West Fresno community leaders are calling on the Fresno City Council to oppose a controversial proposal that would allow for more industrial development in their pollution-burdened communities.
On Thursday, Fresno City Council will vote on the Elm Street Rezone, a proposal to convert 55.31 acres of land designated as neighborhood mixed-use into light industrial use. The vote was postponed after a heated meeting among council members on Feb. 19.
“There is an overburdening of industrial presence in southwest Fresno, and we need to be working in an effort to reduce industrial presence in southwest Fresno, not increase it in any way,” Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church Pastor B.T. Lewis said Wednesday. (Lewis also serves as the City of Fresno’s BIPOC Community Liaison.)
Tensions have mounted between the landowners who support the rezone and community members and city officials, including District 3 Councilmember Miguel Arias, who oppose it.
Several West Fresno community leaders joined Arias in a press conference Wednesday morning to address recent claims about the rezone and to call on the rest of the council to oppose it.
Screenshot of proposed Elm Street rezone would convert 55.31 acres from neighborhood mixed-use into light industrial use. City of Fresno
Buzz Oates and Span Development, owners of the Elm Avenue Business Park, said in a statement that through their rezone application, they are “seeking to restore zoning that accommodates their newly built warehouses, and preserve the thousands of jobs for Fresno residents provided by their tenants.”
Lawyers for the company have escalated efforts in recent weeks to pressure the City Council to approve the rezone, including threats of litigation.
Arias said the city has received multiple legal opinions that say approval of the rezone would violate state law and expose the city to litigation. Arias said the existing businesses are already approved to operate in perpetuity, though they wouldn’t be allowed to expand their operations.
“In their world, we should only be listening to political contributors and corporate interests and not to residents who elected us to serve them,” Arias said.
Escalating tensions over Fresno industrial rezone
The parcel of land under consideration belongs to one of the most pollution-burdened census tracts in the state.
And the controversial project is about 1,000 feet from the entrance to the West Fresno Elementary and Middle schools.
“Every time we take two steps forward, we take 20 steps back,” Fresno Unified Trustee Keshia Thomas said.
Attorneys for the applicants have escalated their efforts to try to get the rezone approved.
The project, which has stirred controversy for years, has heated up in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, Buzz Oates and Span Development filed a $100 million tort claim against the city, saying it reneged on an agreement to hear the rezone in June 2025, which would have provided sufficient housing unit offset to successfully rezone the property.
On Monday, the businesses’ lawyer also called on District 3 Councilmember Miguel Arias to recuse himself from the vote, claiming that his efforts to coordinate opposition to the motion violated state law.
The Fresno Planning Commission recommended denial of the proposed rezone during its April 16, 2025, meeting after more than a dozen residents raised concerns about quality of life, health and pollution concerns.
How the rezone is connected to a plan in Southeast Fresno
One of the more confusing elements of the rezone controversy is how it has been tied to a separate, unrelated plan in Southeast Fresno.
The proposed Elm rezone would eliminate 3,500 potential housing units from west Fresno. State law (SB 330) requires that the city offset the loss of residential capacity with the exact same number of proposed housing units somewhere else in the city, Arias said.
The landowners say this plan is key to securing the alternative housing needs as a result of the Elm Street rezone and want the rezone to be heard during the same meeting as the Central Southeast Specific Area Plan. The plan guides how city leaders should develop and zone the area over the next several decades.
Last month, a lawyer representing the landowners threatened to sue the city if the Council didn’t postpone a hearing over the Central Southeast Specific Plan. As a result, the Council voted to postpone the hearing, though not without opposition from Councilmembers Brandon Vang and Arias, who accused then-Council President Mike Karbassi of putting his political career ahead of his current council duties, the nonprofit newsroom Fresnoland reported.
According to Arias, the Central Southeast Specific Plan would only generate approximately 3,000 units, not the needed 3,500.
“In this case, what the applicant is trying to do is trying to hold up a plan in southeast Fresno for his project that’s 10-15 miles away in southwest Fresno,” Arias said.
The California Air Resources Board and state Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno) and state Sen. Anna Caballero (D-Merced), oppose the rezone and say its approval would conflict with several state environmental justice and housing laws.
“According to our legal opinions we received and the state guidance, we can’t legally adopt it. The state law is very clear,” Arias said.
Meanwhile, residents of southeast Fresno, including Councilmember Vang, whose district encompasses the southeast specific plan, say they’re getting the short end of the stick.
“We in southeast Fresno have waited too long for getting this plan approved, and it keeps dragging and dragging and dragging,” said Jose Leon Barraza, a member of the Southeast Fresno Community Economic Development Association.
The Central Southeast Specific Plan hearing is on Thursday’s Fresno City Council agenda, but is “to be heard at 3:55 p.m. or thereafter.
The hearing on the proposed Elm Street rezone is scheduled at 4 p.m. Thursday.
The Fresno Bee
Melissa Montalvo is The Fresno Bee’s accountability reporter. Prior to this role, she covered Latino communities for The Fresno Bee as the part of the Central Valley News Collaborative. She also reported on labor, economy and poverty through newsroom partnerships between The Fresno Bee, Fresnoland and CalMatters as a Report for America Corps member.