What’s at stake?
The Tower District Specific Plan update has been years in the making, but it’s expected to take over another year at least before a final vote, city staff shared at a council meeting Thursday. The Fresno City Council also approved a contract to begin construction on a long-awaited park in southeast Fresno and an alley closure ordinance at their Oct. 10 meeting.
At a meeting Thursday, the Fresno City Council approved a contract to begin construction on a long-awaited park, heard a report on code enforcement’s activities, and chose who on the council will get to vote on the Tower District Specific Plan.
To decide the latter, the council resorted to drawing lots in a process Council President Annalisa Perea said was “the first time we have ever done this.”
The council was forced to use that process because, as Thursday’s meeting revealed, most councilmembers own real estate in the Tower District.
Five of seven council members reported owning property within the bounds of the Tower District Specific Plan, a conflict of interest that would normally force them to recuse themselves from the vote, according to state law.
Those five Tower District property owners are Perea, Council Vice President Mike Karbassi, and councilmembers Miguel Arias, Nelson Esparza and Luis Chavez. Two of them – Esparza and Arias – said the property is their primary residence.
But because the council needs a quorum of four to conduct business, two “conflicted” councilmembers were randomly selected to participate in discussions and votes on the Tower District Specific Plan.
Arias and Esparza both drew green slips of paper Thursday, allowing them to join councilmembers Tyler Maxwell and Garry Bredefeld – the only two members without conflicts in the Tower District – in deciding on the plan.
What now for the Tower District Specific Plan?
First adopted in 1991, the Tower District Specific Plan serves as a policy roadmap for land use, infrastructure and the conservation and maintenance of neighborhoods and historic buildings in one of Fresno’s most walkable neighborhoods.
The proposed update to the plan is years in the making, following demands from community residents looking to modernize the over 30-year-old plan and introduce greater protections against industrial zoning near residential areas.
Although Thursday’s meeting determined which councilmembers will be making decisions on the Tower District Specific Plan going forward, a final vote on it is still a ways to go.
Staff said they’re not expecting a final decision on the plan until December 2025.
Before that can happen, the council needs to “initiate” the plan’s land use map and draft update, which would allow an environmental review of the plan to begin.
Councilmembers voted to continue the hearing until a Nov. 7 council meeting to give the public time to meet with the four councilmembers chosen to decide on the plan going forward.
Arias floated the idea of holding that continued hearing after normal work hours to allow greater participation from the public on a “monumental decision.”
“The public just witnessed history,” Arias said, “four of us being selected to take on this task that does impact approximately 100,000 residents in the city and the most historic portion of the city.”
The council ultimately decided to have the hearing during normal meeting hours, however, with Maxwell noting the continuation to Nov. 7 gives residents a month’s notice.
Code enforcement issued over $3 million in fines for illegal cannabis
The city council also heard a quarterly update from the City Attorney’s Office on the work of the Code Enforcement Division.
Chief Assistant City Attorney Erica Camarena shared that over the past three months, code enforcement issued over $3 million in citations and seized over 3,000 illegal cannabis plants across four cultivation sites.
Camarena also shared that code enforcement’s night time crew recently underwent a schedule change from Thursday through Sunday to Wednesday through Saturday, “primarily to accommodate the Why Not Wednesdays that the city has recently implemented.”
Police officer schedules were also cited by city leaders as a major reason why outdoor activities could no longer be accommodated on Thursday ArtHop nights.
The council makes moves on a new alley closure ordinance, long-awaited park for southeast Fresno
In a sweeping vote on the consent agenda without discussion, the city council also awarded a construction contract to begin work on the South Peach Avenue Park and gave their initial approval to an ordinance on alley closures.
The city entered a $9.6 million contract with Fresno’s American Paving Co. to construct two multi-use sports fields, two playgrounds and other amenities across 10 acres of the 49-acre park project.
“Southeast Fresno has never had a regional park of this size,” Councilmember Luis Chavez said in a city news release Thursday afternoon. “When completed, our children and families will have a state-of-the-art sports complex with picnic tables, soccer fields, cricket, and a trail.”
Construction on the park will begin in January.
The new alley ordinance creates a process through which requests can be made to the city’s Director of Public Works to close alleys to vehicle and pedestrian traffic, as long as at least three-quarters of all adjacent property owners consent to the closure.
The ordinance cites issues with illegal dumping, prostitution and drug transactions in city alleys as the reason for the legislation.
