Documented by Kristina Mansfield
Here’s what you need to know
- The Fresno Planning Commission voted (7-0) to recommend to the City Council several items related to a new 141-acre Granville/Wathan Castanos Homes development located along the north and south sides of West Ashlan Avenue between North Bryan and North Polk avenues, including a mitigated negative declaration prepared for the project (per CEQA guidelines), an annexation application and prezone application.
- Voted (7-0) to accept the applicant Surjit Singh’s appeal and deny the action of the Planning and Development Department director to deny conditional use permit Application P19-04757, requesting to establish a California Alcoholic Beverage Control Type 21 (off-sale general: beer, wine and distilled spirits for consumption off the premises where sold) alcohol license for a proposed service station and general market with detached car wash. The project is located south of West Ashlan Avenue, between State Route 99 and North Golden State Boulevard.
Follow-up questions
- How many of the homes in the new Ashlan Hayes development will be designated as affordable housing? How many will be set aside for middle- and low-income buyers? Does Fresno currently market to any developers that specialize in LEED certification?
- Who owns the two legacy ABC licenses in the area, and under what conditions were they originally approved, and by whom? What district are they in? Under what conditions would an ABC legacy license be investigated, fined or pulled?
- What encounters did Fresno resident Juan Baretto have with the city that he felt were unjust and caused him to purchase property in the county?
The Scene
The regular meeting of the Fresno Planning Commission took place Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 6 p.m. at City Hall (2600 Fresno St. second floor) in Fresno. You can watch a live recording of the meeting here.
Meetings are on the first and third Wednesdays of the month and are open to the public to participate both in person and via Zoom (you must register in advance; see the meeting agenda for detailed instructions). Printed agendas are available on a table at the entrance just inside chambers, and you can also get copies online here 72 hours in advance. Meetings also air on CMAC.
According to its website, the Planning Commission recommends actions on various planning issues, such as plan amendments, rezones, and appeals for development permits or conditional use permits. It has seven members who are appointed by the mayor and city council.
Check out all city-staff supplied supporting documents here. Sixteen people attended the meeting in person.
Item 1 Chair Peter Vang started the meeting at 6 p.m. A city staff member called the roll.
The Fresno Planning Commissioners and staff in attendance were:
Commissioner Kathy Bray
Commissioner David Criner
Commissioner Monica Diaz
Vice-Chair Brad Hardie (via Zoom)
Commissioner Jacqueline Lyday
Chair Peter Vang (via Zoom)
Commissioner Haley M. Wagner
Also present at the meeting were Assistant City Attorney Talia Kolluri and Director Jennifer Clark.
Items 2-3 Next, Vang led the flag salute and read an overview of the meeting procedures.
AGENDA APPROVAL, Item 4 Israel Trejo of the Planning Department, confirmed there were no edits to the agenda. It was approved as presented (7-0). Vang said for procedural reasons, there would need to be a roll call vote for each item.
CONSENT CALENDAR, Item 5 The board voted (7-0) to approve the Planning Commission’s 2024 meeting calendar and the Planning Commission’s Aug. 16 and Nov. 1, meeting minutes as presented.
Items 6-7 There were no reports by commissioners or continued matters on the agenda.
NEW MATTERS, Items 8A-8B.
Item 8A Rob Holt, supervising planner, presented several items related to 141 acres of property along West Ashlan Avenue and North Polk Avenue in the county area.
Discussion items include Annexation Application P23-03757; pre-zone Application P23-03758 and related Environmental Assessment P23-03757/P23-03758. An address associated with Ashlan Hayes Developers Inc. (1396 W. Herndon Ave., Suite 110) is the same as the Assemi Group, Inc./Granville, while another (2505 Alluvial Ave.) is linked to Wathan Castanos Homes.
Holt said the existing land uses in this area include medium-density residential, low-density residential, urban neighborhood residential and a small portion of open space, and that the city of Fresno is asking for the annexation because of a previous agreement that included an annexation south of the project area that included a tax sharing agreement (TSA). You can read the Tax Sharing agreement here.
Further, he said staff heard consistent concerns during two previous neighborhood meetings. Potential financial constraints, requirements to connect to sewer/water and what to do with existing structures were top complaints.
There were no members of the public in support of the project in chambers.
Manraj Singh, a property owner in the area, spoke out in opposition. He owns a parcel between Hayes and Polk avenues where the sewer main has already been completed. “We neighbors are very tight knit. Most of us, we used to live in the city and purchased out with the idea that I want to stick to my well and the county is giving us the rights to do that,” Singh said. “It is just not fair, if this goes through, that I personally, am forced to connect to this water. Yes, if it [the well] goes dry, that is my problem.” Singh closed his comment saying that his neighbors have their protest forms ready.
Juan Barreto, a neighbor of Singh, said he corroborated Singh’s statement and that they didn’t receive a meeting notice. “We felt betrayed when we saw the tracts starting to get built up,” Barreto said. “I moved out of the city and into the county because I had a few encounters with the city that were unjustified and I think it’s unfair. I’m opposed to this.”
Patricia Upton-Fuerte, a homeowner in the area, said she has lived at her address for 50 years, and has planned for her retirement with her husband. She is against the annexation. She wanted to know why people weren’t given more notice. She also said there were other people there in the room with her from the neighborhood.
Marta McConnell was on Zoom but couldn’t comment due to a failed connection. Vang went back to Upton-Fuerte.
Patricia Stidham, another homeowner in the area, said she has lived at her address for 30 years, and her parents had lived there for 30 years prior to that. She said she wanted to keep her home in the county, but that on her 2 acres the water will cost her an enormous amount on a meter. “Mr. Singh is gathering an army,” she said.
Hardie asked how many residents oppose the annexation, and referenced a previous incident with a church where the developer stepped in to connect a property, and asked for clarification on the length of time residents have to connect to a sewer main once it becomes available.
The Department of Public Utilities said they have a program for both sewer and water and provided a few financial numbers. Bray asked for specific costs, which the public utilities spokesman said weren’t available and that residents would need to get estimates from contractors because they don’t do estimates for county properties. “It would be a good idea to know what that cost might be,” Bray said.
Several more minutes of back-and-forth continued. Lyday said, “Just to confirm, we don’t have an estimated amount (of) how much it would cost to connect water and sewer?”
The Department of Public Utilities spokesman clarified that they don’t have the specific estimates for the work to connect each resident to sewer and water, but provided the current rates for each based on the different size services and interest. Rates are adjusted every July 1, he said.
Clark said if the commission recommends not moving forward, the City Council will still have to take up the matter.
Vang then brought it back to the commission for a motion. The motion passed 7-0.
1. The commission voted (7-0) to recommend adoption to the City Council of the Mitigated Negative Declaration prepared for Environmental Assessment P23-03757/P23-03758 dated Nov. 10, for the proposed project pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines.
For context, a Negative Declaration (ND) or a Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) will be prepared for a project when there is no substantial evidence that the project or any of its aspects could result in significant adverse environmental impacts.
2. The commission voted (7-0) to recommend approval to the City Council of Annexation Application P23-03757 (for the Ashlan-Hayes 2, 3 and 4 Reorganization) proposing detachment from the Kings River Conservation District and North Central Fire Protection District.
3. The commission voted (7-0) to recommend approval to the City Council of Pre-Zone Application P23-03758. The application pre-zones:
- Approximately 97.55 acres from the Fresno County RR/NB (Rural Residential/Neighborhood Beautification) zone district to the city of Fresno RS-5/ANX (single-family residential/neighborhood beautification) zone district to the the city of Fresno RS-1/NB (rural residential/neighborhood beautification) (single-family residential, medium-density/annexed rural residential transitional overlay) zone district;
- Approximately 18.65 acres of property from the Fresno County RR/NB zone district to the city of Fresno RS-1/ANXzone district;
- Approximately 14.13 acres of property from the Fresno County RR/NB zone district to the city of Fresno RM-2/ANX (multi-family residential, urban neighborhood/annexed rural residential transitional overlay) zone district;
- and, approximately 1.76 acres of property from the Fresno County RR/NB zone district to the city of Fresno OS/ANX (open space/annexed rural residential transitional overlay) zone district.
Bray further encouraged the residents to “get together and further try to work this out.”
Item 8B Next, the Fresno Planning Commission voted (7-0) to accept applicant Surjit Singh’s appeal and deny the action of the Planning and Development Department director to deny conditional use permit application P19-04757, requesting to establish a California Alcoholic Beverage Control Type 21 (off-sale general: beer, wine and distilled spirits for consumption off the premises where sold) alcohol license for a proposed service station and general market with detached car wash.
The project is located in District 1, overseen by Council member Annalisa Perea, south of West Ashlan Avenue, between State Route 99 and North Golden State Boulevard. Planner Phillip Siegrist presented. You can read the draft conditions for approval here.
Adjournment The next scheduled meeting is Dec. 20, Vang said, with the possibility of all items being carried into the new year. He expressed his gratitude for city staff on behalf of the commission and asked for any unscheduled communication. Bray said there were jars of jelly made by Clark on the dais. The meeting was adjourned at 7:32 p.m.
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at fresnodocs@fresnoland.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.
