Documented by Jackie Schuster
Here’s what you need to know
- In a 3-1 vote, the Visalia City Council adopted an ordinance that would amend the Visalia municipal code’s section regarding special events.
- The council approved initiating the annexation of 59.84 acres into city limits for the Belissa Subdivision Project, which will include 309 single-family residential lots, one lot for multi-family development and one lot for future commercial development.
- The council also approved the appointment of John Lollis, previously the city manager of Porterville, to the assistant city manager position at a salary of $204,000.
Follow-up questions
- How many complaints were made about the Downtown Visalia Certified Farmers Market closure of one street weekly?
- Were the complaints made by business and property owners who are actually located near the market?
Visalia City Council members
Liz Wynn, District One
Vice Mayor Brett Taylor, District Two
Mayor Brian Poochigian, District Three
Emmanuel Hernandez Soto, District Four
Steve Nelsen, District Five
The Scene
The Visalia City Council meeting started at 7:01 p.m. All council members except for Vice Mayor Brett Taylor were present.
Actions/Discussions/Public comment
- A representative from the offices of Shannon Grove, Melissa Hurtado, Vince Fong and Devon Mathis presented the city with a resolution recognizing Visalia’s 100th anniversary.
- Mayor Brian Poochigian recognized the houses that were the winners of the city’s Deck the Home Christmas lighting competition.
- Multiple award winners thanked the city for hosting the event, and said they hope people will use the city’s interactive map to view the homes that participated.
- Public comment
- April Treano Lancaster pulled item 9 from the consent calendar.
- Dr. Lucia Vazquez pulled item 6 from the consent calendar.
- Barry Kaplan said that the agenda is starting to look sharp after some coordination between him and city staff. He asked for items 6 and 16 to be pulled from the consent calendar. He also asked that he be given a few more minutes to discuss item 16 when the time comes.
- Consent calendar
- With items 6, 9 and 16 pulled from the consent calendar, Nelsen moved to approve the rest of the consent calendar. The motion passed 4-0, with Taylor absent.
- Item 6, review and approve the Citizens Advisory Committee’s recommendations for the 2024 Youth NonProfit Grant Awards.
- Soto said City Manager Leslie Caviglia told him that funding for youth nonprofits has dropped, so he hopes to put an item on the agenda to increase funding in the future.
- Vazquez said she was a recipient of the funding for the last three or four years. She often worked with students at local schools, and asked what projects they would like to do. She said over the years she had been doing this, most of those getting money are organizations. Vazquez said only one club in all of Visalia Unified School District (VUSD) is currently qualified to apply, so the city is missing out on being able to work directly with students. She said the fact that the funding is given from January to December makes it more difficult to work with students because that involves two separate school years. She suggested the funding be given from July through June. She also suggested the age limit be raised from 18 because many students graduate from high school after developing leadership skills at VUSD schools, and then have nothing they can do with those skills after graduation.
- Jesús Gamboa, former Visalia mayor, said this grant funding started more than 10 years ago. He thanked the council on behalf of his North Side Boxing Club,and invited the council to drop by and see how the program works.
- Nelsen moved to forward the awards as suggested by the Citizen Advisory Committee, and the motion passed unanimously.
- Item 9, second reading and adoption of Ordinance 2023-12, amending Visalia Municipal Code Section 12.48 Special Events.
- Soto requested that a future agenda item be added to revise the 12-week rule. He asked if at the stakeholders’ meeting it was true that most stakeholders were in favor of not adding the 12-week limit.
- Paul Bernal, director of community development, said he did not have that information.
- Lancaster asked that the council listen to the public. She said that when the Downtown Visalia Certified Farmers Market had to collect their good neighbors’ policy signatures in the middle of their market season, she collected more than 60% of those signatures, and people were in favor of the market. Lancaster said last week she sent in a public comment for clarification on the 12-week rule, and asked if businesses who had a sponsor who let them use the other side of the road they currently hold the market on, would they be able to hold the market for 12 weeks at their current side, then 12 weeks on the sponsor’s side?
- She said she circulated a petition that collected over 300 signatures asking the council to not pass the 12-week limit. Lancaster said at the stakeholders meeting multiple people asked if the 12-week limit had enough complaints to implement it. She said many of those complaints were from Nelsen himself, who she said has a clear conflict of interest.
- Kaplan said that last time he spoke about Nelsen’s conflict of interest because he is CEO of Downtown Visalians, and since then, people have suggested to him that council members Wynn and Taylor may also have a conflict of interest. He also asked if any changes have been made to the text of the ordinance since the last meeting, and if so, why is this a second reading and not a first reading. Kaplan said that some residents of homes from the Deck the Home event have said there has been street clogging in their neighborhoods from traffic for multiple weeks, so if this ordinance is very strict about street closures, why are these limitations not being imposed on the whole city?
- Kaplan also asked why Nelsen has not had to recuse himself if events that his organization sponsors are being considered. Kaplan asked that since many of the events listed in the ordinance won’t happen until spring, can this item be tabled for later. He also asked the city attorney if there were as many as two conflicts of interest, what would be the process for dealing with that.
- Janeen Robbins, who owns two properties on Main Street, said she has served on multiple boards related to downtown businesses or properties for over 10 years. She said she would like to thank the city and all current merchant boards for supporting downtown Visalia. Robbins said she has people come into her store and tell her how beautiful the downtown area is. She said from day one the values have been to encourage business, property values and people to participate. Robbins said there are rules and regulations for a reason, and they need to be put into place to invest in downtown. Robbins said at the merchant’s meetings they were voting in favor of the regulations.
- Vazquez said it was unclear at the last meeting what things would be changed from what was originally presented, so she would be interested in knowing what those changes were. She said it’s apparent that this is a very personal issue for some people, and while there should be rules and regulations, events like the Downtown Visalia Certified Farmers Market bring good things to Visalia. She said she heard comments last week encouraging the farmers market to instead hold the market at Garden Plaza, but that venue would charge them $120 a week to be there, whereas at their current location, they only pay $64 a year. She said that if the council wants the market to move there, they should consider waiving those fees.
- Wayne Rodriguez said without rules and regulations, downtown won’t be flourishing.
- Bernal said no changes have been made to the ordinance. He said there was some discussion of renaming downtown annual events to regional events but since there was no motion to change that it was not changed. Bernal said that in the new section on the restriction of use for public events, the last sentence said the city may find no interruption occurring.
- Poochigian asked for clarification on the idea that if someone has property frontage on one side of the road they can hold 12 events there, then if they have a sponsor who lets them host on the other side they could hold 12 other events there.
- Bernal said that could work if the city finds there is no interruption occurring.
- Poochigian asked for an answer to the earlier comment about events causing road closures in other areas of the city. He said road closures for construction are different from special event road closures.
- Poochigian brought up the fees for holding an event at Garden Plaza versus Main Street. Bernal said there are fees for renting city venues for events that are different from fees for the city to process papers.
- Poochigian asked the city attorney about the potential conflicts of interest.
- City Attorney Ken Richardson said Kaplan may be confused about what Nelsen’s role is and who his obligations are to. He said Kaplan is not entitled to know his legal opinions that are attorney-client privileged, and no one else in the public is entitled to those opinions either. Richardson said when it comes to conflicts, those are not city issues but council members’ individual decisions.
- Richardson said those discussions can lawfully remain private until he is directed to waive that privilege, and after the last meeting, Nelsen waived that privilege. He said his opinion is that Nelsen does not have a conflict of interest because, “[Nelsen] does not have a direct or indirect financial interest that is implicated by this ordinance, there is no special privilege granted to
- Council member Steve Nelsen by this ordinance, it treats Council member Steve Nelsen the same as it treats every other citizen. There is no other reasonable or factual or legal basis that anyone has asserted to me at my office to suggest that Council member Nelsen has a conflict that would disqualify him from participating in this matter.”
- Richardson said he has not spoken to Wynn or Taylor about any possible conflicts of interest they might have.
- Wynn said she isn’t sure how she got pulled into the conflict of interest discussion, she doesn’t own a business downtown but works for Kaweah Health.
- Soto said he has said before that he thinks Visalia has one of the best downtowns and has for years. He said he doesn’t think the farmers market has stopped downtown from flourishing. He said he would not support this ordinance because of the 12-week limit.
- Nelsen said he doesn’t think any council members have said they want to do away with the farmers market, but that Wynn did previously explain why the farmers market is a disturbance. He said businesses in the Bank of the Sierra building lose parking when the market is held, and that if the farmers market is valuable, why wouldn’t they move it to Garden Plaza? Nelsen said the current number of vendors at the market is 10, and the plaza could hold that many vendors while only being a couple of blocks away. He also said they could move the market to Recreation Park because that is closer to the clientele that needs a market like that.
- Nelsen said an individual has “spread her wings” to attack council members but council members have never attacked the farmers market. He said members of Downtown Visalia don’t want the farmers market on the roadway but have no problems with it being moved to the Garden Plaza. Nelsen said since the last meeting, he and friends of his have been attacked on social media three to four times per day. He said this is just one person doing this, but instead of deciding to work with the city to move the market, she keeps wasting time.
- Nelsen said it is obvious that Downtown Visalia does nothing different than they did when he became executive director of Downtown Visalians.He said all this ordinance does is lay out the things they are supposed to do. He said the regional events laid out in the ordinance regularly get thousands of attendees but the largest crowd that has ever been at the downtown farmers market is when they had a drum circle, so how does that event benefit downtown? Nelsen said the reason he voted and supported this measure is because there are lots of organizations that have great events downtown such as the Lions Club and Arts Visalia. He said these events bring people to Visalia from other counties and that’s what benefits downtown.
- Nelsen said he disagrees with what Soto said because he is not involved with downtown Visalia. He said he will always do what’s best for the business and property owners downtown because that is their lifeblood.
- Soto said success to everyone is defined differently, Nelsen keeps bringing numbers up and he thinks those large events are very beneficial but other smaller events can be beneficial too.
- Poochigian said he likes code because it gives answers in black and white. He asked Bernal how many years an event needs to have 1,000 attendees before it could become a regional event.
- Bernal said in the code it is spelled out how events can petition the city to be classified as a downtown annual event.
- Poochigian asked if an event attracted 1,000 people and received approval to be a downtown annual asked, but the next year the event had a lower attendance, would they be able to keep the event label?
Bernal said the ordinance will be on the city website so people can view what is required. - Nelsen moved to approve the second reading and adopt Ordinance 2023-12 to amend the Visalia municipal code. The motion passed 3-1, with Soto voting no.
- Item 16, a request by Caviglia for council confirmation of the appointment of John Lollis as assistant city manager at a salary of $204,000.
- Kaplan said from 2008 to 2020 he watched many City Council meetings in Porterville and saw many council members recuse themselves from items where there were possible conflicts of interest. He said Lollis recused himself multiple times, too, and he appreciated that. Kaplan said that with regard to the appointment of Lollis, historically he has told his staff to regularly withhold public records. He said Lollis made it difficult for constituents to meet with department heads. Kaplan’s time ran out, and he was asked to step down. He said he had already asked for more time to speak, and Poochgian said that would not be fair. Poochgian said he would have Kaplan removed from the room if he did not step down.
- Richardson said Kaplan has “creative interpretations” of the Brown Act but they have no merit, and he would point him to recent additions of the Brown Act that involve consequences for disruptions to meetings.
- Soto moved to approve the appointment of Lollis as assistant city manager of Visalia with a salary of $204,000; the motion passed unanimously.
- Regular item 1, public hearing and consideration of actions to approve the Belissa Subdivision Annexation.
- Bernal said the request is to annex 59.84 acres into city limits. The Belissa Subdivision Project involves 309 single-family residential lots, one lot for multi-family development and one lot for future commercial development. He said the planned residential development has gone through a process to reduce lot sizes and setbacks.
- The site contains multiple zoning designations and has multiple access points.
- This project will require infrastructure updates such as extending sewage systems.
- At a work session, the council asked to elevate the design; project developers elevated the development with ornamental design on all residential structures.
- Bernal said with the lots being required to be downsized, the project developer was able to add 11 pocket parks throughout the project.
- The project is consistent with land use policies and densities and compatible with the adjacent subdivision southeast of the project site.
- The developer will have to do major street improvements on Linwood, Demaree and Riverway. There will be 60 ft. wide local streets throughout the project and the developers will pay traffic impact fees for future projects.
- They did not receive any comments on the Environmental Review.
- The Planning Commission reviewed this item at the Nov. 13 meeting and approved the tentative subdivision map and conditional use permits.
- Nelsen asked if there has to be any consideration for the Modoc Ditch that runs through this project.
- Bernal said there does not have to be any consideration since it is not a community water source.
- Wynn asked what the timeline of this project is.
- Bernal said this project has been delayed so far because of going through agriculture mitigations, but the project developer is in attendance and can give a better idea of the timeline.
- Soto said he always likes to see parks.
- Poochigian said this would be a fantastic addition to the city.
- Kaplan said he would like to clarify with Richardson who seems to think he represents Kaplan as well, so does Richardson have a conflict of interest as well? Poochigian said Kaplan needs to comment on the item itself, Kaplan said he takes that to be Richardson’s “apology for his outburst” then. Kaplan said this agenda item is too wordy and he wonders why this one is when so many of the consent calendar items are worded well. He said he would ask the council to ask the city manager and staff about that.
- Adrienne Burns, representing the developer, said they have built projects in Visalia before and are excited to have another one. She said they are also excited about the parks in the project and they were able to utilize the ditch as a trail. Timing-wise, she said they have been waiting to be at the council meeting to get this going. She said they are hoping to break ground next year if they get council approval.
- Nelsen motioned to approve Resolution 2023-62 adopting the Initial Study and Mitigated Declaration 2022-31, and approve Resolution 2023-63 to initiate proceedings for Annexation 2022-02, authorizing the detachment of property from County Service Area 1 and authorizing the city manager to enter a pre-annexation agreement between the city of Visalia and the property owners. The motion passed unanimously.
- Regular item 2, public hearing and consideration of actions to approve the county islands annexation.
- Bernal said the project is 16 parcels totaling 35.76 acres. He said these two county islands were created when the Sycamore Heights annexation was approved, and LAFCO required the city to process this annexation within a year of the Sycamore Heights annexation.
- The annexation areas are developed and have an existing development pattern for residential zones on larger lots. This project is consistent with general plan policies
- Bernal said staff held a neighborhood meeting on Dec. 7 and three property owners attended the meeting. They had questions about the use of private water wells, sewer connections, addressing changes and building permits. He said they are working with property owners on their questions about address changes.
- Kaplan said the agenda wording has 98 words, and Richardson interrupted to tell him to read the text and that it is not noncompliant with the Brown Act. Kaplan said although at previous meetings Richardson has said the wording on various agenda items are Brown Act compliant, the city manager has chosen to shorten agenda text anyway, so is she choosing to ignore Richardson’s advice or is it not Brown Act compliant? He said he would like to know the advice Richardson gave the city manager to start changing agenda text.
- Poochigian said he has been accused of many things while on the council but not of giving too much information. He said if Kaplan has an issue with this he should file a Brown Act complaint because he is taking up too much time and running people out of the meetings.
- Soto said he thinks these agenda summaries are great for people who are not going to read the staff reports, and if people don’t understand the agenda wording people can call him and he can walk them through it in English or Spanish.
- Nelsen moved to approve Resolution 2023-61 to initiate proceedings for Annexation 2023-03, authorizing the detachment of property from County Service Area 1. The motion passed unanimously.
- Regular item 3, a request to adopt the update to the 6th Cycle General Plan Housing Element.
- Ryan Lester, the consultant from Mintier Harnish, said staff has been working with his firm on the housing element since July 2022. He said they released a public review draft and reviewed it at a council work session on June 19. They received comments from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) on Oct. 23 and have been working to address all of those comments. He said for community engagement with the update they provided a project website that is translatable to Spanish, two newsletters, a council work session, three Housing Technical Advisory Committee meetings, stakeholder interviews, two community workshops, a housing needs survey, an online mapping exercise and email updates.
- Lester said Visalia’s share of the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) is 56% of sites that can accommodate lower-income housing in the region. They looked at units in planned and approved projects, existing potential sites, sites anticipated to be annexed during the planning field and current trends to select sites meeting the RHNA criteria. They identify potential underutilized sites like ones with current parking or industrial use, low floor areas and older improvements. They also look to make sure they consider fair housing so they are not compressing large amounts of housing in areas that are economically pressed or don’t have enough land.
- They have a surplus with some sites, but he said the state recommends between a 10-30% surplus in the lower-income units. He said they met the requirements through existing vacant and underutilized parcels currently allowing residential areas, so they will not have to rezone any areas.
- The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing includes maps that look at different criteria to understand how to plan for residential units to overcome fair housing issues. Lester said this requires cities to proactively work to overcome issues instead of fixing things as complaints arise.
- Lester said the AFFH findings were that downtown Visalia and the westernmost areas have high rates of poverty and racial segregation compared to other areas. It also found that downtown areas are walkable and the city has relatively good access to transportation.
- They identified actions that would meaningfully address the contributing factors to fair housing issues. He said the goals in the policy document remained largely the same but the programs have changed. Some required program actions to consider throughout the Housing Element are anti-displacement and housing mobility strategies, expanded outreach efforts and detailed metrics and milestones, Lester said.
- Multiple programs from the last housing element were continued, such as support for Section 8 vouchers and homeless shelters, first-time homebuyer programs and emergency repairs programs.
- Significant new commitments in the element involve annually engaging local agencies, preparing a transit needs study by 2027 and regularly monitoring the pollution burden in each census tract.
- After receiving HCD comments, they added actions encouraging ADU development and employee housing.
- The Planning Commission held a public hearing for this on Dec. 11 and the commission recommended the adoption of the housing element.
- Nelsen said the requirements appear to be an overreach by the state, and when cities follow state guidelines they change them again. He said he supports the recommendations, since the city has no other choice.
- Wynn said she saw something in the presentation about an annual report that is required by the state, so does that go to the council or Planning Commission?
- Bernal said that already happens annually and the Planning Division does that report, which then goes before the council for its approval.
- Wynn asked if units can be counted if they aren’t built yet.
- Brandon Smith from the Planning Division said they can be counted once building permits are issued.
- Poochigian asked how many municipalities meet these requirements.
- Lester said only around 28 cities meet RHNA requirements through production but if they don’t meet them, they have to agree to more actions.
- Poochigian asked if the requirements raise housing prices.
- Kaplan told the council that he tried to read the report and he wondered if the overlay maps show any changes from previous years. He said it also seemed like low-income housing was supposed to be near transit and he asked if part of the transportation element involves changes that might happen over the next eight years such as driverless vehicles.
- Lester said all of those overlay maps are brand new, so the staff won’t be able to look at those for trends until the next cycle.
- Nelsen moved to adopt Resolution 2023-64, adopting the Public Hearing Draft Housing Element Update and incorporating minor edits in the final Housing Element update as detailed in the Planning Commission review and action section of the staff report. The motion passed unanimously.
- Closed session report
- Richardson said the city closed on four different property transactions and the details of those can be found on the city website.
The meeting ended at 9:27 p.m. The next Visalia City Council meeting will be held on Monday Jan. 16 at 7 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.
