Good morning! It’s Monday, July 20. This is Rob.
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🖼️Open call for muralists: The City of Fresno and the Fresno Arts Council are looking for an artist to paint a mural at Tupman Park in south Fresno. YourCentralValley
🎥America 250: Fresno’s local historical society is celebrating the people, places, and stories that shaped our nation and our Valley. The process starts at 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 22 at The Archive on Kern, 2120 Kern St. Fresno City and County Historical Society.
😋It’s back! Fresno Fiesta Market is back beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, July 31 at the Manchester Center featuring food trucks, shopping and live music by La Diseña Norteña, Banda Revolución and Jornales de California. Instagram
1. What happens when Costco moves?
New Fresno State research shows that home prices in Clovis climbed after Costco left the neighborhood in 2019.
Home values jumped 8 to 9 points in the area of Ashlan and Peach avenues after Costco cleared out for its new spot near the Sierra Vista Mall.
Home prices in the new neighborhood, the research shows, essentially remained flat, first taking a dip during the construction phases and later rebounding once the warehouse store opened its doors publicly.
But the authors of the study don’t think Fresno’s ongoing Costco relocation debate can draw much wisdom from the Clovis move, they said, because the two cases are too different.
2. Yes, in God’s Backyard?
“It’s no secret that California is hard to afford. When it comes to housing, no city or town is left out of the financial squeeze. But the West Side Church of God is doing something no other church in Fresno County has done before: it’s building affordable housing,” KVPR reports.
As Fresnoland noted last year, The 2023 law dubbed the Affordable Housing on Faith and Higher Education Lands Act, or SB4, allows churches and colleges to repurpose empty land and turn it into housing, as long as the nearby area meets the zoning needs for housing.
The law aims to fill a housing need for vulnerable populations, like students and families struggling to make ends meet.
“Some recent estimates suggest the state needs about 1.3 million more affordable rental homes to meet the current demand for housing,” KVPR writes.
3. Ready or not?
The Fresno mayor’s massive and contentious SEDA project is set to return to City Hall for debate next month, The Fresno Bee reports.
The Fresno City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing to consider recommending approval of the revised Southeast Development Area Specific Plan and its environmental impact report at 6 p.m. Aug. 19 at City Hall.
Revisions have yet to be made available to the public.
“If a majority of commissioners vote to recommend the plan, it could receive final approval as soon as the next scheduled City Council meeting, on Aug. 27.”
If approved, SEDA would expand the city’s borders by rezoning 9,000 acres of mostly farmland to the east and south to make room for up to 45,000 homes.
Opponents say the mega-development would drain resources from existing neighborhoods, force school closures in Fresno Unified, ruin prime farmland and reinforce the harmful environmental impacts of Fresno’s history of urban sprawl.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Omar S. Rashad.
