Farmland Annexations Bustin’ Out All Over

Tulare County - Development requests for new housing subdivisions as well as incorporation of small county islands is pushing up requests for annexations through the Tulare County Local Agency Formation Committee - LAFCO. “It’s definitely more than usual,” says LAFCO staffer Ben Giuliani.

He says the number of pending as well as planned requests countywide is over 40 right now and there are plenty more in the pipeline.

The expected workload is such that the question of how the increased work will get out is an agenda item on this week’s LAFCO board meeting.

Annexations of farmland into the county’s cities are typically done at the request of land owners and housing developers. While the requests are all over the county, some places where housing subdivision plans are piling up may be surprising. Like Lindsay that hasn’t seen an annexation request in 15 years, says city manager Scot Townsend.

Lindsay has four pending annexations and is working on 11 new subdivisions, he says. Townsend says Lindsay’s housing prices are up 25% and the community is out of room to add more housing. “We’re the last affordable area.”

A similar story is told in Dinuba at the north end of the county where the town has seen a dozen new subdivisions in the past year, says Paul Magyar development service manager for the community.

“We typically see one application for a new tentative map a year and now we have 15 to 18 pending.” A number of those will require annexations but they aren’t yet on the LAFCO radar screen. “All these builders want to be underway by this time next year,” says Magyar. Like the rest of the valley, home prices have increased markedly in the past year, he says suggesting land prices have increased from $15,000 an acre a year ago to $55,000 an acre today on a recent 40 acre purchase.

The city of Dinuba itself is working on a major annexation of land into the city for water treatment that will include a new golf course and will add upscale housing to boot.

Like many small towns, Dinuba and Lindsay are looking to add upscale housing to their inventory seeking to attract a broad middle class to build in their towns.

The bigger towns in the county are the busiest - Visalia and Tulare each have large annexation requests pending or planned.

In Tulare what’s new this past year is the arrival of the large regional and national builders looking in the Tulare area for land, says the city’s chief planner Mark Keilty.

Fresno’s Woodside Homes has a 289 home project in the works, Sacramento’s Del Valle Homes has several with over 400 units in total and Gary Smee of Visalia has a 110 lot project, McMillin Homes continues to build in Del Lago - a former grape vineyard that has been the hottest housing project in town for the past few years.

The Lagomarsino family have two other large projects in the works that will be annexed soon. One is KCOK Park on the east side of Mooney that is being proposed for annexation and will be a mixed use development built by Visalia’s Mangano Homes. The project has 393 units and about 20 acres for commercial along Mooney.

Ennis Homes has a pending request for a mixed commercial and residential project further north on Mooney at Cartmill as well. Already approved by the city, Tulare has approved the Grupe project with another 437 lots also requiring annexation.

Keilty says altogether Tulare already has over 4000 subdivision lots approved for development.

Tulare has some 25 subdivisions in some state of development of which 17 are new, says city manager Kevin Northcraft, a good measure of how hot the market is right now. Northcraft says the city issues permits for 200 to 300 a year but expects that number to increase to 400 dwelling units in 2005.

Visalia reported increased permit activity as well, expecting as many as 1500 dwelling units permitted in 2005 up from 1100 last year.

One reason annexation requests are piling up at the LAFCO desk is that the state passed a law allowing annexation of islands 150 acres and below to move forward without a protest hearing from residents. “That promotes more efficient government,” says city council member Don Landers, also a LAFCO board member. The law is in effect as of January. Landers gives the example of Birdland where the city would like to annex the large county island and provide the services there. But in this case, the acreage is larger than 150 acres. He says people in rural subdivisions shouldn’t fear annexation into a city. “Your property taxes won’t go up,” and as for sewer - it can be paid over time. There is a tax sharing agreement in place between the city and county so annexations like this can go forward.

Landers says not every city can afford to annex because of the service that must be provided like sewer - which is very expensive.

“The City of Visalia has doubled its sewer capacity in the past 10 years and continues to extend sewer lines. Development follows those lines.

In Visalia annexation requests on ag land that are pending right now amount to about 1000 acres, says city planner Brandon Smith. About 550 acres that are for residential annexation, he says. Some 320 acres are pending to be farmed with a request by Elliott Farms on land west of Shirk.

Farmersville, too, is seeing increased growth with plans for two annexations going to LAFCO, says planner Carl Schoettler. To accommodate the need for low income housing within the city Farmersville funded a new 48 unit multi family project in town they are very proud of.

In Porterville the pace of annexation is about normal, says planner Randy Rouda, although the city has plenty of land annexation requests since the town has so much older county subdivisions nearby.

The city permits about 250 homes a year.

Visalia city council member Greg Kirkpatrick - a former representative of the American Farmland Trust - says a countywide ag land mitigation fee on new annexations is a way to promote smart growth plans that could help save farmland. Visalia is considering such a new fee.

The Tulare County Farm Bureau recently emphasized their support for the county Rural Valley Lands Plan point system to keep farm properties from converting prematurely.

Visalia - Packwood Creek developer Don Orosco is wasting no time in seeking approval from the City of Visalia for his new 430,000 sq ft shopping center - a project that includes the relocation of the Mooney Costco store.

Having filed a preliminary site plan with the city only a few days ago, the project is already scheduled for its first hearing at the city’s Planning Commission February 15.

Orosco’s plan shows the phase 2 of Packwood Creek would be to the east of Lowes and Mooney Blvd. on both sides of Cameron. The new center would have no visibility from Mooney but rely on the tremendous draw Costco has for its dedicated followers.

Now those customers will be coming to fill their car with more than merchandise and groceries. The new Costco is shown on the plan with a Costco gas station (named on the plan) facing Visalia Parkway behind Michael’s. The new store is about one third larger than the existing Costco outlet.

Costco won’t say if they are committed to the project’s location although city community development director Mike Olmos says Costco officials recently contacted the city to get specific information about the property. Costco would own their own store as they do at their existing store.

The shopping center’s design shows a second big box store on the north side of Cameron but sources say no one retailer has been identified for this storefront. Part of Orosco’s decision to move forward now on the project is that a large chunk of the property at the site needs to be annexed taking longer for all approvals to be in place. That application needs to go through the planning commission and city council which is expected to hear the project as soon as early March. Then if it passes muster, it’s on to the county LAFCO agency. Meanwhile, the project will require a zone change and general plan amendment before final approvals are in place and the project can break ground.

Meanwhile, sources say Orosco is confident he will receive city support for the project now that Packwood’s first phase is nearing completion. Announcing that Costco will be a part offers a chance to begin marketing what might be considered a second rate shopping center site to other retailers - a number of which could be locals - with the headline fresh that Costco will be a part of the center drawing car loads of shoppers. The center could also draw other national retailers if Costco does commit to the center.

Just what will happen in the old Costco center remains a question mark just as other vacant parts of Mooney that have lost stores to Packwood Creek remains a question mark.

This week Kinkos (FedX) celebrated their grand opening at Packwood Creek having relocated from a storefront a few blocks north joining several other smaller retailers who have done the same along with some big ones like Michael’s, Pier One and Target who have chosen this new center vacating an older location.

Today the old Target building remains vacant three years after the Packwood center was approved and Target announced it would move. The existing Costco center may now have two big empty boxes although Costco might be motivated to backfill their spot next to the empty House 2 Home.

Packwood was billed to bring in “a million sq ft of new regional retail” to Visalia and it has brought some new retailers including Sports Chalet, Best Buy and Cost Plus. The city is left, however, with half empty centers like the Kmart center on 198 and Sequoia Mall on mid Mooney. Some say that’s the way the retail ball bounces.

Now the phase 2 plan looks like more musical chairs - rather than bringing in new retail to town. The size of the project enables Orosco to offer some other key tenant perhaps a free spot in the center - a practice that is routine at many malls - if it helps attract the smaller tenants where developers make the money. Still a Costco that is a third larger than today’s Costco, will bring in at least a third more sales tax dollars to Visalia - it is already the town’s largest sales tax generator.

Tulare - This year’s World Ag Expo is Tuesday, February 8 through Thursday, February 10 - the time the community of Tulare finds itself on the world’s stage.

It’s the 38th annual event having doubled the square footage of existing space to 2.5 million just since 1990 when the number of exhibitors went from 945 that year to about 1600 this year. The show remains the largest farm equipment and technology show on the globe. The cost for admission is $7. Follow the crowds on Highway 99 off the Paige or Ave. 200 exit off Highway 99.

But more than a number game, “We’re seeing new concepts like the California Crop Center,” says the show’s general manager Gary Shultz offering crop seminars from well known experts in their fields similar to the in depth sessions offered to dairymen at the Expo’s Dairy Pavilion. The new center’s offerings include seminars on the wine industry and the outlook for raisins to name a two.

Altogether the big show features 125 seminars.

Expect to see some famous faces including CDFA ag secretary A.G. Kawamura. Even the governor has been invited and may attend again this year. NFL great Jim Tunney will be a keynote speaker at the Ag Leadership Alumni Breakfast Thursday a.m.

Something new this year is the Hilvers building having been donated to the AgriCenter by the Hilvers family to house this year’s Dairy Profit seminars. Shultz notes that through the generosity of the family the permanent building will be available for other uses year round. Dedication of the building is set for February 8 at 11 a.m.

One of the dairy seminars to attend will be Wednesday February 9 at noon - featuring a panel discussion that includes David Crow who heads up the Valley Air District and UC Davis researcher Frank Mitloehner who just published figures showing air emissions from cows may be half what regulators had assumed.

If you’re tired of talk try popping the clutch on a truck or tractors at the new driving yards. Tractor pull enthusiasts will get their chance too, Tuesday and Wednesday night over at the fairgrounds for the price of a $10 admission.

For lots more information about this year’s show, check out the 16 page insert in this issue of the Valley Voice.

Visalia - The board of Kaweah Delta Health Care District will hear a report February 15 suggesting the district consider building a new 24 station dialysis center on the district’s west Visalia campus.

The new building would be behind the Cypress Mental Health center, says CEO Lindsay Mann, taking the place of the older rented facility the district has on Dunworth in east Visalia.

“We’re running on three shifts to keep up with demand” by patients for service, says Mann and the old facility is not adequate, Mann says.

Dialysis demand has grown rapidly in Tulare County known as the diabetes capital of the US. Over 40% of all dialysis patients suffer from diabetes that appears to hit harder in minority populations. The treatment is needed to overcome kidney failure in patients and is needed to keep people alive. MediCal and Medicare typically pays for the treatment. Besides diabetes, persistent high blood pressure can also lead to kidney failure.

The district would also consider building another new medical facility behind Cypress Mental Health center on Akers easily filling up the district’s western campus. “We’re totally out of room” once the two new buildings are constructed, he says on the last five acres the District owns next to Constitution Park, says Mann.

Mann says the long range plan for the district is to hold on to 100 acres the district owns on the east side of town at Caldwell and Lovers Lane for other services in the future that won’t be located Downtown.

Mann says at Cypress Mental Health they are considering establishing a wing devoted to child and adolescent psychiatric services both on an in-patient and out-patient basis. The district is looking at a 16 bed facility “based on the pressing community need.” The board will hear a report on the later project at the February 15 meeting as well and will take up a planned location for a new co-gen power plant at the district’s Downtown campus that could save $1.5 million a year in power bills.

Kaweah Delta Board will take up the issue of a new co-gen power plant located just east of the current site that would replace an older facility. The new plant would power up the proposed north hospital expansion with state-of-the-art turbines that could be added on to increase both heat and power for the hospital complex.

Tulare is expected to reach a population of 50,000 this summer unless annexation of some county land in the works make it happen sooner, says city manager Kevin Northcraft. Once it does a big celebration is planned.

At last week's all day city council work session Tulare city manager Kevin Northcraft said the council agreed to study near term construction of two underpasses across the Union Pacific railtrack on both Bardsley and Cartmill to improve traffic flow in the city. "We decided it may be worth it to look at construction sooner because of the increase in construction costs recently and continued low finance rates. Northcraft says an overpass would be more expensive but remains an option as well. Increasing train traffic and length of some trains keeps cross town traffic from moving several times a day for extended periods.

How long until the appeals court decides the West 198 Visalia Auto Plaza case? Attorney for the plaintiffs, Save Our Corridor Group, Richard Harriman says final briefs by both parties aren't due until March 4 after which time the court could rule on the corridor group's appeal of the city approval of the auto mall.

Harriman is also involved in an appeal of the Walmart Supercenter case in Hanford. He says a trial date for the appeal has been set for this Friday, February 4th alleging that the city of Hanford's approval of the EIR on the project is inadequate.

Continued looking good on the snowpack in the Sierra. As of February 1 the snowpack for the San Joaquin Valley is 114% of April 1 average and 181% of February 1 average. Tulare Lake watershed is even better at 132% of April 1 average and 198% of February 1 average. Up at 9500 ft Farwell Gap there is nearly 11 ft of snow - 3 ft higher than when we reported the level in the Valley Voice in mid January. Several inches of precipitation fell in the Giant Forest area late last month continuing the wet pattern so far this winter.

Sequoia Riverlands Trust has purchased a 3 story house across from their rented building and moved into the new place last weekend with a gaggle of volunteers carrying boxes. The new office is at 427 S. Garden in Visalia. The phone number remains 738-0211.

Quaker Oaks Farm plans to build a 23 acre conference center east of Visalia generating some opposition from neighbors. Bruce Geiger is organizing a petition campaign to take to the county planning department opposing the project at Rd. 296 and Highway 198 adjacent Kaweah Oaks Preserve. Geiger says the project is too big and puts it on the scale of the Radisson Hotel. But the project plans only a yearly meeting of statewide Quakers group over a few week period as its main event unlike daily use like a major hotel. Geiger fears the project would hurt farming in the area, something founder Bill Lovett - a Christmas tree farmer himself - denies. In Quaker fashion - maybe they ought to be a "community meeting" of the two sides.

The Visalia city council will take design ideas for the new Civic Center on Oak at Burke Street on land recently purchased from the Union Pacific Railroad. Council will discuss alternative layouts and design concepts including whether the complex would be multi story and how high. The complex's orientation to the planned creek and parks improvements in the area will be folded in.

Landmark north Mooney store Visalia Sight and Sound will close in the next few days for good. The TV store across from COS is co-owned by Charles Sweet.

The small rural cluster of houses called Tuleville at the base of Rocky Hill has a real estate problem. It's their wells are contaminated with nitrates and other substances, says county community development manager Bill Hayter. Now the county is working with Exeter to hook up the former village to Exeter's water system and will apply for grant monies through a number of sources including USDA to get the hook up done. "Our goal is to get the community potable water." The hook up could take a year to actually happen.

Visalia - Led by Dr. Bruce Le of Orthopaedics Associates, a group of physicians made a presentation in recent days to the board of Kaweah Delta Health Care District seeking support for plans by Orthopaedic Associates to build a medical center at Plaza and 198.

While supportive of the goals of the group hospital administrator Lindsay Mann says the board at Kaweah decided to support the city position urging the medical group to expand somewhere in the downtown area.

City council members appear strongly in favor of city manager Steve Salomon's stance on the issue says city council member Greg Kirkpatrick. "I think the doctors know our position," he says.

Dr. Le says they made a presentation to the Kaweah Delta board to "lay out our vision" of what could be a major regional orthopaedic clinic on the scale of the Mayo Clinic. He says they want a campus setup with multiple buildings, room to grow and an outside exercise track. Because the site is large on Plaza - just west of Jostens - the group could lease out portions of the site to another company to help defray the cost, he suggests.

Orthopaedic Associates through Dr. Jim Billys continues to work with city for space on the block west of City Hall to put up a 60,000 sq ft building. Hospital administrator Mann notes the hospital itself is completing a new 60,000 sq ft building on a much smaller footprint than the land area - half a block - that Orthopaedic is negotiating for.

The medical group has 13 acres in escrow at Plaza and 198. But because the city general plan calls for keeping major medical in the Downtown area, council is reluctant to change the zoning on Plaza property to allow the medical complex.

Salomon says discussions with the group are nearing a plan that would be a preliminary agreement that Salomon would take to the Visalia city council that would guarantee the medical group the land at a certain price while giving the group time to investigate all aspects of the project before a final commitment.

Kirkpatrick says the city "may need to look at a parking garage in the area" long term to accommodate several potential medical offices near the current City Hall. Another plan shows diagonal parking on Stevenson.

Dr. Le says the new center would attract 100,000 patients a year and needs an easy-to-find location for patients that come from all over the valley.

Dr. Le says "there is plenty of stress trying to figure out the best place" to build and that some of the 8 partners in the group are wavering and may quit the partnership.

He says there isn't a need to be close to the hospital like some physician groups need and would consider an east Visalia location if the site next to the current City Hall is too small.

"When we presented our case to the city council some months ago, Mayor Link was very gracious in saying that once we tried to figure out if we could build this project Downtown and it didn't pencil out, he would consider our Plaza idea."

In a matter of months, the Visalia Chamber will be vacating their building for their new digs on the southeast corner of Oak and Santa Fe. It isn't clear if that space could be utilized for any parking.

It appears some members of Orthopaedic group are more interested than others in locating somewhere Downtown.

There is other news on new medical properties downtown. This week the Nunn family received multiple bids to build a medical office at the corner of Noble and Court - at the site of the old Shell station and Monster Burger. The bidding is said to have nearly doubled the appraised value of the site across the street from the hospital. Spokesperson for the Nunn family, Margaret Sherify, says she can't comment at this time. "Sometime soon we may have a story for you," she said.

Kaweah Delta bid on the site but couldn't match all the competitor offers. Lindsay Mann says the Nunn family will allow the site to be used for parking until it is developed.

Buckman Mitchell, too, is working on a plan for a multi story medical office next to the proposed parking garage on Acequia. This past week the city got the word from federal officials that monies for the parking garage were approved although they couldn't commit to that in writing yet.

The coming expansion of the hospital is pushing plans for more medical office space nearby.

Visalia - With just four weeks under his belt, newly seated member of the Board of Supervisors, Phil Cox of Visalia isn't waiting long to carry out one of his campaign promises - seek a site in Downtown Visalia to relocate county workers into a new office.

"I've spent quite a bit of time surveying all the properties the county owns and those we lease," says Cox, as well as visiting the sites to see how we are using them."

The former city councilman has vowed to take up the issue once he was seated on the County Board after discussions last year with the county went nowhere over the issue. The county announced that some 140 workers located at the old welfare office on Court might be relocated to the Cigna building out on Akers. Later that plan seemed to die, however.

Meanwhile, the county said they've received a number of offers to buy the former courthouse block on Court Street if the county decides to sell it. Cox says that is likely.

Cox says the county receives funds each year it uses to lease facilities that could help make the stroke on a lease of a new building they could end up owning. "San Diego County does that," he notes. The ideal situation would be to have an agreement to lease to own a building built by a contractor, says Cox. "It just makes sense," says the new supervisor.

"We expect to have a work session in the next few weeks to go over the options" on space needs, says Cox.

Once the county is ready, the City of Visalia is expected to offer a site or allow a private land owner to do the same, suggests city officials, wanting to enlarge the workforce in the city center rather than see it relocate to another part of town. The city completed purchase of land from the Union Pacific Railroad that could be available for the project perhaps somewhere near the new Civic Center.

Cox says he will meet with a Downtown task force headed by Don Sharp on the project in coming weeks.

By Miles Shuper

Woodlake - As expected, it will be up to the Tulare County Board of Supervisors to decide the fate of a sand and gravel mining project near Woodlake.

On Tuesday, March 22, the board will hold a public hearing on an appeal of the Tulare County Planning Commission's approval of Kaweah River Rock's proposed mining operation on a 280-acre parcel a mile south of Woodlake, north of the lower Kaweah River and south of the St. Johns River and Avenue 322.

Valley Citizens for Water, a group led by longtime opponent of the proposed mining project, Del Strange and Sue Crawford, filed a last-minute appeal to the planning commission approval at a Jan. 22 hearing. That appeal was filed with the county just three minutes prior to the deadline.

In the appeal, the citizens group contents the planning commission failed to adequately address and consider all the issues which are a part of the permitting process.

Kaweah Rock, a major supplier of sand and gravel in the southern San Joaquin Valley contents that expansion of the longtime operation is essential to meet the demands for building materials. Having to bring gravel, sand and aggregate into the area from other locations or operation hard rock mining techniques would be costly.

The proposal under consideration is a greatly reduced one from KRR's earlier proposal for an 815-acre site. That project, which would have a mining depth of 85 feet and a lake for water reclamation, was stopped after a protracted battle with opponents including Valley Citizens for Water. That battle resulted in a number of hearings and court fights. Rather than give up, KRR drafted a scaled down project, one which it insists the county and surrounding areas must have.

The current proposal calls for a mining depth of 45 to 50 feet with a dry pit. The project area, part of the Hannah Ranch Trust, has been farmed with various row crops oruls4d for grazing since the late 1800s, according to county documents.

Kaweah River Rock general manager Dave Harrald who has fostered the revised plan, calls the company's scaled back plan ‘a good one." It meets all the requirements county and state rules and will be help meet the needs for sand and gravel. "I'm confident of our project and hopeful the board will approve it," he said.

He said the issues set forth in the appeal deals mainly with process and procedures and not with the actual project itself.

The appeal cites 14 issues the Planning Commission failed to consider, several centering around the effect the project will have on surrounding water wells.

The appeal states the water recharge system being proposed is similar to the one currently being used It also states "every well down gradient to their mine (some 25 or so) have failed and were replaced with new deeper wells."

Kit also claims there is no evidence that the proposed groundwater recharge system will effectively mitigate any adverse impacts.

The proposal calls for the Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District will take over the site and manage a water recharge facility that will store rain water and water overflows putting that surface water into the underground. The appeal stated there is no assurance the water district will operate and manage the recharge facility in perpetuity.

The appeal claims KRR failed to consider alternative sites and operations, including hard rock mining sites in the foothills, where no affects on groundwater would result.

"While others have begun mining in the foothills, KRRC has refused to do so, but instead, insists on destroying our groundwater resources by proposing to mine in the most sensitive portion of the groundwater aquifer immediately between the Kaweah and St. Johns rivers.

Harrald takes exception to that contention, saying that if hard rock mining was so effective and cost efficient lots of other companies would be doing it. Crushing rock into gravel and aggregate takes a lot more equipment and labor, he explained. "We are not willing to take that risk, " he said.

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