\t\t\t\t\tWhat’s at stake:<\/p>\n
Mayor Jerry Dyer’s three-year push to approve SEDA faced fierce opposition Thursday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A southeast Fresno mega-development known as SEDA is now on shaky political ground Thursday after residents packed City Hall to the rafters to tell the Fresno City Council that the project\u2019s $3 billion shortfall and its potential to hollow out Fresno Unified with school closures was unacceptable.<\/p>\n
In a 5-2 vote, the City Council asked the Dyer administration to conduct more studies on SEDA\u2019s financial viability and future impacts to schools and other subjects over the next six months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The list of demands and potential revisions requested by the council was so severe, said Councilmember Miguel Arias, he feared that it would require Dyer\u2019s team to start over on planning for SEDA \u2013 potentially triggering a new environmental review and other zoning documents that would cost millions of dollars and take many years to complete.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real questions we need answered are bigger,\u201d said Councilmember Nick Richardson. \u201cThere are much more important, larger-scale questions \u2026 about the effect [of SEDA] on water, schools, agriculture and business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
City Hall veterans said Thursday\u2019s SEDA hearing was the most packed city meeting in more than a decade. A headcount by the Central Labor Council tallied 355 people in attendance.<\/p>\n
Never miss the top stories in Fresno \u2014 sign up for our free, daily newsletter.<\/p>\n
Students from Edison and Sunnyside High School put on their best Christmas sweaters to oppose SEDA, along with teachers, a few school board trustees,union leaders and Fresno Unified Deputy Superintendent Ben Drati.<\/p>\n
With the exception of one speaker, the opposition to SEDA was universal among those who spoke at the eight-hour meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have shown unity in that nobody wants this,\u201d said Christina Soto, a former Dyer appointee on the city\u2019s parks and arts committee (PRAC). \u201cThis is planned disinvestment. You\u2019d have to be smoking a pipe to think any version of this plan is a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
No matter what\u2019s happening in Sacramento or Washington, we will continue to do what we\u2019ve always done: hold our local officials accountable and report the stories that shape daily life in Fresno. <\/p>\n
Become a monthly member today during our crucial end-of-year campaign so that we can continue to tell hyperlocal stories you won’t find anywhere else. All donations are matched through December 31.<\/p>\n
The meeting was a stunning rebuke of Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer\u2019s three-year push to get SEDA approved. No councilmember, with the exception of Mike Karbassi, said they supported the plan in its current form.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With community groups threatening the \u201cnuclear option<\/a>\u201d against SEDA, Dyer has pinned his ambitions to get the whole project approved by focusing on the financial upside of the mega-project\u2019s first industrial-focused phase, called South SEDA.\u00a0<\/p>\n That would leave the financial burden of most of SEDA\u2019s 45,000 homes unanalyzed, despite Planning Director Jennifer Clark saying<\/a> in May that the city plans on starting later residential phases within five years of the first phase.<\/p>\n It is unclear what the Dyer Administration\u2019s current SEDA phasing plans are.<\/p>\n FUSD Board President Veva Islas, on behalf of the entire FUSD board, asked for better partnership with the council in light of SEDA\u2019s risks of school closures<\/a> within Fresno Unified.<\/p>\n \u201cYou will hurt families and students living in central and southern Fresno,\u201d said Islas. \u201cDespite what Mayor Dyer says, our district is concerned.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Fresno Unified shows up in force<\/p>\n On Monday, Fresnoland reported<\/a> that SEDA risked an estimated 11 school closures in FUSD.\u00a0<\/p>\n Estimated from a combination of Dyer\u2019s housing demand study for SEDA and state population projections, some FUSD leaders have begun to raise the alarm about SEDA hurting the long-term viability of most neighborhoods in Fresno.<\/p>\n After Fresnoland\u2019s story, Dyer went on KMJ, ABC30, and KMPH to say FUSD\u2019s concerns were \u201coverblown.\u201d<\/p>\n Chang Yang, a Hmong teacher at Edison High School, along with other teachers across Fresno Unified, showed up Thursday night as part of a push to tell the council about SEDA\u2019s impacts on FUSD.<\/p>\n FTA President Manuel Bonilla said the council needed to abandon SEDA because it risked destabilizing neighborhoods across Fresno with school closures and mass layoffs.<\/p>\n \u201cStrong public schools are the foundations of stable neighborhoods,\u201d said Bonilla. \u201cSEDA would effectively subsidize growth primarily that would benefit Clovis Unified and Sanger Unified at direct expense to Fresno Unified\u2019s students.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRethink SEDA,\u201d Bonilla added. \u201cStop it because we need to consider a plan that really serves our students, our families, and our region.\u201d<\/p>\n Bank takes some of Assemi\u2019s SEDA parcels<\/p>\n In a GVWire story about the impact of FUSD, which is owned by developer Darius Assemi, who owns land in SEDA and wants to build<\/a> near Clovis Unified\u2019s new $500 million super-campus in southeast Fresno, Assemi\u2019s publication pushed back on Fresnoland\u2019s reporting.<\/p>\n GVWire claimed that Fresnoland had incorrectly reported that he owned land \u201cthroughout SEDA.\u201d Instead, GVWire said, he only owned one parcel in SEDA.<\/p>\n This is true.\u00a0<\/p>\n