What's at stake?
The Fresno City Council approved a handful of items that will help get them back the state’s Prohousing status — a coveted designation that comes with a handful of incentives, most notably eligibility to apply for millions in housing grants.
The loss of Prohousing could cost the city millions as the windows to apply for current and soon-to-be-available grants pass them by.
The Fresno City Council approved a handful of housing policies that will help reduce barriers to building more homes and, they hope, get them back in the good graces of California housing regulators.
Last month, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer announced that the city had lost its Prohousing designation. The state awards the designation to local cities and counties that they feel are doing their part to address their local housing needs. In return, the city could gain access to millions of dollars of housing grants.
Thursday’s council vote introduced a provision allowing tiny homes on wheels in the city to qualify as a primary residence, one of the seven remaining provisions the city needs to meet to reapply for its Prohousing designation.
Other changes included updating city code language to better match state guidelines, like reducing the minimum density of mobile home parks from 12 units to eight units per acre and eliminating parking requirements for accessory dwelling units.
The policies will get a second reading and final approval at the council’s Jun. 19 meeting, typical for city ordinances.
But one of the city’s more controversial plans to make it easier to build homes – their proposed ‘ministerial’ ordinance, which would eliminate most community input and discretionary approval for projects near bus routes and in office zones – was postponed until the council’s next meeting on Jun. 19 at 10:00 a.m.
Through the consent agenda, the council approved a resolution that would require all councilmembers to be notified if developers want to convert offices into housing in their district.
The resolution can be seen as a concession toward the council’s voting bloc that has railed against the ministerial item.
While the council needs to allow homes to be built in office zones to get back in the good graces of state regulators, city staff have previously said that the ministerial approval of those projects wasn’t necessary to get their Prohousing status back.
The remaining housing streamlining policies should come to the council by the fall, according to Dyer during his announcement last month.
Southwest Fresno rezone postponed
The council also postponed a rezoning of a handful of properties on Elm Avenue in southwest Fresno, which has been linked to approval of the ministerial ordinance in the past.
Both items have been postponed numerous times, with the streamlining ordinance appearing on the council agenda as early as March, and the Elm rezone in April.
The Elm rezone has faced significant opposition from residents in southwest Fresno since 2021, and most recently, from California Sen. Anna Caballero, who sent a letter to Mayor Dyer on Jun. 10, saying the proposal jeopardizes public health and the community’s vision.
The Elm rezone was pulled by Councilmember Annalisa Perea, with no timetable for return.
Two community service projects get closer to completion
The council also approved funding for two community projects: the city’s senior center at Blackstone and Ashlan Avenues and HVAC installation at the Maxie L. Parks community center in southwest Fresno.
Councilmember Tyler Maxwell allocated about $1.6 million in funding toward the senior center, in a move that brings the project closer to breaking ground by the end of the year, he said.
Fresno’s assistant director of planning and development Phil Skei said during the presentation that the move does not fully finance the project, but that he and the mayor are confident they have found a source to fill the funding gap.
Councilmember Miguel Arias also successfully allocated $200,000 in unallocated Community Development Block Grant funds toward Casita Feliz, a local Latino, LGBTQ-serving organization.
The funding allocations happened while the council discussed how to allocate federal housing and community investment dollars for the remainder of the decade during a city presentation.
Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that the policies still require a final approval by the Fresno City Council in a second reading of the ordinance on Jun. 19.
