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Good afternoon! It’s Danielle Bergstrom, policy editor here.
Thursday’s Fresno City Council meeting, as predicted, was a bit much, ending in the early hours of the morning.
The housing policy blitz hit some hurdles: Mayor Dyer brought six new policies and two resolutions to continue funding for existing programs at Thursday’s city council meeting. Councilmembers across the political spectrum showed they were less than thrilled by the conceptual nature of what was brought before them.
But we are getting 24 tiny homes. The council agreed that the proposal for the city to partner with Fresno City College’s Applied Technology program to build 24 tiny homes for $850,000 was pretty straightforward – so they moved that forward, along with an additional $3.5 million of federal pandemic funds for the city’s affordable housing trust fund and an acknowledgement that $1.2 million was set aside in the June budget to continue the city’s eviction protection program.
Density cap removed, but ministerial approval fails: a proposed zoning change to eliminate red tape for housing developers trying to build near transit and in older neighborhoods had some success – but council members stopped short of allowing housing developments to bypass community input, known as ministerial approval.
From the discussion at the council meeting, we’ll likely be seeing more detailed proposals come back in the next few weeks.
Cooling and warming center hours got extended. As Cassandra Garibay has reported for Fresnoland, tight restrictions on cooling centers have left them relatively underutilized. The council approved new guidelines that mean cooling centers will open when it hits 100 degrees.
City Controller is out: The council fired city controller Michael Lima at the recommendation of the city manager, in a late night special session, as Briana Vaccari reported for The Fresno Bee. Ruthie Quino was named as the interim controller.
City paying political operatives for voter education: in another controversial item, the council approved two contracts for voter education on two different ballot measures.
$450,000 will go to Local Government Strategic Consulting, a political consulting firm owned by Alex Tavlian, who also publishes and writes at political site The San Joaquin Valley Sun, to help voters learn about Measure M, a sales tax for veterans’ related services.
The Jeffrey Scott Agency, run by Bruce Batti, will receive $150,000 to educate voters on the renewal of Measure C, Fresno County’s transportation sales tax. JSA is also funded by the Fresno County Transportation Authority as part of the “Yes on C” effort.
Protected bike lane drama: I’m a cyclist, so I was thrilled to get another protected bike lane on Van Ness. But it has not been received very well (for good reasons) and The Fresnan dives into it.
Sad news for Fresno: it’s Fresnoland housing reporter Cassandra Garibay’s last week with Fresnoland, as she moves on to become the California Engagement Editor with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. We’ll miss her dearly! If you’ve enjoyed her reporting, send her your appreciation on Twitter.
That’s it for this week. Maybe we’ll see you at the Taco Truck Throwdown, one of Fresno’s best events, tonight?
Fresno City Council pushes back most of Mayor Dyer’s housing policies, for now
Central Valley agriculture could see big changes from California farmworker union bill
Fresno votes to extend cooling and warming center operations, citing extreme weather changes
Mayor Dyer is proposing eight new policies to tackle Fresno’s housing crisis. Here’s what they will do.
West Fresno farmer says new project is ‘revolutionary’ for local community food access
From the Documenters
- The Fresno Housing Authority extended a contract to continue to operate emergency housing at Sierra Terrace apartments in southwest Fresno. [Fresno Documenters]
- Bike and pedestrian collisions are up in Fresno from 2021, according to city data [Fresno Documenters]
- The Kerman City Council learned more about plans for a police station that will function as a ‘community safety center’ [Fresno Documenters]
- Fresno Street Eats is coming to Reedley’s Pioneer Park [Fresno Documenters]
