Fresno Pacific University Gets City OK

Visalia - With the withdrawal of the appeal of a planning commission approval by city council member Greg Collins, plans submitted by Fresno Pacific University for a new college campus on Plaza Drive, north of 198, got the final OK.

Collins announced the withdrawal Monday night at the beginning of the regular council meeting, allowing the planning commission approval of the project a few weeks ago to stand.

Instead, Collins and the rest of the city council discussed the overall plans for the 320,000-square-foot Plaza Office Park to be located on 80 acres on both sides of Plaza Avenue, submitted by the developer, the Mangano Company. The college is to be the first tenant of the office park and can now go forward.

Collins had been objecting to the plan, arguing that the college would be better located in “the core area,” the Greater Downtown, and said he had a list of alternative sites that would be better for the average Visalian who attended the college. His argument included fewer miles traveled, better police protection and the benefits to the Downtown area.

But with the likelihood that his appeals would lose – probably 2-to-1 – Collins chose to focus on the larger project this week.

“We need to get our arms around just what kind of zoning that Business Research Park (BRP) is,” Collins said.

The business park where the 35,000-square-foot college building will be located is the first phase of what will be an office project 10 times as large.

Hearing of the withdrawal, retiring member Greg Kirkpatrick, who is a supporter of the college, still has questions over the scale of office development that should be allowed in this BRP zone. “I think that smaller offices should be in the core area of the community,” maintained Kirkpatrick who was toasted earlier in the evening by his fellow council members at the last meeting of his four-year stint on the council.

Council will have to wrestle with where the Plaza Office Park should be allowed to have hotels, restaurants, fast food and retail, as well. Mangano hopes to offer sites at the office park to tenants by mid-2008, if he can get the approvals he wants. Even larger is the fact that the BRP zone on the north side of 198 at Plaza has 160 total acres where the uses are not well-defined.

But with the November 19^th decision, there was cause for celebration for proponents of the college and the college itself.

Proponents of the plan to locate the college there say it only makes sense to allow the project to move forward since the applicant has selected the site after scouring town for other locations and the land is properly zoned for the educational institution.

Fresno Pacific officials say that when they opened their 9,700-square-foot center at Akers and Cypress, they had just 200 students enrolled. The center opened a year later and by 2006, enrollment had grown to 800, pointing to the need to have a larger facility. The new building’s first phase would be 35,000 square feet and could be enlarged to 50,000 square feet.

They also pointed out 63% of students are from areas other than Visalia and the proposed location would be easy to get to on a regional basis.

The proponents of the project had been arguing that the Plaza Office Park location is the best location for the college. They made the following points:

A four-year university is not permitted in the downtown area. It is not zoned properly. The only zoning in which this use is allowed is called Planned Business Research Park (BRP). The only BRP-zoned area, where the university should be permitted to locate, is in the office park planned for Plaza Drive.

Fresno Pacific University officials considered the downtown area and do not want to build there, even if there was adequate land available. The Plaza Drive location offers easy access for students from throughout the region, room to expand, adequate parking, adequate security and compatible neighborhoods – all factors lacking on available sites in the downtown area.

The Plaza Drive area has been designated Business Research Professional, and/or office, for just this kind of use, for more than 30 years. The use is consistent with the General Plan zoning.

The yet-to-be-adopted East Visalia Plan calls for the development of office space but not for another 10 to 15 years. Fresno Pacific University wants to expand in Visalia now. Putting this project off could cause them to choose another community, one which consistently follows its own planning policies.

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Visalia - What does every red-blooded Visalian want for Christmas this year? How about bringing back landmark Mearle’s Drive-In just in time for the holidays?

The sad specter of the vacant pink stucco eatery plopped there forlornly at the entrance to Mooney Blvd. for the past year causes many to mutter out loud as they drive by – how long can this piece of nostalgia can hang on before it blows away or burns down?

So what’s happening behind the scenes?

Two families own the Mearle’s property 50/50 but they have different visions for its future.

“My uncle Rocky (Bruce) and Ralph Kazarian were partners on several ventures over the years,” says Fresno attorney Dan Bruce. Since 1940, the two have owned the place, first called TADs and later Mearle’s Drive-In. The restaurant was renamed for Visalian Mearle Heitzmann who bought the business. Melissa Ward, a carhop in the 1970s at the restaurant, worked for Mearle and later bought the business in 1995.

After falling behind on the rent, Ward was evicted by the Kazarians in August 2006.

Both elder partners who owned the property are now deceased. “If they were alive today, I am sure the two could have worked it out a long time ago,” says Bruce. Mearle’s is not the only landmark restaurant the two owned in the valley. Some of you may remember Bruce’s Lodge in Fowler that had an airplane that looked like it crashed into the roof along Highway 99 before that place burned down.

In a legal face-off, the two families have been working through court briefs jockeying to get control of the property since September 2006 when the lessee of the restaurant was evicted.

Now for the first time, in a session set for December 20, the two sides will meet in a mediation session overseen by retired judge Howard Broadman in a last ditch effort before the matter goes to court in January.

“The Bruce family would like to keep the use of the place the same – as a drive-in restaurant everyone remembers,” says Bruce. But the Kazarians seek to buy them out and have made no commitment to keep the place as a restaurant. The Kazarians attorney Lance Armo declined to return multiple calls for this article.

“The Kazarians are aware there is an offer from a Visalia investment group who would like to buy Mearle’s,” says Los Angeles attorney Bruce Lindsay, attorney for two other Bruce family members, Patricia and Elizabeth. “We’re hopeful that something can work out” (to sell the restaurant to the local group). The group seeks to keep their names out of the press for now until things are settled.

Lindsay says the decision last year by the City of Visalia to place the Mearle’s building on the list of historic landmarks – a move the Bruces applauded but the Kazarians fought tooth and nail – means the likelihood the building would continue to be used as a restaurant is strong no matter who buys it.

The placing of the building on the local register offers restrictions on altering the look of the property. The city placed the building on the list in November 2006 in a controversial move that some called heavy-handed by the city since the owner didn’t want it.

But it is clearly more complicated that that. It turns out the two partners were split over the idea. The city council action was passed unanimously however, amid fear the place would be summarily torn down.

Ralph Kazarian, who passed away this summer, told the Voice last year that it was his intention to tear it down.

Mr. Lindsay, the attorney for the Bruces, says the Kazarians would like to buy out the Bruces’ 50% stake but can’t agree on value. So since it can’t logically be divided – the place is likely to be sold, most agree.

That is why it’s heading to court with a court date of January 22 tentatively set in front of judge Lloyd Hicks.

Both sides in the dispute claim the other is to blame for not selling the property in several complaints and cross-complaints. Attorney Dan Bruce says if nothing can be worked out beforehand to sell the property to the Visalia group that has made an offer, the decision of how to sell it to divide the proceeds would fall to Judge Hicks. The judge would likely hire a referee, says Bruce, to field offers to buy the landmark. Court papers encourage a speedy decision as two of the family members – one from each side – are elderly. If the case goes this way, it could be several months into the New Year before we know the fate of the drive-in.

If the property is sold to the local investment group, they are ready to go, says a source familiar with their plans having received lender approvals and completed formal architectural and building plans to bring Mearle’s back to life and restore her former neon glory.

Car clubs are already wondering when they can schedule statewide road trips to the former cruising capital of Visalia – famous in part because Richard Nixon himself once had a malted milk there.

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By Dave Adalian

Tulare County - A lawsuit filed by the county seeking $269,607 in unpaid booking fees is off the docket and officials for three cities are back at the table with the county as wrangling continues over how much Visalia, Woodlake and Tulare must pay for processing arrestees at the Tulare County Main Jail.

The county’s lawsuit, said deputy county counsel Teresa Saucedo, was dropped after a large portion of the demand for unpaid fees was honored by the defendants.

“We dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice against the three cities because they paid the entire amount under the contract for 2006 and 2007,” she said.

The agencies are still at odds, however, regarding other unpaid booking fees and whether an agreement on the fee amounts resulting from an earlier lawsuit filed against the county by the cities must be altered in the wake of new state regulation.

The return to bargaining is the latest step in a now eight-year-old intergovernmental kafuffle over how much Tulare County can charge local governments for booking their detainees into the county-operated Main Jail. In 2000, the cities filed suit when a new state law mandated that counties could only charge for their actual costs of booking prisoners into their penal system.

“Our financial people and police, we believed they [the county] overstated the cost,” said Alex Peltzer, an attorney acting in the matter on Visalia’s behalf.

The original lawsuit led to an agreement between the cities and the county that for the next 20 years cities would pay a fixed rate with a series of scheduled increases. The agreement also contained a clause allowing the parties to renegotiate if the state law should be again altered.

“We specifically saw the law might change,” Peltzer said.

And, it did.

Some time around 2005, state law regarding booking fees changed again, this time allowing counties to charge only half the cost of introducing a new prisoner to their system. When representatives for the cities claimed the new law voided their prior agreement, activating its “contract re-opener clause,” the county disagreed.

The county’s position on the matter, according to its legal complaint, is since an agreement on fees already exists, county officials can be compelled to renegotiate only when the state changes the basis for the county’s right to charge for booking prisoners into its facilities, and not when a change to the law lowers the maximum amount it can charge.

When the cities requested a reopening of negotiations in the wake of the law change, they met firm opposition on the county’s end, Peltzer said.

“The county just said no,” he said.

It was at this point in the last half of 2005 that Visalia, Woodlake and Tulare took matters into their own hands, refusing to pay more than half of the $97.76 per prisoner booking fee the county demanded.

“We unilaterally decided that’s what we’d pay because they wouldn’t talk to us,” Peltzer said. “We still think they need to renegotiate or make [the booking fees] contingent on state reimbursement.”

Saucedo, however, contends the county did not turn a deaf ear to the cities’ request for talks.

“That’s not exactly true,” she said. “The CAO was meeting with the city managers in regard to negotiations. It was not an outright denial.”

Peltzer said those overtures were on narrowly defined terms that would have undermined the cities’ bargaining position.

“They wanted to put parameters around it that the fee wouldn’t come down,” he said. “We didn’t want to be out there with a 20-year agreement when the state law changes and we’re locked in.”

Regardless of the varying version of events, the two sides are now back at the bargaining table, and the outcome of talks is still not clear. Because the county dropped its lawsuit without prejudice, it could reinstate it at any time. Peltzer, however, believes the cities hold the higher ground.

“They could re-file [the lawsuit] if they don’t like the way talks are going,” he said. “There’s no way they’re going to carry the argument.”

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by Steve Pastis

Visalia - Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets, a chain of trendy, upscale markets where consumers go to pick up a few quality food items quickly, will be coming to a location near you in the near future. Shoppers who have visited the new stores in Southern California, which are about 20% the size of large supermarkets, describe them as “a mix of Trader Joe’s and Ralph’s.”

Indications are that the company may already be in negotiations to become part of a new retail center on the south side of Caldwell, between West and Court in Visalia, which is being developed by the Pasadena-based Highland Development Company. Valley real estate brokers have already confirmed that the company is considering other locations, such as the old Monte Mart location in Hanford, as well as several sites in Clovis and Fresno.

Dennis Lehman, the City of Visalia’s chief building inspector, would not identify the company in negotiations to occupy the small “market” building in the Caldwell/Court development, but said that its parent company was located in the United Kingdom. He also said that it involved “a new concept that has been floating around the U.S.” – a “daily market,” where people shop more often but buy fewer items in each visit than they would in weekly visits to a supermarket.

People are starting to resist supermarkets that have grown from 25,000 to 50,000 square feet in recent years, Lehman explained. People want an alternative, a small store that they can visit in 10-to-15 minutes that may not have the variety of a supermarket, but where they can buy quality food items.

Fresh & Easy is headquartered in Chula Vista. Its U.K.-based parent company, Tesco, is the third largest retail company in the world. The company opened 12 stores in Southern California and Las Vegas earlier this month, and announced another 122 store locations, with 50 scheduled to open by the end of February 2008 in Southern California, Phoenix and Las Vegas. The company plans to open 200 stores by the end of next year.

Tesco chose a great time for its five-year plan to invest $2 billion in starting up its network of small grocery stores in the United States. The recent decline in the U.S. dollar enables the company to get the most for its money. Industry experts predict that Tesco will be followed by more foreign companies investing in U.S. business and real estate.

Michael J. Singelyn, senior director of development for the Highland Development Company, would not confirm if Fresh & Easy was the proposed “market” in its new Visalia development. He did say, however, that Highland is currently constructing a Fresh & Easy Market at one of its developments in La Quinta, CA, and that the market is “about 14,000 square feet.” Current plans for the market at Court and Caldwell in Visalia call for a 13,969-square-foot market to be constructed.

When Fresh & Easy Markets start appearing in the Central Valley, they will offer good jobs to their local communities. Following a trend set by Trader Joe’s, entry-level positions will start at a higher-than-minimum-wage level of $10 per hour in California and include a quarterly bonus of up to 10%.

All store employees will become eligible for medical, prescription drugs, dental and vision coverage (with a qualifying period of 90 days), with Fresh & Easy paying at least 75% of the cost. Employees will also be offered a 401(k) retirement plan, with company match.

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by Miles Shuper

Terra Bella - A firm which recycles plastic products has relocated in Terra Bella where it will expand its operations in addition to producing a variety of molded plastic items, eventually offering up to 100 jobs.

TSP Inc., which will operate under the name AGG (America Goes Green), currently employs about 10 people in its recycling operation and could have up to 100 jobs within two years, says Max Lee, general manager of the firm located in a 90,000-square-foot building formerly operated by Grand View Citrus Packing on Road 256.

The plastic firm moved to Tulare County from Downey in Southern California where its operation has been closed. Lee said other buildings may be constructed on the 20-acre site.

He said initially the company will focus on its collection and recycling of plastics as it also prepares install equipment for production of a variety of injection molded plastic products including buckets, garbage cans, tubs, multi-sized containers and other items currently made overseas, mainly in Korea and China, and imported to the U.S.

Lee said the company will be collecting used plastics material, including agricultural plastics.

AGG is the second of two large firms making Tulare County a base for plastics recycling with the Valley’s agricultural industry producing a vast supply of raw materials.

Last week, Taiwan-based Viscotec-U.S. Inc. announced it was leasing an 80,000- square-foot building on the 700 block of Continental Drive in Tulare’s industrial park.

The building is the former Reynolds and Reynolds printing site.

The Tulare operation is destined to be the firm’s flagship plant in North America, initially employing 30 workers with hopes of 50 jobs within two years.

Nearly two years ago, the company began working with Tulare County and economic development officials to find a site in the San Joaquin Valley for its first North American site. Viscotec currently has plants or a major presence in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The company leases about five acres in the county-owned Sequoia Field where it has been stockpiling waste agricultural materials, specifically drip tape, mulch film, silage covers and twine. The company and the county worked on a plant to construct a recycling plant at Sequoia Field, but Viscotec opted to switch to the Tulare area where the empty building was available.

Gary Schultz, senior strategist for Viscotec, said once the state-of-the-art recycling equipment being shipped from the Far East is set up, the stockpiled plastic will be moved to the Tulare location. A lease between Tulare County and the company expires in January but could be extended until the plant is ready to start up, according to William Hayter of the county Resource Management Agency. Schultz said Viscotec is working to get the stockpiled material moved to the Tulare site but could not give an estimated date when that task might be completed. He said once the recycling equipment arrives in Tulare, it should be up and running in a relatively short time.

Agricultural plastics in the Valley have long been a concern, especially when counties and cities have been struggling with ways to reduce landfills. County officials have been pleased to see the plastics recycling industry gearing up to not only reduce the amount of waste materials from the agriculturally rich Valley but see it as another step in the battle to reduce the load facing the landfills. County officials and economic development specialists say the number of jobs created will grow as more and more waste materials head to the recycling centers.

William Winchester, vice president of Berg Mills Supply Co., the firm contracted to supply Viscotec with agricultural waste materials, agrees that plastics recycling is growing and that the Valley is a rich source.

His company currently ships from the continental U.S. and Hawaii all grades of waste paper and plastics to all foreign consuming countries.

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The November 20^th groundbreaking at Patterson Dental in Dinuba will translate into a lot of new jobs for the community. “I think it’s right around 100,” said Dinuba City Manager Ed Todd. “They are tripling the size of their existing facility.” The company will increase their lines of veterinary and medical products. “Veterinary will be the big one,” said Todd, who said that the new jobs will be “sending the product out, stocking, driving, forklift, office work – the same kind of work they do right now.”

Representatives of the City of Visalia and Elephant Bar Restaurants have been meeting to work out the details to bring one of the distinctive, upscale safari-themed eateries to the northwest corner of Mooney and Beech, a proposal reported in the October 3 issue of the Valley Voice. Both sides learned last week that CalTrans has no plans to bite into any of the property for its Mooney Blvd. project. Currently, Elephant Bar has the civil drawings given to them by the Visalia Mall to approve and to then show the city how their proposed restaurant would fit into the overall Mall property. If all goes well, Visalians could patronize a local Elephant Bar by the end of summer.

With Lane Bryant moving out of the Visalia Mall and into the new Packwood Center, Victoria’s Secret plans to move in. The new Visalia Mall location for the celebrated lingerie emporium is an increase from 4,363 square feet to 8,000 square feet. The new store will be taking some space from VIP Luggage and the Pet Fair behind it. Construction should begin on February 1^st and the store is expected to open its doors in June.

City of Visalia and property owners on Main Street between Court and Church continue to negotiate the leasing of the Center Ave. parking lot behind their block-long buildings (Togni Branch block). The group wants to build a privately funded parking garage but the dispute remains over how to divide the revenues.

Kings County Board of Supervisors approved a plan to be detailed by the Kings County Association of Governments to sponsor the proposed “new town” – Quay Valley’s request to add three interchanges to Highway 5 entirely at the developers’ expense. The project south of Kettleman City is being hailed for its plan to be self-sufficient.

Downtown Visalia property owner William Martin has purchased the former Mt. Whitney Power building (now Quality Jewelers) at 213 West Main and plans an elevator to utilize the second floor of the historic brick building. “We’ve got 5,000 square feet upstairs we want to use for some sort of lodging,” says Martin who notes the plan depends on direct access to the new parking garage’s third floor across the alley. If so, it would be the first downtown building utilized for residential upstairs and for retail on the ground floor. There are three storefronts in the 1912 building along Main.

For whatever reason, the United Farm Workers has made no announcement but as of October 21, 2007, there is a contract between the UFW and Salinas-based D’Arrigo Brothers until October 2010, says the ALRB executive secretary Antoinio Barbosa. The contract covers 1,500 vegetable workers in a dispute that dates back to 1975 when the union first won an election there. In 2002, the passage of mandatory mediation was challenged as unconstitutional in a suit that included owner John D’Arrigo. But the law was found constitutional and mediation process resulted in an agreement – the second agreement based on the new law. One source told the Voice the UFW hasn’t announced the deal because the gains for workers are modest.

It seems that irrational exuberance in the retail development business may account for the fact that the former Wal-Mart store in Hanford remains empty. The vacancy has caused some consternation around town in recent weeks. Some say it’s mostly Wal-Mart bashing. But Wal-Mart sold their former store to a developer who had intended to fill it with retailers but found bigger fish to fry, more than doubling their investment selling it to another developer – Redwood Realty which has it now. Sources say now that the developer has overpaid for the building there is trouble attracting the tenants even though the site is located well. It’s a similar story across the street where a developer may have been too generous paying for a building site but now has a problem convincing Kohl’s to come in because of the high price per square foot. This is a tale seen in other valley towns where big city developers have paid top dollar during the retail boom times only to have the property sit there. Think Sequoia Mall in Visalia, for example.

Construction is moving forward on the new Visalia Toyota shop and the new showroom on south Ben Maddox. The single-story building is the shop where employees will park on the roof. The big showroom will follow. Owner Don Groppetti says the new location of the dealership should open in about a year relocating from Main and Ben Maddox. Then it will be musical chairs for one of Mr. Groppetti’s other car lines to take the existing Toyota showroom.

Gottschalks, like scores of other big retailers, has been reporting declining profits in recent weeks with same store sales declining 5% in the most recent report. The Fresno-based department store has plenty of company as almost every retail chain from Circuit City to Macy’s stock down to 52-week lows. Gottschalks stock, which was $15 per share at one point this spring, is now below $4. The good news for shoppers – early markdowns.

Unemployment in both Kings and Tulare Counties edged higher in October and more than a full point higher than a year ago. In Kings, the rate was 8.3% in October 2007, compared to 7.2% a year ago. In Tulare County, the rate was 8.6%, compared with 7.4% a year ago. Tulare County showed a loss year-to-year of 600 construction jobs. In Tulare County, 2,400 more people than a year ago were unemployed. Total farm jobs year to year are higher by 5.3% in Tulare County but private jobs are down 0.7%. Statewide, EDD reported California lost 15,800 jobs in October but the state unemployment rate held at 5.6%. Hardest hit is the state construction industry. Also, financial payrolls dropped.

A proposal from the current owner of the old Strand Theater in Dinuba to swap the building and property for an empty lot at North M and West Mariposa is no longer on the table, according to realtor associate Janis McCord of Guarantee Real Estate. “The city didn’t want to pay what the appraisal value was,” she said, adding that the property was determined to be worth $350,000. Although city council members expressed some interest in the property itself – considering the city’s interest in moving City Hall and the building’s attractive location on North L Street – the condition of the old building proved to be a deal breaker. “It’s been so torn up for so long,” explained Dinuba City Manager Ed Todd. “We don’t want it at this point.”

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San Joaquin Valley - A U.S. House of Representatives committee approved a bill implementing the San Joaquin River settlement last week, passing the committee on a 25-15 partisan line vote. The river restoration legislation was hailed by both the NRDC and Friant water districts and most elected representatives. Sounding a note of discord was Congressman Devin Nunes, along with the chair of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors, Allen Ishida.

Republicans on the committee voted against the bill because by congressional rule the $170 million federal expenditure had to be balanced by earmarking new fees on non-producing oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico. This so-called Pay-Go rule had held up moving the bill forward for several months now and proponents are glad it has cleared this hurdle. Jim Costa, congressman from Fresno, now carrying the bill promised these provisions would change when the House takes up the bill some weeks from now. The bill got the support of Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Feinstein wrote Costa that “I see no viable alternative to passing this settlement legislation. There is only one realistic alternative to the settlement; a return to federal court. That would result in greater releases of water from Friant Dam, no control on river restoration flows, and no alternative sources of water for farmers and water contractors.”

That’s a sentiment shared by the majority of the federal contractors, the 22 irrigation districts in the valley that make up the Friant unit.

“This is a step in the right direction for the San Joaquin River, and the settlement,” said Costa. “It will also help to improve water supply reliability and water quality for Valley residents and farmers.”

But Congressman Nunes was adamant in his opposition, noting the lack of support by local government and uncertainty as to how the water that goes to fisheries will be replaced. Nunes focused on Tulare County’s plight - the source of up to 50% of the Friant Kern Canal water delivery system.

“The legislation being debated today represents a significant departure from the 70 years of public policy that created the most productive agricultural region in the world. This settlement has a far greater impact on more than 400,000 Tulare County residents who were not direct participants to this settlement,” said Board Chairman Ishida before the Water and Power Subcommittee.

“The valley already faces significant water quality and supply challenges. Under the Friant-NRDC deal, my district will provide the bulk of water used to restore the river. Perhaps this is the reason so many other valley legislators were willing to move forward without finding ways to offset water losses. In short, the people they represent won’t have to give up their water or deal with the consequences of reduced supplies,” said Representative Nunes.

Nunes has sought more support from Friant water contractors for his position, but in the most recent election at some 20-plus water districts, the issue was not raised nor was there more than one district in which there was a turnover in board members, says Dan Vink director of the Lower Tule irrigation district and a supporter of the settlement legislation.

The Friant Water User Authority Board of Directors have given “conceptual support” to the plan outlined in the Pay-Go compromise, says Executive Director Ron Jacobsma. But they want perhaps a month of study to ensure a proposed change in how they finance the long term debt can be absorbed.

Contractors in the Pay-Go plan would accelerate the long term payments eliminating the need for a bond that would save the federal treasury some money.

Until the Friant unit signs off on the idea, the legislation will not proceed to the full House, says Jacobsma.

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Visalia - Tulare Association of Governments (TCAG) staffer Ted Smalley says a top priority for the countywide organization is focusing on long-term improvements that need to be made to the Betty Drive interchange at Goshen and 99 – what will be “the county’s busiest interchange in the future,” he says.

Smalley says there are three reasons why. Betty Drive connects Highway 99 to fast growing northwest Visalia, the largest industrial park in Tulare County – the Visalia industrial park as well as north Goshen which is growing rapidly as well. “The big factor is the significant truck traffic we are seeing going in and out of the industrial park.”

Smalley says the county, the City of Visalia, Tulare County Redevelopment, Measure R, state money and federal funds will all play a part in improving the interchange that will feature a railroad underpass connecting the interchange to Ave. 312 (Riggin). Redevelopment director Bill Hayter says the agency will be starting the design phase of the tunnel which will mean traffic won’t have to play tag with trains on the main UP line in the future. Hayter says he hopes construction on the tunnel can begin in two to three years.

Hayter says the interchange itself is already over burdened. “That interchange was designed for under 6,000 vehicles a day, but is experiencing 13,000 trips a day.” Smalley says the next step in the project would be to begin the environmental process that will sort out the design of the bridge. But Smalley says they don’t want to start that work until there are plans to fund the project through multiple sources.

Smalley says there are several conceptual designs to remake the Betty Drive interchange but none is rising to the top yet. One thing for sure, the bridge width is too small to handle the volume expected. One plan had the interchange moved to the north or alternately rebuilding it in place.

Smalley says federal funds helped pay for the next leg of 99 improvements from Kingsburg to Goshen, widening it to six lanes but the monies did not include the Betty Drive interchange. Smalley says “Mr. Nunes is aware of the need for this project” to receive other federal funds.

Smalley says a December 10 TCAG meeting will discuss ideas to put together funds for the big project given the increasingly tight budget in Sacramento. (See Mooney Blvd. story.)

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By Steve Pastis

Visalia - Progressive Urban Management Associates (PUMA) presented the results of its Strategic Plan study to the Downtown Visalia Alliance at a November 7^th luncheon meeting at the Visalia Convention Center. M. Bradley Segal, president of PUMA, and associate Jackie Licko presented the report which assessed the economic, political and planning efforts of the organization.

“What we’re trying to do is to have the association establish priorities and find more efficient ways of doing business,” Segal told the gathering. “We wanted to look at new organizational options. We really wanted to engage a lot of property owners and business owners in this process.”

Their findings were based on a series of roundtable discussions and interviews with more than 75 property owners, business owners and city officials. In addition, responses from a stakeholder mail survey from 65 business and property owners was incorporated into the report, as were the responses receives at a board retreat and stakeholder forum.

The findings showed the top ten “Stakeholder Interview Priorities” to be:

1.   Improved Parking Management and Resources

2.   Create a Downtown Gathering Place

3.   Diversify Retail, Restaurant Options

4.   Encourage Development

5.   Create a Vision for Downtown

6.   Develop Downtown Housing

7.   Beautify and Activate Downtown

8.   Improve Downtown Connections

9.   Improve Downtown Marketing

10. Keep Downtown Safe

Segal was impressed by how highly local stakeholders thought about Downtown Visalians.

“Almost 80% of you gave the organization an A or a B, for a B+ average,” he said. “Other cities usually get a B.”

Visalia also impressed its two Denver-based strategic planners.

“Certainly, we feel that Downtown Visalia provides the most authentic downtown experience in the Valley,” Licko said. “It’s a tremendous asset to the region, and has all the building blocks of an ideal downtown, including historical elements, great local shops and restaurants, and a community that’s committed to keeping it vital. It’s also supported by strong economic growth by both the public and private sectors.”

Segal, who has developed strategic plans for cities around the country, said that every city seems to aspire to be more like another.

“We hear a lot about San Luis Obispo here,” he said. “That’s the model you’re trying to achieve.”

Segal presented recommendations including focusing more on economic development, a gradual restructuring of the organization and developing a stronger working relationship with the city.

“A lot of opportunities aren’t being tapped,” he said. “There’s also a sense that you’re too much of a secret. We felt that Downtown Visalia could do a better job of selling itself.”

Other suggestions presented include: establishing a comprehensive marketing and events plan; developing a marketing niche, message, tagline and brand for Downtown Visalia; and expanding the Downtown Farmer’s Market to serve as “a regular event and destination for the community.”

“Downtown has remained vital for years, something that so many downtowns fail to maintain,” Licko said. “But continued vitality needs continued vigilance – and a continued commitment to enhance downtown by both the public and private sectors will be necessary to secure and build upon what exists today. That was the reason behind developing the strategic plan. The organization saw a need to move away from a ‘task-oriented’ workplan to become ‘strategic’ about their approach.

“All in all, the direction that the organization is heading in with this plan is a positive one, and should be applauded,” she said. “Rather than sit back and watch, they are taking charge of downtown’s destiny, working hard to figure out what resources, programs and projects will be most impactful to ensure that Downtown Visalia remains the vital heart of the community, and the region, for years to come.”

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by Dave Adalian

Tulare County - There was more agreement than disagreement among four experts from different sides of the rural land development fence who met to discuss the future of growth in the Central Valley during a moderated panel discussion sponsored by the College of the Sequoias and Tulare County Citizens for Responsible Growth (TCCRG) held on the COS campus Nov. 7.

As county supervisors mull a 20-year plan for what could be a booming future population and several large-scale developments in Goshen, Yokohl Valley, Earlimart, Traver and Springville loom ever larger on the horizon, concern for sustaining a high quality of life and viable agricultural industry seems on the rise across the spectrum of political thought.

“The citizens said they want compact growth...that insures economic growth. The recipe we have now leads to sprawl,” said Jeff Steen, a Strathmore-based citrus rancher, businessman, and former professor of economics at St. Mary’s College, Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, who was one of the experts called upon to express his vision for the county’s future. Steen is also co-chair of TCCRG.

The evening’s other panelists included Mark Knopf, engineer and president of Quad Knopf Inc.; former Visalia city councilman, citrus rancher and rural land use consultant Greg Kirkpatrick; and Laurel Firestone, co-director of the Community Water Center and a Harvard-trained attorney.

While Steen’s pronouncement is dire, and population growth is inevitable, that doesn’t necessarily spell doom for small town life in Tulare County.

“I believe growth is beneficial generally if it’s well planned,” said Knopf. “We have population growth that is going to occur. I think the devil is in the details.”

Still, he’s not entirely comfortable with the large housing developments currently in the works for the county’s near future.

“Some of those developments, because of public policy, are not in the best place for growth,” Knopf said. “We need to decide where the best place for growth to occur [is].”

Yet without such well laid plans, Greg Kirkpatrick fears Tulare County could become another Los Angeles, an area that was the state’s largest agricultural producer in 1950 yet a quarter century later in 1975 had no land at all in ag production. The L.A. he describes is one in which both incorporated cities and the county both rushed to increase development and the revenues it promised as the nation’s first freeways made possible isolated large-scale housing subdivisions. The lines between rural and urban land quickly evaporated, and that, says Kirkpatrick, is where Tulare County’s current policy of considering land developments on a case-by-case basis could lead.

“Why would we do that [develop outside current urban growth boundaries]?” Kirkpatrick asked. “The answer is for the benefit of developers because there’s no schedule of developers fees. So how is [the cost of developing and improving infrastructure to meet the demands of population growth] going to get paid for? The answer is we will eventually [pay for it].”

If this alleged ploy on the part of developers is so transparent, why then does it appeal to those in power at the county level? For that answer, Kirkpatrick tells us to follow the money.

“What’s the county’s interest? It’s revenue,” he said. “They say they need funds to develop, but I think if you look, the costs are greater than the development.”

The Visalia City Council, during Kirkpatrick’s time as a member, formally asked the county to agree to restrict growth to already established urban boundaries in exchange for a share of revenue Visalia would see from the resulting growth, he said. Other cities expressed an interest in similar deals, however, the county has not responded to their overtures. TCCRG has offered to mediate any such talks.

Where Kirkpatrick predicts problems, however, Knopf sees an opportunity. Not only do developments increase tax revenue over the long and short-term, increasing population centers mean more comfort for those already living where large housing developments are approved.

“It creates an opportunity for amenities they [smaller unincorporated population centers] can’t afford,” Knopf said.

Larger developments because of their size also tend to receive more and better oversight, Knopf added, insuring they tend to conform to modern ideas of what a good land development should be.

“Those are the developments that tend to integrate office and commercial and recreational space,” he said.

Community Water Center’s Firestone agreed there is a unique opportunity to extend essential services to county residents who are living in what she calls “third-world” conditions with the worst drinking water quality in the state. However, to seize that opportunity will require deep-seeing foresight on the part of county planners.

“When we’re making decisions about growth and land use, we need [growth plans] that represent the existing communities,” Firestone said. “When we allow investment where there’s nothing because it’s easier, we’re allowing those resources to go out of the community and not address the disparities.”

Those tasked with formulating the county’s growth plan, Firestone contends, should investigate shared infrastructures, perhaps modeled upon the extensive water systems used to service rural communities in South Dakota.

“I think the county has not yet explored those options,” she said.

Firestone is also hopeful the county will consider including demands on developers for conservation measures in their plans.

“Los Angeles uses the same quantity of water today as they did in the ‘70s and there are obviously a lot more people,” she said. “That’s all due to conservation.”

While the four experts agreed Tulare County needs a plan leading to responsible growth in the future, what responsible growth is remained a point of contention.

Identifying and setting aside top quality agricultural land should be at the center of the county’s 20-year growth plan, said Kirkpatrick.

“For instance, let’s not grow Visalia north of the St. John’s River,” he said. “That’s some of the best, most sustainable ag land in the county.”

Kirkpatrick also emphasized that planning for long-range sustainability means developments that include elements of high-density neighborhoods with mixed-use land zoning. That, he said, contributes to discouraging driving and is more environmentally friendly than current housing development paradigms in other ways.

“That means growth that’s aware of its footprint,” he said. “Much of that can be addressed by the way we grow. It means we see more row houses. Not everyone has to live in those, but we don’t have that option [at the moment].”

Despite their undisputed benefits, such developments won’t be built if developers don’t feel they’re profitable, Knopf countered.

“We have to consider the market when we plan,” he said.

This fear on the part of developers could be overcome were they faced with a schedule of impact fees that address future building in unincorporated rural areas currently given over to agricultural uses, said Steen. He suspects that county government won’t do so without the application of political pressure.

“Government has many tools available; they choose not to use them,” Steen said. “We need to hold them to a higher standard.”

Knopf also called for citizen input on the county’s 20-year growth plan, a draft of which is available for review and comment online at www.westplanning.com/docs/tulare/index.htm.

“Be informed and then participate,” he said.

Steen said he would like to see the county’s plan make concrete the concerns of citizens and reflect their desire for a continued quality of life as they’ve come to expect it.

“We need to make the language in the general plan strong. We need to say ‘will’ and not ‘should,’” he said.

The evening’s talk ended with a brief discussion of the panelists’ view of the proposed Yokohl Valley development, a plan by J.G. Boswell Company to build some 10,000 homes on a portion of 36,000 acres of undeveloped grassland it owns in the foothills east of Exeter.

For Steen, it was a question of how the new city benefits the rest of the county’s citizenry and if it would bring quality jobs to an area starved for employment.

“Is this a community that allows us to walk to our jobs? Is this a community that brings good jobs?” he asked. “Or, is it going to be a gated community who hire gardeners and don’t contribute to our community?”

Knopf addressed outcry against the impact such a project might have on Yokohl Valley’s ecology, downplaying it.

“There really isn’t land that isn’t important to someone or some animal or some plant,” he said. “Wherever you build there are concerns that it not be built.”

But, he added, because of its high profile, the Yokohl project would likely have a component of high environmental sustainability if it’s allowed to proceed, and it would enrich the county’s coffers.

“That kind of project does create jobs in a county with a history of unemployment,” Knopf said. “There’s a plus side.”

Firestone realizes Tulare County’s citizens need good jobs, but wonders if projects like Yokohl Valley are too high a price to pay for them.

“It makes me sad,” she said. “[It] leaves these small unincorporated areas to fend for themselves. I see [the Yokohl proposal] as a continuation of this policy. The people in the communities where I work need jobs, but I’m not sure this is the best way to do it.”

Kirkpatrick brings a unique perspective to the Yokohl debate.

“I grew up there,” he said. “I think the Yokohl Valley project is wrong on so many levels it’s hard to know where to begin.”

Such development could be contained within the Valley’s already established cities, which are more prepared and able to meet the service needs a population of up to 30,000 residents. There are also water issues that must be considered in detail before the project is approved.

“It doesn’t have to be there,” Kirkpatrick said. “We need to evaluate what the best use of these lands is. People say you can’t fight J.G. Boswell. You can.”

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Visalia - If you wondered how and when the state’s housing crunch would affect Tulare County, look no further than Mooney Boulevard.

This past week, the state’s 2007/08 budget shortfall was pegged at nearly $10 billion as declining real estate sales and the credit crisis has ballooned into a slowdown in many sectors of California economy. The result is less tax income coming into state coffers.

Last month, Tulare County Association of Governments heard that the California Transportation Commission was considering delaying $1 billion worth of already approved road projects in the state STIP to later years (2010 or 2011).

A memo from TCAG staffer Ben Gulliani says the state budget shortfall “is already having a direct impact on local projects,” including possibly Mooney Blvd. scheduled for widening over the next two years. No STIP projects were included in the November CTC meeting and it remains unknown if they will be discussed in December, he says.

Chair of the Board of Supervisors, Allen Ishida, told the Voice he thought Mooney funding would survive but fears the loss of monies for several other important projects, including the widening of Road 80 as well as Ave. 416.

Locally, TCAG will hold a meeting December 10 to go over road projects planned in the near future and may have a better idea of the fate of the Mooney project.

Already some work on the big project is underway with CalTrans buying necessary right-of-way, planning bus stops, and utilities on Mooney being relocated by Cal Water earlier this year.

County planner Ted Smalley says if funding is available, work on expanding Mooney to six lanes could start this spring and continue to November before it’s shelved for the holidays and picking up again in 2009.

“We’ve just waiting to find out,” says Visalia Public Works director Andy Benelli. “It’s important to us because we are constructing three big intersection improvements at Tulare, Walnut and Whitendale at the same time in 2008.”

The $10 billion anticipated shortfall was estimated last week in a new report by the nonpartisan Legislative Analysis Office.

Statewide, lower home sales appear to be spilling over into lower retail, automotive and building materials sales.

Ishida told the Voice he fears the state budget crisis will trickle down to the county depends heavily on state funds. “We need funding sources not dependent on the state,” an argument that was key in passing Measure R.