What's at stake?
The City of Fresno on Thursday approved another policy to streamline the development of affordable housing proposals in the city.
They also initiated the process to look into installing automated red-light cameras to enforce traffic violations
The Fresno City Council on Thursday approved a policy to help streamline the building approval process for proposed developments that set aside at least one-fifth of their housing units to lower-income households.
In short, developers who present the city with a housing proposal with at least 20% of their total units priced for low-income rental prices can be approved ministerially by the city in certain areas of town, meaning those projects can skip past review by the Fresno Planning Commission and City Council.
The policy also helps keep the city compliant with its Housing Element, a document cities and counties must submit to California housing officials to outline how they plan to help address the state’s housing shortage.
Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea said Thursday’s proposal is a way for the council to step up and address local cost of living issues.
“As electeds we preach affordability, high cost of living. What can we do to bring costs down? But we don’t always act upon those statements,” Perea said. “This is a policy that allows us to practice what we preach.”
Though relatively brief, comments at Thursday’s hearing for the proposal mirrored conversations heard last year when the city debated a similar policy to allow for ministerial approval of select office-to-housing conversions.
In that instance, the members of the dais were stuck in a months-long debate as they struggled to compromise and reconcile their shared desires to want to address the state’s housing crisis, but with some being uncomfortable with ceding their local land-use powers — one of the core responsibilities of a city councilmember.
Thursday’s policy was approved 6-1, with Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi being the lone dissenting vote.
Though he eventually voted to approve the ministerial policy last year, Karbassi and some councilmembers pushed to add certain guardrails to that law, in particular a tenet that allows councilmembers to be notified when housing proposals in their district are approved ministerially. That way, councilmembers would at least be aware if a project they or their constituents had an issue with was about to be built in their district.
“I just worry, if there’s less chance for an appeal for whatever reason, that’s less public input,” Karbassi said of Thursday’s proposal, “and that’s what I have a hard time wrapping my head around.”
The policy being included in Fresno’s Housing Element largely tied the city’s hands, as a failure to pass the policy could have brought consequences that ranged anywhere from a loss of eligibility for state funding grants to litigation from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, according to city staff at Thursday’s meeting.
Still, Karbassi was adamant that he felt uncomfortable approving policies that provide his constituents with fewer opportunities for public input. Notably, Thursday’s policy only allows for ministerial approval of projects in zones that are mostly in his district.
“I’m a very foolish politician, because sometimes I get stubborn on principle,” Karbassi said. “If someone has a gun in my head, I’m going to say, ‘shoot.’ This is one I can’t move on. I just can’t do it.”
Council approves pilot program for automated red-light camera enforcement
The Fresno City Council also unanimously approved a resolution to pursue a 36-month pilot program that will see red-light traffic violations enforced automatically through mounted cameras on intersections around the city.
The program comes months after state lawmakers passed a law allowing local jurisdictions to implement these programs to curtail vehicular homicide and injury numbers. The bill passed through the legislature without much opposition.
Thursday’s resolution was sponsored by Perea and Fresno City Council President Nelson Esparza.
Thursday’s vote does not implement the program. It directs the city manager to begin formulating what the policy would look like locally, which includes identifying the best places to put up the cameras around the city, and to figure out the cost to implement the program.
The program was not discussed, and it was approved through a procedural vote at the top of the meeting. The city manager is expected to present their findings to the council within 90 days of Thursday’s vote.
