lots of trucks off the highway that were delivering into companies like Leprino and Los Gatos Tomato.

Back in 1993, a group studied the possibility of rail service but found the idea was premature in part because they had no way to cover the costs. Now the JPA appears to be ready to apply for funds for the pilot project and will pick a technology - fuel cell or maybe bio-diesel made from restaurant grease locally.

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Ruiz Foods Works On Environment & Bottom Line

Dinuba - Dinuba-based Ruiz Foods got a potent political visitor this week as the President of the United States visited the big food processing plant. Celebrating their 40th anniversary next year, Ruiz Foods will use this opportunity to tell its story of growing from a small business in Tulare in 1963 to the largest employer in Tulare County today.

They will talk of successes, growth and competitive pressures and they should tell the story of how CEO Fred Ruiz is implementing conservation measures and addressing air quality concerns while he keeps the company focused on the need to maintain that bottom line.

Ruiz will tell the story of how California “has become a business hostile environment” under the Davis administration and the Democratic legislature that “have done a lot to hamper economic development” in the state.

Certainly President Bush is looking at the possibility of reconnecting to the California voter after he lost badly here in the last election. In a state with a large Latino population, visiting one of the more successful Hispanic owned business in the state can be seen as part of that plan.

Van Pooling

Fred Ruiz tells the Voice the company is making new efforts to support air quality in the valley - what has become one of the top issues in the central valley in the past year. “We now have 10 vans that pick up and deliver about 150 of our employees to and from work every day,” says Ruiz, noting that van pooling is one way valley businesses can help reduce our smoggy air. “We are going to be offering our employees an incentive to buy hybrid vehicles for themselves,” says Ruiz, and the company itself will work to buy the low pollution hybrid cars - a bill pending congress offers just that. In addition Ruiz says he would like to work with the county transit systems to try to schedule bus routes into Dinuba that might coincide with shift changes at the big plant. “Whoever drives to work alone everyday has to be thinking there has to be a better way,” says Ruiz.

New Cogen

In another strategic conservation move, Ruiz says the food processing company has just signed a deal to buy a cogen power plant to be installed next year at the plant. “We use about 4 megawatts of power and this unit will produce about one mw of that need. If it works out we can add more units,” he says. The unit will generate steam for the plant use as well as produce power and will be fired by natural gas.

In yet another move, the company is installing pre treatment systems at the food processing plant that will take some of the pressure off the Dinuba city sewer plant leaving extra capacity for when the plant needs more volume to expand. “That’s an extra $800,000 project that should be in place by mid 2004,” says Ruiz.

Satellite Plant?

Despite these new measures to improve the business and environmental concerns Ruiz says the company will be “at capacity in about three years” and in the next year or so they will likely buy a warehouse distribution facility back east to distribute product to that part of the country. “It’s possible we would build a satellite manufacturing facility there as well,” says Ruiz, depending in strong part on whether his Dinuba California plant can expand in a cost efficient way, he says.

“The change of the political environment is very positive,” says Ruiz, but recent legislation has hampered ongoing efforts to remain competitive. “It’s a matter of survival” for the company he says noting that relatively new competition from Mexico is becoming more active in the US. Ruiz says top producers of Mexican foods have followed the migration of Mexicans in all parts of the US.

Ruiz cites several anti business measures that are hampering expansion in Dinuba. They include:

• SB 975 that prohibits cities from assisting businesses in a redevelopment zone without triggering all work to be carried out under prevailing wage rates. City manager of Dinuba Ed Todd says “those wages are San Francisco wages and simply tie our hands.” They are a disincentive to expand - opposite of what the redevelopment zone is for. Ruiz Foods is in a redevelopment zone on 40 acres of which it uses only a portion of.

• Overtime rules that mandate the company pay overtime any day they work people over 8 hours instead of a more flexible option of ensuring that the employees get overtime only after 40 hours in a week “that hurt our employees who want work from home,” among others says Ruiz.

• High Worker Comp costs that have affected Ruiz Foods like all businesses in California who are paying far more in this state than competitors are paying in other states.

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What's New

Cash Crop: last week's meeting on pot farms in the national parks came out with one glaring statistic - that about 30% of the marijuana gardens pulled out around the state this year were in the mountains of Tulare County. One garden dug up last week may be the largest in the state with an estimated 72,321 plants from about 17 separate plots with an estimated street value of $289 million.

Purchase of the old Main Street Theatre building by the City of Visalia is coming weeks will be good news for the children's theater group The Enchanted Playhouse who has been struggling for years to buy the place as its permanent home for years. The city is expected to buy the building from an out of town owner at its October 20th Visalia city council meeting. The city played a similar role in helping to secure the Visalia Fox Theatre for a community nonprofit based complex some years ago. Walmart is back to the City of Visalia site plan review process October 15 with new plans to reroute truck traffic to the new discount store closing off Chinowth. The two phase project would be built at the corner of Demaree and Caldwell. Chief planner for the city Mike Olmos says once this filing is heard he expected Walmart to officially file the project with the city that would begin the environmental process - a full EIR review of the proposed 2 phase project. First phase would be a standard Walmart and second phase, coming a few years down the line, would bring additional square footage for a so-called supercenter selling groceries. But Olmos says before the EIR starts "staff has to decide if we can support it," saying "we will have to do some serious study," before recommending the project since the city must launch the EIR. Whether the staff can support it or not should be known in the next few weeks.

Former state senator and Democrat Jim Costa has announced he will run for the congressional seat being vacated by Cal Dooley next year. Costa is now considered the front runner in this heavily Democratic district, also supported by Dean Florez. Kings County supervisor Tony Oliveira says he helped form Republicans for Costa who was termed out from the state Senate in 2002. Dooley has announced support for his assistant Lisa Quigley for the position seconded by Assembly member Nicole Parra.

Packwood Creek shopping center had its official debut this past week with the opening of the new Target/Greatland store - about 50% larger than the old Target. Best Buy, Lowes, Krispy Kreme and Mimi's are expected to open in the next few weeks - timed just in time for the Holiday shopping season. Already there are reports of traffic jams.

The owners of Sequoia Mall have received a letter from Cal Trans that the agency was not going to buy right of way to widen Mooney Blvd. because of funding shortfalls. Cal Trans planner Alan McCuen says because of the state budget crisis some right of way acquisitions have been postponed indefinitely until the budget picture improves. Cal Trans has made offers to buy the land needed to widen the boulevard to 6 lanes to many property owners but now the project faces some delay. "It's a matter of time," says McCuen, but the project will go forward.

Ross Stores has finalized its lease confirms developer Dave Paynter. The store will relocate from the Sequoia Mall to Walnut and Mooney.

Also this week Ole Frijole shut their door for good and demolition of the remaining frontage - to make room for the new shopping center - will take place in early November.

At the old Target site on Mooney and Caldwell the Texas developer who plans to level the building is circulating a site plan for the project that includes a Chili's restaurant and a new location for Circuit City.

Other news on the strip is that JoAnne stores is eyeing a 40,000 sq. ft. space for one of its superstores at the old Home Base site next to Costco. The company has its main distribution center in town and wants to replace their tiny Mooney retail store with a new one.

Gannett strikes out on the deal to buy Freedom Communications this week. Freedom owns the Porterville Recorder and Gannett owns the Tulare and Visalia newspapers. The board of family-held Freedom agreed to a new partnership with two private equity firms although Gannett Co and partner Media News Group had made a new competing offer in recent days. The deal reportedly allows the continuation of family management of the papers that include the Orange County Register.

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The Visalia City Council saw a presentation by consultant Quad Knopf of a concept plan for the proposed new Visalia Civic Center to be located at Burke and Goshen Ave. in east Visalia. The city has purchased the land for the center and is working with the Union Pacific Railroad to acquire more nearby. In addition, Cal Trans is expected to offer its old maintenance yard to the city once they leave the site in the next few months.

The site plans drawn by Quad Knopf consultant Mick Tripplet shows two scenarios for the civic center with one showing enclosed air conditioned corridors and the other open air corridors. The main complex shows a 95,000 sq. ft. 2 story office building likely to be built in Mediterranean style similar to the new transit center featuring a tile roof.

The new civic center would be oriented toward Mill Creek and Jenning's Ditch and the large oaks along them and likely favor two lakes that would double as ponding basins.

City manager Steve Salomon says that while the new Civic Center could be many years away what could happen soon is the plans for creek restoration and development of the lakes that will help draw people and development to the area. The creeks would be joined to downtown by bike and walking trails.

The city would play the role of "revitalizing the area to draw other private and public investment."

The potential use of the old Cal Trans yard at Burke and Goshen is shown on one of the drawings providing a potential campus for other services who might co-locate in the area. Both the county and VUSD have expressed interest sometime in the future.

The Cal Trans yard will be vacated before the end of the year, say local officials in favor of the new Cal Trans yard on Noble east of Visalia. That move was to be completed by October but was delayed.

Once the old yard is vacated, Cal Trans will get the site believed to contain some interesting artifacts from old "Spanish Town" or even Camp Babbit from an even earlier era, says Dr. Jeanne Binning, an environmental planner with Cal Trans. Binning says as preliminary study of the site found artifacts that could prove interesting and now "the only way we will know if there are intact finds is to dig," she says. Cal Trans budget problems could effect how fast that archeological work happens even though the Cal Trans budget for the new yard includes funding to investigate the old site. It will take months to do the dig that will need to rip up blacktop.

Then there is the issue of contamination of the portion of the land the city wants to help revitalize. Many Cal Trans yards are contaminated since they date from the 1950s before fuel leakage was considered a problem. Cleanup of the Union Pacific Railroad sites have been under investigation by the city in a Phase II analysis for some time.

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Two new office projects on the eastside of downtown Visalia surfaced this past week. Realtor Marty Zeeb says he has a client that is buying the southwest corner of Bridge and Main from the city – a 4000 ft. narrow lot that used to be where Arnold Weibe sold cars for those that remember. The city ended up with the property when they bought the old Weibe lot where the 10-screen theater now stands.

Zeeb says he could not disclose his local client but that he plans a multi-story building on the site that could include a small restaurant, residential use and office. The lot is next to the new Allen Group/Teter Consultant building nearing completion this fall on land also purchased from the city.

A few blocks to the east, the long building that spans Santa Fe between Oak and Center has been purchased and the out-of-town owner is going to remodel the old building, says architect Lyle Munch of Canby and Associates. "We will be filing building plans with the city very soon to begin the makeover of the building. Munch says Canby and Associates will be taking all the space in the building with exception of the existing Los Portales Restaurant that will also be remodeled.

The remodeling of the building come as the corner of Santa Fe and Oak has had several high profile projects near by, new offices and the new city transit center (designed by Canby & Associates) nearing completions.

Just last week, the city announced they were in discussion to purchase right of way to punch Oak st. through sometime soon to the east to connect up to Burke St.

Munch says the architectural firm will be leaving the old Rainbow building on the Oval when they move into the new location next year. TPG consultant also announced a move to Oak St. a few months ago when a new office at Garden and Oak is complete. That project is being developed by Harvey May's Paloma Development. The city has had a continuing policy to "grow downtown to the east" says city manager Steve Salomon, they are using the strategy of assembling blocks of old and underused property and reselling the lots for new development to the private sector, successfully attracting new investment.

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