Visalia Auto Mall Appeal To Be Heard
Visalia - The long awaited appeal by opponents to the Visalia Auto Plaza project on West 198 will get a hearing September 14 at the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno.
The controversial project will by some quirk of fate re-enter the political limelight just in time for another city council election this fall when three seats are up.
Members of Save Our Scenic Corridor, led by Greg Collins, appealed a 2004 ruling by a Tulare County Superior Court that agreed that the City of Visalia carried out proper re-zoning of the property in August of 2003, despite the fact the city never modified the West Visalia Specific Plan (WVSP).
The local court agreed with city attorneys that for several reasons the city had acted properly in its re-zoning of 71 acres at Plaza and 198 for an auto mall despite the fact the WVSP identified the land to be maintained in agriculture.
The city argued successfully that they amended the general plan and that the WVSP was simply a sub plan and need not be amended. Further, they argued that the city need not comply with laws that say such documents need to be consistent both vertically and horizontally because the law does not apply to charter cities like the City of Visalia.
Representing Save Our Corridor attorney Richard Harriman notes in his appeal that the city itself said they would “be required” to amend the WVSP in their document but failed to do so. Prompted by questions from the court submitted to both sides last month, the attorneys filed their briefs as to why the appellate court should rule in their favor.
Working for the city, attorney Ellen Garber argued that the WVSP shows land uses as they were adopted by the city council back in 1989 as opposed to what the council decided regarding the same property in 2000 when the city general plan amendment changed the 71 acres to commercial use specifically for an auto mall.
The fact the city never changed the maps on the WVSP was not important - changing the policy was the important act, she argued. “The specific plan is a lower order planning enactment,” she states, secondary to the more important general plan which was properly changed the city argues to the court.
Harriman argues on the other hand that the WVSP was meant to be a long term plan to the year 2020 that should stand as permanent until amended.
The argument is a technicality most observers agree and one the city could go back and fix if the court demanded. However, technicalities work both ways as reminded by the Save Our Scenic Corridor Group who was denied by the city a chance to hold a referendum on the issues based on a technicality as well.
A negative ruling against the city now could halt construction already underway at the Auto Plaza including a new showroom for Surroz Dodge where the foundation of new showroom are currently going in the ground just west of Plaza. Developer Andy Mangano has said he considered an overturn of the Superior Court ruling unlikely however.
It isn’t clear why the city decided not to amend the WVSP despite the fact the preparer of the EIR of the city declared in the Notice of Preparation of the study that “the following discretionary actions from the City of Visalia are required for the project - amendment of the West Visalia Specific Plan changing agriculture designation on the site to a commercial designation to be determined.”
But the city attorney cites the ruling by the trial judge in the case - Judge Paul Vortman that “the city has pointed out in the Administrative record where it considered the policies and found them to be consistent.” The local judge also agreed with the city that its charter status exempts them from the consistency test in any case.
It’s not clear if the appeal court will rule at the time of the trial in September or take the matter under review meaning we have to wait some more to sort this issue out.
If former mayor “Greg Collins loses the battle on the auto mall it seems like he won the war,” says supporter Alan George, in that Visalia Auto District on Ben Maddox is full of care dealers and expansion plans while only one dealer has committed to the Auto Plaza site on the west end of town.
But developer Andy Mangano says there continues to be interest in the Auto Plaza for dealerships including one who would bring new car lines to Visalia, but must await the removal of any cloud of doubt over the future of the project first.
Furthermore, Razarri Ford has yet to make a move despite the fact that Mr. Mangano now owns the dealer’s building in downtown Visalia as of a few months ago and set in motion a one year lease for the Ford dealer to decide where he will go. Mangano hopes to re-use the brick building on Garden to a mix of office and commercial use.
The fate of the rest of the “scenic corridor” remains in doubt although two major housing projects on both sides of 198 are making their way for new general land amendments pending in front of the city council. Meanwhile a pending plan by the city to buy acreage along the corridor for open space remains on the drawing board but not yet exercised. An opinion survey done recently should support for open space and ag along the corridor but was less supportive when it came to using city funding to make it happen.
Earlimart - You know the real estate housing boom is reaching maturity when you read that developers plan a wholesale transformation of Earlimart - arguably one of the poorest towns in the state. The single reason—its location astride Highway 99.
“We’re looking at some serious money coming in,” says local farmer and real estate broker Greg Davis.
Davis who says he owns about 300 acres and investors who are partnering with him are pushing a plan to build as many as 4000 to 5000 new homes, a new high school, bring in industry and commercial development to the south Tulare County town where over half the population is below the poverty level.
The town named by boosters to describe the prime location for growing oranges is today a farm worker community of 6000 with about a 90% Hispanic majority.
Davis is meeting with senior county planner Theresa Szymanis August 1 to begin an entitlement process to build what is essentially a “new town” mostly on the north east part of the community. Szymanis reported to the County Planning Commission last week about this and other large residential projects in the early stages of being launched around the county as the county moves to update its general plan.
Davis says he and fellow investors control over 1300 acres around Earlimart that could be built out with homes, businesses, commercial centers and industrial projects valued at more than $1 billion. The community of 1600 homes has no major commercial outlets or industry.
“We don’t need people to move here from L.A. to make this happen,” says Davis. “counting on internal growth expected in the San Joaquin Valley over the next few decades.” Population projections for the valley include nearly 6 million residents in the central valley by 2030 - almost double its year 2000 population. Tulare County is expected to have 630,000 people by 2030 up from 368,000 in 2000.
Davis says major California developers are interested in building parts of the new town. In the past year all major national homebuilders have launched projects in central California, including Tulare County.
Just north of the county line Wellington Corp based in the Bay Area has proposed a 2750 home community on 586 acres near Selma. The same company is looking at a similar project on the outskirts of Reedley.
Earlimart, unlike ag areas around Visalia and Tulare, has no history of urban sprawl and may face less opposition in the approval process in part because the upgrade of the town could clean up that part of the county that sometimes seems like its stuck in the Dust Bowl era.
Davis says discussions with county officials have suggested hope that transformation of Earlimart could help the community of Teviston upgrade just down the highway. Both Connie Conway who represents the area and Supervisor Allen Ishida give an early thumbs up to the idea conceptually. “I wish we could get it done yesterday,” exclaims Ishida.
“It could mean all the kids that now get bused to Delano High School could afford to have their own Earlimart High School,” says Conway as another reason she is excited about the ambitious plan that could clearly increase the tax base down there.
Davis says there has already been some preliminary discussion with the local school board.
Davis says although construction of project may be years off - after a full EIR is performed some 36 acres to the north end of town already enjoys entitlements for new homes next to the new Self Help homes you can see there today.
Davis says the new community would utilize modern planning principals and dense multi story units as well as single family homes, a new Downtown area, office and commercial stores. The town doesn’t have a major supermarket today.
Conway notes that when you look at Earlimart today you are looking at the town with the highest unemployment in the area. But it does have an advantage in its Highway 99 location. “The major artery can bring both housing and commercial and industrial development as we are seeing further to the north in Tulare County,” she says.
Supervisors are expected to approve a “hybrid” approach to the long range growth plan to be adapted next year that will allow for more housing and commercial development on 99. Already prospective subdivision activity is in various stages of development in the formerly ignored towns of Tipton, Pixley and Traver.
Davis says he has met with the Tulare County Economic Development officials to start steering industrial prospects to the southern portion of town that the investors control along the railroad mainline where spurs can be run to serve future. “We’re already on their radar screen,” says Davis. “The key concern in Earlimart is jobs” and that’s something the development aims to provide, he says.
Highway 99 is the big draw, suggests Davis with a major upgrade of the highway to interstate status in coming years. That development is likely to mean a need for several new highway interchanges, he expects, Davis says.
Also sewer concerns Davis cites plans to work with the county to provide adequate sewer capacity to the south county. He says a line would need to cross 99 to serve the development that he expects will be on both sides of the 99.
Cities and counties in California are seeing more large scale master planned communities on the drawing boards. The cost of such a project could go up in the near future as the Valley Air Pollution Control District to charge a fee for every new single family home and commercial project that comes in to help pay to clean up the valley air.
This week the city of Visalia weighed on their choice on the options for growth in the new Tulare County General Plan. They like a “city centered” approach in how as much as 90% of the growth goes to cities and not the rural area or along Highway 99. Szymanis, who was at the City of Visalia hearing, suggested the county was concerned about the fate of small unincorporated communities. and how to “Improve their quality of life” and the county was considering a hybrid plan that may focus some growth on major transit corridors like Highway 99 and 65.
Szymanis pointed out that many of the communities don’t have a tax base, no services, grocery or bank and the county has been looking for a long time for ways to help. City council member Don Landers notes that while there is growth in places like Cutler-Orosi, there still isn’t the tax base to afford a chance to incorporate. But Szymanis says in cases like Earlimart, a developer is willing to work to bring in not just houses but community service and industry to help boost the tax base.
Critics of the county’s vision for a more developed Highway 99 worry that the freeway in the future will lose all its farming character and sprawl on like many highways around the country. But county officials suggest they would try to cluster development. Szymanis says the county has filed a grant application for starting a joint sewer for Earlimart, Pixley and Tipton that could help boost the needed infrastructure for development. For the first time general plan will attempt to address water availability as well.
The county has a series of workshops in coming weeks to select their choice for growth in the county at a planning commission workshop July 27 and Board of Supervisors workshop August 16.
Lindsay Foods Up and Running - 180 Jobs
Lindsay - Lindsay Foods is operational processing and shipping up to 800,000 lbs of spinach and greens to buyers weekly, says Mort Console chairman of the board. Console says 180 employees on one shift are working at the former Lindsay Olive plant.
“We have orders enough to add a second shift by September,” says Console, which would bring the total employment to 360.
President of the company, Paul Black, a CPA by training, says credit the assistance of former city manager Bill Drennen as well as the effort of the current city manager Scot Townsend with helping the company reopen the big facility as of May of this year. The city helped obtain water discharge plan needed by the company because of the high volume of water used to clean the vegetables, cook and then pack and freeze the product.
The company sells frozen vegetables nationwide and now will be selling product to Japan as well.
The big plant includes 400,000 sf of work space including freezer capacity for 120 million lbs. annually.
Console says that by fall of this year the company will branch out into other products including broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini and asparagus that will need another line and more workers.
Right now the company is sourcing spinach by truck from the fields of the central coast because it is too hot to grow spinach here. The product is washed and cooked at 230 degrees F in a large moving assembly line and then sorted and cut, packaged and frozen in quick order a few hours after it is picked.
The company has plenty of plant space to grow.
Also joining the team at the frozen food maker is Max Meldrum, VP of operations and formerly of Grimmway Farms.
Lindsay Foods sells most of the product to eastern customers including a large retail grocer and food service companies that serve the restaurant industry.
In the fall the company will source their vegetables from the San Joaquin Valley and in the winter produce will be shipped in from the desert. “We’ll operate 12 months out of the year,” says Black.
Black says San Joaquin Railroad and Union Pacific “have been very helpful” in getting product shipped in a timely manner shipping in cold storage rail cars.
Console says demand nationwide for spinach is good and consumption per capita is raising.
Former city manager Bill Drennen says he is “very pleased for the City of Lindsay and congratulates Mort on his perseverance helping to bring back jobs to Lindsay”.
Drennen was city manager in 1991 when Lindsay Olive closed. Console has been working to reopen the 36 acre plant on a full time basis since about 1997 when it operated for a short time. A series of legal hassles with USDA seem to be behind them now and today with all private financing, Lindsay Foods is on the grow.
City manager Scot Townsend says “its great to have this industry in the heart of town back open.”
Suit Seeks to Ground Gravel Mining Project
By Miles Shuper
Woodlake - A month ago the six year fight for expansion of a rock and gravel mining operation near Woodlake appeared to have been settled.
On May 24, Tulare County Supervisors voted unanimously to deny an appeal to the planning commission to stop Kaweah River Rock from proceeding on its mining operation on a 260-acre site. The proposal had been scaled down considerably from a previous 815-acre proposal which the county had rejected in 1999.
Now Valley Citizens For Water, which has fought the mining project from then start, filed a suit in Tulare County Superior Court claiming the supervisors erred in approving the plan.
Also named in the suit is the Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District which has a lease purchase option on the property when l mi mining operations are complete. The water district plans to operate the site as a water management facility. The district has a four-year lease with an option to purchase the project site from the current land owner, the Hanna Ranch Trust.
Then suit asks the court to issue a write of mandate to command supervisors to withdraw its Environmental Impact Report and to require the county to complete the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review process by preparing “an adequate” EIR. The suit also asks for a preliminary and permanent injunction to halt all operations under the special use permit approved by the county. The court is asked to declare the ERI and special use permit null and void.
No court date has been set.
The plaintiffs want the county to be complete an EIR and to “re-evaluate air quality, flood plains, traffic and cumulative impacts on the gravel mine, compete appropriate mitigation measures.”
It accuses the Board of Supervisors of “shirking its mandatory duties” under CEQA, and also of “forcing neighboring residents to accept a gravel mine in their community in the absence of concrete facts supporting that decision.”
KRRC and its backers have steadfastly maintained that the county is running out of materials and more mining is critical to maintenance and construction projects.
Without more materials. Construction costs will skyrocket due to brining materials in from far distances, proponents say.
The plan to expand KRRC actually began 20 years ago when the company first attempted to secure 800 or the 815-acre Hanna Ranch three miles south of Woodlake. After 13 years of studies, hearings and legal battles the Board of Supervisors voted in 1999 to reject the project but there were indications that a smaller project could work.
John Alltucker, the company’s owner, and David Harrald and staff spent several years revising the project before coming back seeking special use permits. This time the project was approved when the board denied the appeal from the planning commission approval.
Big Clothing Company Will Start Visalia Operations
Next Month
Visalia - North Carolina based VF Corp - the nation’s largest apparel company will open a giant distribution center in Visalia next year hiring 350 workers, the company announce earlier this month.
But while the company’s Florida contractor is building the city’s largest building at 817,000 sf over the next year, VF will be operational in Visalia within weeks at a 118,000 sf warehouse being leased by the company from the Allen Group next door at Ferguson and Plaza.
“VF will be distributing product out the building next month,” says Allen Group division head Larry Montgomery.
In fact, the VF has worked out a long term lease on the entire project rather than buying the land from the Allen Group as it had originally been proposed. The Allen Group values the project at $43 million - a big feather in the cap for the Allen Group and its Mid State 99 industrial park. It will likely raise Visalia’s profile among industrial selectors as a top choice for west coast distribution of consumer goods with easy access to both north and south California ports.
City economic development specialist Traci Myers says VF will likely have about 40 employees working in the industrial park next month and the first help wanted ad - for an HR director - is being published later this week.
Already this week a tractor is out on the construction site clearing the 64 acres needed for the sprawling complex that will be the size of 14 football fields and 20 acres under roof. The footings on the building will go down 13 feet.
While city officials felt confident a month ago that VF Corp would select Visalia, nothing was final until they completed the lease Friday, July 8. Visalia had to compete with Reno for the west coast distribution location and Visalia - closer to ports and never snow bound - won out over the Nevada location that had some tax advantages. Helping to convince the company Visalia was the right place were testimonials from JoAnn Fabrics that Visalia could speed all approvals and construction permits to meet their time line to be operational in June of next year. The same construction company, Haskell Co. who built the Visalia JoAnn’s warehouse, is building the VF Corp project here.
Ground breaking for the big project is expected July 27 or 28 with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger invited to preside with at least a chance he might show.
VF Corp - also known as Vanity Fair - owns a score of familiar clothing labels including Lee jeans, Wrangler, JanSport, Northface and Reef. The later two brands - part of the outdoor apparel division of VF - will be distributed out of the Visalia facility.
One reason an announcement on the project in Visalia appeared to take some time is that the company needed to give notice of workers at other distribution centers that the Visalia facility would mean the closure of their distribution centers in San Diego and in Kansas.
The move to the west coast comes as all apparel companies get most or all of the product sold in the US made in the Far East. Ironically, while VF Corp’s decision will mean new jobs in Visalia, the company has outsourced US jobs since 2001 and just announced the closure of a big jeans plant in North Carolina with the loss of 445 jobs. The company has closed 33 “higher cost” US plants since 2001 transferring most manufacturing of product offshore. A similar thing happened to Visalia’s clothing makers in the past decade with closure of Bayly and Sierra Pacific Apparel here.
The City of Visalia offered the company a $250,000 incentive to locate here that will be used primarily to offset fees the company would have to pay.
Visalia has had a recent run of new companies coming to town with some 600 jobs in the works between three - VF Corp, California Dairies and CTX Building Products. All these companies are moving forward with CTX likely to begin hiring some of their160 person workforce soon, later this year.
More Prospects
Having filled the two tilt up buildings on Ferguson and Plaza, the Allen Group is on track to complete their Hayes 3 - a 220,000 sf building by October, says Montgomery with Coast Distribution taking all the space. Coast will leave their 104,000 sf Sunnyside building they lease from Allen Group and that space will be for lease.
Also, Diversified Development - another active developer of “spec buildings” here on Plaza west of Goshen Ave. is nearing completion of a lease to Heilind Electronics on its second tilt up building now under construction and has pulled a permit for a third larger building next door.
In other news, Chapman College continues to explore sites for a new campus including a site on Plaza Dr.
Tulare Target Deal: Not So Fast
Target - The City of Tulare may have jumped the gun in late May when they announced that Browman Development had landed a new 126,000 sq ft Target store just north of the outlet mall. Neither Browman nor Target has ever confirmed the deal on land he is buying from William Martin. The developer submitted an informal site plan map to the city that could be done simply to find out costs and any approval problems to show to the big retailer’s site selectors as the consider locations in town. There is a conditional use application that will be heard in August on the potential project.
Now comes word that Target may be looking at other sites including the big Cartmill Crossing at the Cartmill interchange. “I can confirm we are talking to Target,” says co-developer of the project, Ben Ennis.
Sources say Target would prefer a full interchange location rather than a mid block site away from the easy access an interchange offers as well as a co-location with other big box users as they do in most towns - something Ennis is prepared to deliver.
In addition, Ennis has recently told the city he wants to change the mix of the Cartmill Crossing North shopping center from about 50 acres of commercial with 85 acres of residential to 135 acres of commercial use - a giant shopping center. Visalia Mall by comparison is about 40 acres. The site still requires annexation into the city.
Commercial brokers say that there is a chance Target may not even come to Tulare but expects a Tulare location near their rival, Walmart to be located across the freeway - is still likely.
Tulare had some starts and stops with the big retailer Home Depot over the announcement that they were coming to Tulare as well although they finally sealed a deal on land owned by the Lagomarsinos and the walls of the big home improvement center are now going up.
What's New
Mayor Richard Ortega of Tulare says sometimes he knows he has done the right thing after recently approving funds to expand paramedics to Tulare when a little boy fell into a pool in town and the paramedics revived him. The boy is now recovering in the hospital. "How much is one life worth," Ortega notes.
Both sides are talking in a possible settlement of the Restoration Church vs City of Visalia case involving the Enchanted Playhouse theater building downtown. Hopes are for a deal that could be announced soon.
Rapid growth and scorching temps are straining power substations in several parts of Visalia including the east side and northwest, says SCE representative Glen Cardaronella "particularly in the afternoon when everybody comes home and turns on their air conditioners," says Cardaronella suggesting the need for conservation right now as well as speeding up plans to upgrade circuits by SCE and add a new substation here. He says continued hot temps statewide coupled with any problems at generating plants could force some rolling blackouts statewide. Locally he says PUC emphasis on replacing infrastructure has forced SCE to replace polls and other infrastructure quickly forcing service to be cut in some neighborhoods even though it's 105 out there.
Look for the City of Visalia to staff the CDF Fire Station on Lovers Lane after an upgrade on the building after a feasibility study is completed within a few months. A deal has been worked out that will allow joint use of the facility to serve both the rural area around Visalia and the SE part of Visalia. County volunteers would still work out of there as well. "It just makes sense," says county supervisor Allen Ishida, with the loss of a full time firefighter at Tulare County CDF stations. Visalia Fire Chief George Sandoval says they want to look at the costs to upgrade the facility including living quarters. In addition, the dispatch system would need to be installed in the station. Sandoval says long term the city may need a fire station closer to Caldwell to handle the expected growth in coming years in the SE part of town. He says he has already staffed a new unit that will serve the SE part of the city.
County long range space needs may be impacted by what the state of California decides to do about the Tulare County Superior Court. The state, if it has the funds, may even want to build their own courthouse in the future, speculates supervisor Allen Ishida. Currently the state rents the courtroom space in the big county civic center. If they were to vacate the building in favor of their own complex, that could change county space problems.
County officials take a ribbing at state and nationwide meeting with Tulare County's reputation as the marijuana growing capital of the US. Last year 200,000 plants were destroyed in the Sierra portion of Tulare County and this year 60,000 plants have been discovered and destroyed. Experts expect this year's take to exceed last year. Some believe it calls for a federal action considering much of it is harvested on federal property.
City of Visalia has made a deal with the Blain family to buy about 11 acres on the north side of the highway for part of a new interchange on east 198 beyond Lovers Lane. The new interchange would be near the power poles and probably won't happen for 10 to 15 years depending on funding availability and how fast Visalia grows. The city still has to buy land for the south side of the freeway interchange. The offramp would be near the new city park that they bought from Blain a few years ago.
The City of Tulare will take public input at a series of community meetings on the proposed sales tax increase for "vital services" as they are calling it. The funding is needed, says mayor Richard Ortega, to help balance the budget after the city council decided to hire 12 more officers. City council will conduct a range of increases from 1/4 cent to 3/4 cent increase. They will likely land at ½ cent that would raise some $2 million a year in extra revenue. The city right now is $1.65 million. Meetings on the issue are scheduled for July 25, 26, 28 and August 1.
Kaweah Delta Hospital got a big shot in the arm a few weeks ago with the announcement that J.G. Boswell Foundation has made a $1 million gift to the hospital expansion plan for a new regional heart center.
The City of Visalia parking garage on Acequia, across from the hospital's northern expansion, was expected to break ground this last spring, but the approval process through five funding agencies has helped it be pushed back to October/November, says city administrator Carol Cairns.
The City of Visalia has adopted a groundwater mitigation fee to be placed on new development as well as a new fee based on volume for the existing water users. The purpose of the fees it the mitigation of loss of groundwater when new development occurs. City attorney Dan Dooley says the fee will pay for acquisition of surface water rights and supplies and help build recharge facilities to put more water back into underground aquifers. Visalia's private water contractor, California Water, supports the plan that passed council 5 to 0. It should be in effect this fall. The city will gain the water rights of land that come into the city upon annexation. Developers bring new lands into the city will pay $950 per acre. Cal Water will pay $14 per acre ft. of water pumped- a fee they will clearly pass on to the water users.
The number of rounds played at the city owned Valley Oaks Golf Course have fallen for two years in a row, the council heard this week. The decrease in use follow a pattern seen nationwide. Rounds played this year dropped from 79,250 to 68,264. Meanwhile income at the Plaza course was $2.1 million, only $100,000 less than the year before. Net from operations is about $300,000 allowing some monies to be repaid to the city on a long term loan. Council suggested the course come back with a business plan that includes more marketing effort to be carried out by the operator, Course Co.
Visalia city council approved a plan by the Mangano Company to extend sewer to the Sierra View Golf Course into a 140 home subdivision despite the fact the site is outside the city growth boundary. Vote was 4 to 1 with council member Gamboa opposing it. Supporters say the county will likely approve the project anyway and the city figures they might as well build to city standards. Altogether the project could mean a cluster of some 500 people at the site.
The city council postponed a hot potato issue of the Elliott Ranch on Shirk Ave. Until next Monday, July 25 at 7 p.m. at the convention center. The council will hear final certification of an 80 acre project - new homes on land currently zoned for agriculture on the west end of town. Council might consider an ag land mitigation fee for the first time.
Visalia - Walmart may one day build a Supercenter in Visalia but its grocery department will not be any bigger than supersized WinCo. Foods who filed construction plans with the city in recent weeks at the northwest corner of Demaree and Caldwell.
The nearly 100,000 sf grocery store would be about double the newer Save Mart outlets around town.
WinCo is an employee owned grocer with around 50 stores based in the Pacific Northwest with groceries supplied to California at its big Modesto distribution center. The company has a store in Clovis. The stores are open 24 hours a day.
Chief building official with the city, Dennis Lehman, says WinCo. will likely begin construction this fall as their first retailer in a new 35 acre shopping center. The store will face Caldwell in the rear end of the center that is about double the size of Mary's Vineyard.
The company says since it is employee owned it has about 20% lower turnover than a typical supermarket chain. Founded in 1967 the company recorded more than $2.1 billion in sales.
Visalia - Stalled in both Visalia and Hanford from moving forward on building a supercenter in each city in the past year, the nation's number one retailer has been taking steps to break out and make something happen.
In Visalia where the company can't seem to find an alternate site, the big retailer is nearing contract with developer Johnny George according to his realtor, Marty Zeeb saying contract papers are going back and forth this week.
Walmart would acquire several acres east of their current Noble store allowing them to add the additional 100,000 sf or so needed to sell groceries alongside general merchandise at the store and have room to accommodate parking. The company is also talking to the adjacent church, its pastor has told the Voice. The city says the land is already properly zoned to allow annexation there.
In Hanford where a new superstore has been stalled by a legal challenge, the company decided in late June to pay $1.6 million for the building permit from the City of Hanford despite the fact one group of upset opponents, Hanford Now, appealed a local court ruling June 24. Walmart decided to pull the permits only days before the fees were to raise 7%, says city planner John Stowe.
Observers feel it significant that Walmart would pay for the building permit noting that they wouldn't do that unless they were planning to break ground soon. As it turns out the company is getting bids from contractors this month that could launch the big project.
Some believe Walmart will ask the appeal court for a preliminary ruling that would reduce their risk that could be heard by the court within a two week period. The appeal court is unlikely to take up the opponents appeal for many months putting the project in limbo unless Walmart decides to take this preemptive step, some believe.
A Walmart supercenter in Bakersfield has been mothballed by a ruling of an appeal court that found an environmental impact report was not properly done in that case forcing the company to halt construction. The shopping center on the south end of Bakersfield on 99 is easy to see from the freeway.
Walmart apparently feels that the City of Hanford's EIR is strong enough to not allow this to happen again however.
Nearby a new auto mall may get its first user with Toyota dealership finalized a deal to locate at 12th and 198.
Lindsay - The City of Lindsay is negotiating with the owner of a 70,000 sf vacant packing plant in town to use if for a sports and entertainment center for kids and families. The old packing house is sturdy and sits right across the street from the city's big Sweet Brier project where lots of things have been happening.
City manager Scot Townsend says it's likely the facility could open in six months to a year, feature two indoor soccer fields with astro turf, a track, laser tag and X Box type games.
Townsend says some of the ideas would have been part of the city planned Wellness Center but were relocated to this site so the activity and noise didn't impact the wellness center's peace and quiet.
There are plans for a rubberized walking track, basketball court and play area. The effort is a concerted plan to fight obesity, suggests Townsend - part of the model the city has pushed for in siting a new wellness center in Lindsay, ideas like a skate park and indoor swimming pool.
The idea was broached recently at a meeting of the Lindsay District Hospital board who is considering plans for the wellness center. Townsend says some of the activities would be money makers like laser tag.
The idea is not unlike Visalia developer Johnny George's plan to make the old California Foods olive plant into the Pinnacles Sports Center.
The project is named McDermott Field House for the name of the packing house that has been vacant for 10 years.
Goshen - The Tulare County planning commission is expected to accept a groundwater study funded by the developers of a new ethanol plant in Goshen. The commission has had two hearings on the study that is a part of a special use permit that has already been granted to expand the feed mill at Western Milling and operate a new ethanol plant on the site. The planning commission can accept the study or reject it when they meet again August 24.
Neighbors of the project, including Doreen Caetano-Jungk, have suggested the study was not adequate to describe the potential lowering of the water table that could impact her water well and others and has been arguing that more recharge needs to be carried out in the Goshen area. She is also concerned about a plume of pollution that could be moving toward Goshen from the county landfill. Engineers hired by the proponent offered evidence that the project would not impact water levels significantly and offered evidence that the pollution from the landfill has been contained. The water study is important not just for this company but the Western Meat Packing project also opposed by the same neighbors. Both projects are scheduled to hook up to local water service for their water supply. The ethanol plant - with construction nearly finished - is expected to make ethanol in September and hook up to local water supply by October.
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
July 20, 2005
