Report Details Pluses, Minuses of Convention Center

By Rick Elkins

Expansion of the city's convention center is not recommended right now, but a consultant hired by the city says planning should begin soon with a target date of 2017 for the expansion.

“We're not recommending you expand right now. You need to get other things in place first,” said Thomas Hazinski, a consultant with HVS International who did the market study of the city's convention center. “It should be planned, but not immediately.”

Hazinski said that demand for use of the center at this time does not require expansion. He gave the city council numbers from a survey, some of which did not sit too well with some members of the council.

One statistic he gave was that based on a survey of state association event planners in California, the Visalia Convention Center is barely known and a large number said they would never consider siting their event in Visalia.

“To see a statistic like that is unacceptable, totally unacceptable,” said Councilmember Greg Collins. “We need to do something about that.”
Hazinski reported that survey found 71 percent didn't know of Visalia and 62 percent of the more than 60 who responded said they would never hold an event here.

“I was disappointed in that number,” said Convention Center Manager Wally Roeben. “I think we can make some inroads.”

Hazinski said the number is not as bad as it seems. He said few sites get more than 50 percent favorable ratings and Visalia could easily move up with better marketing.
“Strong marketing would significantly raise awareness of the amenities that Visalia has to offer,” noted Hazinski in his report.

Usage is Varied

The study found that usage of the center is improving, but there is room for growth, especially in the number of conventions.

“Visalia is in the middle of the pack in terms of space (31,071 sq. ft. of exhibit space). There are a lot more events in Visalia than comparable venues, but most are meetings,” he reported, adding Visalia is not doing that well in terms of conventions and trade shows.

Visalia ranked about in the middle of most categories – from space to the number of people utilizing the facility – and was ranked sixth overall, above both Fresno and Bakersfield. As to pluses for Visalia, responders said they like it being downtown, the cleanliness of the facility, lower hotel costs and safety. A big negative was the lack of air travel.

“Demand has been growing – mostly meetings, but attendance hasn't grown as fast,” said the consultant. However, he said convention center usage is cyclical and that right now is a down period for conventions. Taking that into mind, he said Visalia has shown “pretty good growth trends.”

Like most convention centers, Visalia's does not pay for itself outright. Hazinski said the center lost $1.4 in 2006, less than most but higher than a few. Only one of a half dozen centers showed a profit.

However, it is the dollars the center brings into the city that makes it viable, the consultant said. In 2006, the center generated 20,000 overnight stays in hotels, 100,000 day trips and put roughly $25 million into the local economy.

“You're gaining about $25 million in economic impact on the community for a $1.4 million loss,” he stressed. When asked about the cost to operate the faculty - $5.2 million in '06 – he said, “We think it's well run. We don't see areas for cost cutting.”
The council agreed with the recommendation to increase marketing by adding at least one new sales director to focus specifically on the state association market segment and to increase funding to the Convention and Visitor's Bureau to market the center.

The council members also agreed that now is not the time to look at expansion. The report recommends that it would be more economically feasible in seven years and that any expansion include new parking and additional hotel rooms. Staff recommended that any such work on expansion not begin until 2013.

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Plan Could Save Greenbelt Between Cities
Ag Land Mitigation Plan Going Countywide

Tulare County - Tulare County will join an effort to save prime ag land in the county by setting up a mitigation land bank – a plan launched in the past few months by the cities of Tulare and Visalia.

Now the county, TCAG and rest of the cities are likely to join together - folding the same formal mitigation plan into their general plan policies.

“We've instructed our county staff to get up to speed,” says county Supervisor Phil Cox who represents the county at the ongoing meetings with the new organization – the Council of Cities.

The agreement came out of the most recent meeting Sept. 3. “We're ready to participate along with all the eight cities,” says Cox. “It only makes sense to have one land bank we can all use.”

The idea has been discussed for months and gained traction earlier this spring at a LAFCo hearing when Supervisors Steve Worthley and Allen Ishida suggested the concept of a joint effort with the cities that would address urbanization of farmland locally.

By establishing a countywide mitigation plan, cities can essentially inoculate themselves from complaints that urbanization of farmland has not been addressed in their jurisdictions through their general plans. Visalia Council Member Greg Collins says by having a mitigation policy in place when development projects are approved that require annexation of farmland, it helps protect the jurisdictions from lawsuits like we have seen across the state.

Discussion of policies that slow sprawl and the loss of prime ag land across California has led to several counties setting up such a bank. A similar bank is already set up in the county for some development projects like roads when an endangered species habitat is disturbed.

The ag land bank would work the same way with developers and the jurisdictions paying into a fund that would buy up ag land or ag land easements. The talk has been that the jurisdiction that permits the development of prime ag land would pay a mitigation fee to set aside the same amount of land that it is paving over - for future protection.

Often the oversight of such a bank is done in cooperation with a land trust like the locally operated Sequoia Riverlands group.

Money Already Available?

Cox says the major task at hand is to identify where lands are to be protected noting that the cities of Tulare and Visalia would like to set up such a buffer between their two towns. Collins told the Voice that the land between Farmersville and Visalia may be a candidate, as well as land in west Visalia.

Cox says the first step will be for all nine entities to kick in money for a planned consultant study to set up the bank, a cost he figures at about $40,000-plus. That study will take several months.

Cox says his interpretation of Measure R policy governed through TCAG is that some $2 million is set aside for mitigation purposes that might be able to be used for ag land mitigation and not just road building mitigation.

Cox says the county got a wakeup call last year when they heard that Kern County came to southwest Tulare County to set up a mitigation bank without any notice to Tulare County.

Tulare County's own general plan update is underway and will be adopted here in coming months, along with several other cities in the county making it an opportune time to include the policy.

Big Shadow of Motorsports Deal

The City of Tulare has proposed adoption of such a policy on its own if necessary indicating it will include an ag land mitigation policy in its new general plan even before it got sued by the Sierra Club recently.

The issue is important in Tulare over the planned annexation of some 700 acres of farmland for the big Motorsports complex - an issue that the Tulare County Farm Bureau cited as part of the reason for its opposition to the project. Now the new ag land mitigation policy language is included in both its general plan policy and the EIR for the Motorsports.

The issue has been raised by groups like the American Farmland Trust which cite figures for loss of farmland to development in the county and statewide. The organization says between 1990 and 2000, some 10,000 acres here was lost to development, The counterargument is that more farmland came on line during the same period. But AFT says about 58% of the land lost was high quality and the county stands to lose another 112,000 acres by 2040 under projected growth estimates.

Cities in the county are pushing the Board of Supervisors to promote most of the growth in its upcoming general plan inside city limits.

Chair of the Council of Cities Phil Vandegrift and Cox agree that “sitting down together to hear common issues has made a real difference” in the relationship and helping move forward on long-stalled issues that include the booking fee issue that was recently resolved and several other issues that are pending. It is now assumed for example that there will be a revenue sharing plan between the county and the cities that will come out of the cities-county discussions that are continuing..

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Budget Stalemate Costing Local Entities

Visalia - California Controller John Chiang has said he will have no choice but to further reduce payments to local governments, schools and health care providers if a state budget is not approved by the end of this month.

Already, the state has withheld numerous payments, especially those to health providers like Family Health Care Network in Visalia.

Harry Foster, CEO of the chain of 10 clinics, said his organization is not being paid $500,000 week in Medical payments now. And, that has been since July 1.
Foster and others, like Visalia Unified School District, could be facing even bigger cuts in payments if the state can't settle on a budget soon.

If lawmakers cannot agree on a budget by the end of the month - a likely scenario according to many in Sacramento - the state will owe $12 billion to government service providers.

Chiang said $4.3 billion in scheduled payments already have been blocked, and a total of $11.9 billion ultimately could be blocked if no agreement is reached by Sept. 26.

State law prohibits certain payments from being made in the absence of a budget, so for providers of those services, the outlook is grim. Last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected a proposal to release emergency funds, calling the plan fiscally irresponsible.

Following is a breakdown of the financial pinch some local providers are feeling.
Family Health Care Network

“We are already into lines of credit we have to pay interest on,” said Foster. He said instead of rolling over a Certificate of Deposit, they will cash it out to make money available to pay bills.

Since the state stopped paying, Foster said FHCN is owed $2.5 million and counting. He said the interest he is paying to cover the loss of revenue will not be reimbursed by the state. FHCN has an annual budget of $60 million.

“We are fortunate enough to have done planning for this. There are some organizations that are not going to survive,” he said. When asked what if the budget stalemate goes into December, he replied, “We'll be in trouble.”

Visalia Unified

Nathan Hernandez, finance director for the school district, said that so far the district has not seen a great cut in payments. However, the district has been told that if a budget is not signed soon, about a third of what the district receives each month will not be paid.

“Restricted funds will not come in until the budget is passed,” he said, adding that amounts to about $5 million a month. That money is for different purposes, but about $125,000 a month is to cover the cost of transporting students. It also covers instructional materials.

However, the district has a healthy reserve that can get it by for awhile.

“For cash flow, I think we're OK. We have a reserve balance we can draw from,” he said.

Even with the budget impasses, the district will receive about $10 million a month, it expects.

City of Visalia

Fortunately, the City of Visalia does not receive that much money from the state each month, so the hit has been minimal. What worries city Administrative Services Director Eric Frost the most is what the eventual budget agreement could cost the city. Estimates place the hit between $1.5 million and nearly $4 million.

“We are a vender of the state on smaller things,” Frost explained. One of the things the city is reimbursed for is street lighting along state highways – Highway 63 – and that amounts to about $30,000 a month the city is not being paid for now. Also, the state has postponed payment of gas tax money.

“There's some, but it's not a huge thing. We have some cash to cover,” said Frost.

Tulare County

Tulare County is paying its bills and all workers are being paid, county officials explained.

As it does each year, the county will borrow against forthcoming income, mainly property taxes along with state and federal funds, generally referred to as the Tax Revenue Anticipation Loan, said Rita Woodard, county auditor/controller-treasurer/tax collector.

The county is borrowing $55 million, the same as last year, she explained, to tide the county over until tax revenues start coming into the county coffers. The county invests that money and the interest it generates goes to pay for the loan costs, she said.

County Administrative Officer Jean Rousseau explained that last February, the state announced that the it would delay sending funds to counties by about a month, until the end of September, a move to ease the cash flow problems. That delay could be extended even further, given the status of the long-overdue approval of the budget.
Rousseau said the state just seems to continue to “pull the purse strings even tighter” as it struggles to find ways to fix its huge budget deficit.

The overall impact of the state budget crisis on Tulare County, Rousseau and Woodard say, is that the county likely will delay major spending, such as vehicle replacements and other annual expenditures, until revenue comes in.

The biggest impact likely will be felt in the Health and Human Services Agency whose funds come mostly from state and federal monies.

Kaweah Delta

“The state budget impasse has resulted in the state exhausting its reserve fund for medical payments,” said Lindsay K. Mann, CEO of the Kaweah Delta Health Care District, who added that the fund was exhausted on July 21. “Since that date, we have not received payments and each day is $215,000 in MediCal care we provide, for which we are not reimbursed.”

Mann said that the health care district is dipping into its reserves to compensate for the total of $6 million the state currently owes to Kaweah Delta. This amount does not include the interest that the health care district is losing, which this week is over $27,000.

“While ultimately we will be paid, we will not be repaid for the interest,” Mann said.

College of the Sequoias

“We are using our reserves and now we are borrowing money through the tax revenue anticipation notes program,” said Dr. Bill Scroggins, president of College of the Sequoias, explaining that the program allows institutions to use expected government funds before the money is received.

“It costs us in the neighborhood of $10,000 a month in interest,” he added.
Through the State Community College Consortium, COS is expected to have its borrowing authority increased by $7 million.

“We have enough borrowing power to make payroll through November,” Scroggins said. “And then we are out.”

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Proposed Fees Raise Industrial Developers' Concerns

By Steve Pastis

Visalia - The City of Visalia is apparently making progress working with most local developers to change the city's transportation impact fee structure. Local commercial developers such as Stephen Peck, vice president of the Mangano Company, are optimistic that “eventually it will be a win-win situation all the way around.”

Industrial developers don't share the optimism about the changes the city is proposing, however. They have expressed concerns about the significant increases for industrial projects in Visalia and say the new numbers threaten their ability to be competitive.

“The proposal is to raise our fees more than 250% over what we've been paying,” said David Hernandez, director of construction services for The Allen Group. “We understand there needs to be an increase, but it needs to be fair and it needs to be reasonable. We can't absorb this kind of an increase.

“We're willing to pay more,” he added. “We're not asking that our fees don't increase. We're fine with it increasing – but not exponentially.”

The city's transportation impact fees have been a major issue with local developers, especially since the fee structure was revised on Oct. 14, 2004. The fees are collected from developers of single family homes, shopping centers, office buildings and industrial projects to pay for streets. The money is often collected in advance so that streets are not built in a “sawtooth road pattern,” with roads varying from two to four and back to two lanes.

Local developers have complained about the higher amount that a developer must pay in transportation impact fees for a project in Visalia, compared to other Valley cities, even though the city issues reimbursements when other developments are built along the street.

The proposals that were presented to the Visalia City Council at its Sept. 2 work session included funding the city's arterial and collector street program through “a partly cash and partly developer in-kind funded program” and using discretionary transportation dollars to offset industrial, office and hotel fees.

The proposals also included the new fee structure. Hernandez said that some non-industrial developers would actually see a reduction in the proposed fees, adding that most would see modest changes in their fees, within 10% of what they currently pay.

“Ours is the big one,” he said, adding that what has been an average of about 31 cents a square foot would be raised to about $1.41 if the new impact fee structure is approved. The old fee structure was based on how many employees would work in an industrial building.

“The theory was that by having more employees, you were putting more stress on the roads,” Hernandez explained, but he added, “We've brought in over 1,000 jobs to the community. That has value to this community.”

“Yes, it's a substantial increase,” said Andrew Benelli, Visalia Public Works director, but he added that the fees would be “lower than Clovis and on par with Modesto and Fresno.” He said that the fees would be about 50 percent higher than Tulare, however.

The proposed transportation impact fees would be based on the size of the building and not the number of employees, said Benelli. “In some ways this is better.”

He explained that a developer often doesn't know who the tenants will be and does not know how many employees will be working in the new development. As a result, the industrial fees are difficult to incorporate into the developer's plans.

“They're improving the reimbursement program to standardize it so that it's not as ambiguous, and we're fine with that,” Hernandez said.

The proposed transportation impact fees for industrial developments would be $1,824 per 1,000 square feet for small developments (up to 20,000 square feet), $1,619 for middle-size developments (20,000 to 100,000 square feet) and $1,414 for large developments (over 100,000 square feet).

The fees per 1,000 square feet for retail developments would range from $11,486 for small to $7,660 for large.

The logic behind the difference between the fees for industrial and commercial projects is that the retail stores serve customers and have more traffic, impacting roads more significantly than industrial buildings which accommodate mainly employees and deliveries.

The Allen Group, which has offices in Shafter, Dallas and Kansas City, in addition to Visalia, also develops commercial properties. Hernandez was pleased with the progress that is being made between the city and commercial developments. He also noted the company has had a good relationship with the city over the years.

“We are committed to the City of Visalia,” he said. “We've been here for a long time and we intend to be here for a long time. Visalia is a place that is looked upon favorably by the business community. Other municipalities are more difficult to work with,” explaining that compared to Visalia, other cities can be slow, unresponsive, bureaucratic and “not really concerned about how the business community feels.”

“It boils down to one thing now,” said Hernandez, defining the one thing as establishing transportation impact fees that industrial developers and the city could agree are fair. Although he wouldn't tip his hand and reveal what fees he considers fair, he said that if the city and industrial developers can agree on what is fair, “We're good.”

Most of the recommendations presented to the City Council were raised at task force meetings, according to Benelli. Some were from city staff. City officials took note of the issues raised at meetings of the task force – a group of developers and city officials – and recommendations were prepared based on those issues.

“We made a lot of progress,” said Peck. “But we still have a lot of questions and there are a lot of details.”

The task force, the city and a committee of local developers have been working to find the discretionary transportation dollars to partially offset the transportation impact fees currently paid by developers.

“In that process, we – the task force and the committee – identified cash that can be pushed our way,” said Peck. “They've identified the projects that are needed to support growth for the next 20 to 25 years. The city has identified ways that money can be redirected, and how cars really impact roads.”

The city and developers are re-evaluating which new road projects are really needed to support future growth, according to Peck. The original estimate was about $900 million to cover growth in the next 20-25 years.

“We have identified $300 million worth of roads that weren't essential to meet our growth needs,” said Peck.

In addition to lowering projected spending, the city has other sources for its road projects, including Measure R funds, gas taxes, federal and state money and special grants. The combination of cost reductions and additional funding would increase the money available to build new roads – which could reduce much of the financial burden currently faced by developers.

“We still have a lot of work to do to get to a number that is statistically and methodically workable,” said Peck.

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What's New

Visalia City Council Member Don Landers, who has been retired from the county sheriff's department, has taken a new job at Cal State Fullerton. The job will mean Landers has to commute from Visalia during the week and fly back to town on the new airline from Ontario Airport on Mondays. As a result, Landers says he will not seek a new term on council after the current one is over in November 2009. Landers had been with the Tulare County Sheriff's Office for 36 years and will have served 14 years on city council when he steps down.

COS officials and supporters are scrambling to shore up support for the Measure J bond in Corcoran after a cool reception from the school board and city council. The town's citizens must pay increased costs to clean their water and support the hospital there and there is talk of a new school bond. But efforts are underway to demonstrate the COS bond could be of real benefit to the community, perhaps with some satellite classes in town, prison guard classes and a transit connection for students to attend COS.

Army Corps will be in Porterville to hold a public meeting Sept. 23 to update folks on plans to rebuild Success Reservoir. The meeting will be held at Porterville's city council chamber beginning at 6 p.m. Lower Tule ID GM Dan Vink says the update is unlikely to offer a firm plan to landowners on just what is in the works. But that could come next month, he believes. Vink says the Corps is planning what will be about a $400 million rehabilitation of the earthen dam to prevent a catastrophic collapse in case of a large earthquake. Vink says he understands the Corps may buttress the dam on the downstream side or on both the upstream and downstream sides. Construction work on the dam could start as soon as 2010.

Rangers in the Classroom. Sequoia Parks Foundation expects the educational outreach to Tulare County students to double over this year to raise awareness of the national parks and environmental issues in the valley. The foundation raised $50,000 to contribute to the program that is matched by the NPS. This past year 4,000 students in the county heard about the program helping them to become better stewards of the parks, says chair of the foundation, Armando Quintero.

Tulare County historian Terry Ommen is finishing up Visalia: Then and Now for Arcadia Publishing. The book will feature 85 historical photographs of the city, next to current pictures of each site. Ommen's proceeds for authoring the book will be given to the Tulare County Historical Society.

Gender profile of likely voters. Among all the state's voters – 43% of the likely voters are Democrats and 35% are Republican. But when you break that down by gender – 59% of the likely women voters are Democrats while 54% of the likely men voters are Republicans. Even a bigger gender divide among independent likely voters – men by 58%.

Gottschalks has completed the sale of its Antelope Valley Mall store in Palmdale to Forest City Enterprises. The store was sold for $12 million and Gottschalks says it will use the proceeds to pay down debt and increase availability in the company's credit facility.

City of Farmersville is on the prowl for some big retailer attending the state ICSC shopping center convention with a city booth for the first time. The delegation is headed by city manager Rene Miller and Mayor Leonel Benavides. The town would like to attract a retail complex around its Highway 198 interchange

Farmersville's new 64-unit affordable apartment complex on Farmersville Road will install solar panels on the roof enabling the project to satisfy 100% of its power needs on sunny days. The large complex near the entrance to town is nearing completion.

New Visalia business is distributing laser light lures that attract bass mesmerizing the fish like those little dots of light from a laser pen can do to cats and dogs. The company – Jays Distributing – is owned by Brian Crowder.

Citing a continued weak economy, Gottschalks announced that same store sales for the month of August decreased 11.1% from the prior year. Total sales for the four-week period decreased 13.3% to $37.2 million, compared to $42.9 million in the same period of fiscal 2007. On a year-to-date basis, which consisted of 30 weeks, same store sales decreased 8.8% from the comparable period of fiscal 2007. Jim Famalette, chairman and chief executive officer of Gottschalks said, “Our sales results for August reflect the continuing weak economic environment and a lower level of clearance activity due to a cleaner inventory position and fewer markdowns compared to the same period last year.”

The Porterville City Council voted last week to support Proposition 8, the November state ballot measure to ban same-sex marriages and called on other local elected bodies to do the same.

Mortgage rates will go below 6%, predict bankers now that the federal government has taken over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Rates have fallen a half-point in the past few months and a full point since this time last year, helping to make borrowing to buy a home more attractive.

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Creative Center Submits Plans for New Museum

The new Imagine U Children's Museum has moved a step closer to reality with the Creative Center submitting plans to the city for site plan review.

Sharon Sheltzer, president of the Creative Center board, said the organization is pleased to put plans before the city, but noted the new 12,993-square-foot museum is still a ways off.

“We have some of our plans, but we still have to finish up our construction documents,” she said, adding the goal is to have the new museum open by the end of 2010.

The Creative Center plans to launch this month a major fundraising campaign to pay for the new museum. Sheltzer said the goal is to have 80 to 90 percent of the $3.6 million needed before they begin construction. Of that cost, $1 million is for new exhibits in the museum.

“We've raised about 10 percent so far,” said Sheltzer, explaining it is hoped the organization can receive some grants for the project.

Visalia Planners OK Social Security Site

It appears it is a go for the Social Security Administration building to be built on East Noble Avenue between South Ben Maddox Way and South Pinkham Street after the Visalia Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit for the project Monday night.

The decision settles months of controversy after residents objected to plans to locate the office on Lovers Lane and the planning commission rejected that site. The new location has not drawn any opposition.

The current site of the Social Security office is 505 N. Court St.

Visalia Imperial LLC, the developer, is proposing to build basically the same building on Noble as was proposed on Lovers Lane. It will be a 12,655-square-foot, single-story office building on three-quarters of an acre. The current property owner is Pentecostal Church.

One issue for the Social Security Administration was the new location had to be outside of any flood zone. The Noble property meets that standard.

Company Produces First Batch of Cellulosic Ethanol

Visalia-based EdenIQ, a biofuels company, has brewed its first batch of cellulosic ethanol at its Kelsey Avenue pilot plante.

The 500 gallons of biofuel were sold through a dealer. About 20 technicians and scientists work at the Visalia Plant. The company was spun off earlier in the year from Altra Inc.

EdenIQ is also working on ways to increase yields from corn-based ethanol that will help in the profitability of making ethanol from of corn. The company has been busy patenting technology it hopes to market soon.

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