What's at stake:
In one of its most important votes of the decade, the Fresno Planning Commission ended in a dramatic twist Wednesday night, with one key planning commissioner appointed by Mayor Jerry Dyer changing her vote on SEDA in the final minutes of the meeting.
She was led out of city hall by her colleague before she could explain her vote.
California’s fifth-largest city is coming apart at the seams over 9,000 acres of land. Fresno’s planning politics are about to go nuclear.
The Fresno Planning Commission approved the 45,000-home Southeast Development area (SEDA) Specific Plan in a historic 4-3 vote late Wednesday night after a packed house of residents told them to vote no.
The mega-development faces a $3 billion funding shortfall, which drew roughly 150 worried residents to City Hall. Most said they were concerned that SEDA would lead to service cuts across the city and a brain drain from Fresno Unified to service high-priced homes in Clovis Unified.
A coalition of residents, community organizations, and labor groups are prepared to launch what they call “the nuclear option” against SEDA – a citywide referendum that, like Ventura County or Portland, would outlaw growth on the prime agricultural land that SEDA currently occupies.
“This plan is tantamount to a really big middle finger to Fresno residents,” said Dan Brannick, a Fresno land use attorney.
The approval continued to show the political importance of Clovis Unified’s new $500 million Terry Bradley Center in southeast Fresno, where homes can sell for an extra $100,000 or more.
To Commissioner Kathy Bray, the prospect of developers selling homes near the school was the driving force of SEDA. The commission’s approval was simply the natural outcome of Clovis Unified’s new school, she said, and Fresno might as well let developers build there.
“If you think development is not going to follow that school, you’re mistaken,” said Bray. “The reality is it’s going to happen.”
To get SEDA approved, developers land speculating near the school have pressured Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer in recent months, with one developer, Darius Assemi, calling Clovis Unified’s new school a “gorgeous, brand new toy.”
Residents at the meeting spoke of how Fresno’s present-day issues were created by similar decisions made by the planning commission 40 years ago.
Clovis Unified’s wealth wouldn’t have been possible, said a Fresno reverend, without city leaders choosing to subsidize CUSD’s infrastructure using the tax base from older FUSD neighborhoods.
“Every time Clovis Unified builds a new school, we feel obligated as Fresno to build homes for their school district,” said Simon Biasell, a pastor at Big Red Church. “For decades, we have been heartbroken to see our community deprived of the resources that other communities are getting.
“I love compromise. I love coming together. It’s what makes us great as a community. But it requires two to compromise and developers have not been compromising. They’ve been getting rich.”
The SEDA plan calls for a major billion-dollar park system for the new fringe development. Despite 2018’s Measure P, a sales tax funding parks, Fresno’s core neighborhoods currently have one of the worst park systems in America.
A city-commissioned report shows that developer fees will only cover $1 billion out of $4 billion in costs, with the private sector unlikely to finance the remaining $3 billion shortfall.
Planning Commissioner Jacqueline Lyday, who is also a real estate agent, pushed back on the residents’ concerns that the mega-project’s financial shortcomings could cause a drain of resources from existing neighborhoods.
“This is a great plan,” said Lyday, who is selling homes in the new towns of southern Madera County, according to her Instagram. “You may not be able to see how wonderful this plan could be because there’s so much opposition.”
‘I was appalled. This is horrible for air quality’
All but two of the people who spoke to the commission during the hours-long public comment period were against SEDA.
The mega-development, which would increase pollution emissions by an estimated 600%, would cause massive health issues for southeast Fresno residents, said former Valley Air District analyst Trevor Joy.
“I worked for the Valley Air District as an air quality specialist for 19 and a half years. I did thousands of risk management reviews,” Joy said. “I listened to your presentation about air quality and I was appalled. This is horrible for air quality.”
Rural residents inside the boundaries of SEDA – which is currently outside of city limits, but in the county – said they have been informed by the city that once SEDA starts getting built, they will be required to pay a mandatory fee of at least $100,000 to overhaul their water and sewer system with new pipes.
For the area’s existing residents, said resident Ed Antenucci, that would likely cause their financial ruin.
“We’re senior citizens. We’re living on social security,” said Antenucci. “We can’t afford that cost. Please say no.”
If residents don’t have the cash for the upgrades, a lien will be put on their homes, according to residents and city staff.
Three commissioners voted in opposition to SEDA – Pastor DJ Criner, Chairman Peter Vang, and Gurdeep Singh Shergill.
“Why aren’t we concentrating within Fresno first?” asked Shergill – also a real estate agent, and a strong advocate for development in the city’s West Area plan.
Vang said he voted no because the city had not shown him any plan to pay for SEDA.
“I would wish we were able to see the implementation plan,” said Vang.
But ultimately, four other commissioners voted yes. Along with Bray and Lyday, Commissioner Monica Diaz, who did not speak during Wednesday’s meeting, voted yes.
Commissioner Linda Calandra, a recent Dyer appointee and Fresno City Councilmember during the 1990s, was the swing vote.
In a dramatic twist at the end of the meeting, Calandra at first voted no on SEDA. It appeared SEDA had failed to pass. But then Calandra changed her vote on a slightly different second motion.
Calandra’s second motion sought to preserve prime farmland while also incorporating an industrial park into SEDA’s first phase south of Jensen. The problem: According to city documents presented to the commission, the area slated for that industrial use overlapped with most of the farmland she aimed to protect.
Before Calandra could be interviewed about her change of mind, fellow Commissioner DJ Criner grabbed her arm and led her away from the press, saying Calandra needed to go home urgently.
Ariana Martinez, a community organizer and candidate for Fresno City Council, vowed that residents would continue to fight the city.
She said that it was obscene that SEDA would move forward while council members tell mothers across the city that traffic signals on walking routes to school are too expensive.
“But somehow we have the money to do this?”
On Dec. 4, the planning commission’s recommendation of approval will go to the city council for a final vote on SEDA.
