Bonta called<\/a> a nearby 32-acre rezone \u201clikely unlawful\u201d yet filed no legal challenge.<\/p>\nNever miss the top stories in Fresno \u2014 sign up for our free, daily newsletter.<\/p>\n
The AG\u2019s legal argument has been years in the making. The California Air Resources Board has spent roughly three years building the evidentiary case against the rezone, sending multiple letters to the city outlining its concerns about returning industrial capacity to a neighborhood already burdened by some of the worst air quality in the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShady shit\u2026we don\u2019t believe you guys\u201d<\/p>\n
But while the rezone was shelved 7-0, the more consequential vote on Thursday was the 4-3 decision to postpone the Central Southeast Area Specific Plan \u2014 a 2,000-acre community blueprint for one of Fresno\u2019s most underinvested areas around Belmont Avenue \u2014 until June 18.<\/p>\n
The two items have become informally joined at the hip over the past several weeks, connected by a provision of state law that the landowners of the 55-acres \u2013 including Phillip Oates, a minority owner of the Sacramento Kings \u2014 need to make their rezone work.<\/p>\n
Under SB 330, the Housing Crisis Act, the city cannot approve a rezone that removes housing capacity without simultaneously approving another action that adds enough units to offset the loss.<\/p>\n
The industrial landowners contend the specific plan for southeast neighborhoods generates surplus housing units sufficient to cover their rezone, but only if the city adopts their consultant\u2019s methodology for counting existing capacity. The city calculates the plan adds about 2,939 units; the landowners\u2019 consultant says 3,543. Neither figure has been independently verified.<\/p>\n
The landowners, whose properties are valued at roughly $47 million, have spent more than three years and significant legal resources pressing their case. Earlier this week, they filed a $100 million claim against the city.<\/p>\n
They previously paid the city more than $64,000 to conduct an environmental review on a property within the Central Southeast plan\u00a0 area \u2014 work intended to generate the housing units needed to satisfy SB 330 \u2014 but the city has not completed that review in nearly two years, a delay the landowners cite as evidence of bad faith.<\/p>\n
And on Thursday, a new wrinkle emerged.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Arias said city staff informed the council that they had recalculated the number of housing units the Elm rezone would displace \u2014 and arrived at a dramatically lower figure. Under the previous calculation, the rezone would have eliminated roughly 3,500 units of housing capacity, requiring the CSASP to generate at least that many to offset the loss. The new staff calculation, Arias said, puts the threshold at just over 800 units.<\/p>\n
The reason: staff had originally calculated the displacement before the city adopted a mixed-use development overlay that increased density allowances in the area. Under the updated formula, the units attributable to the Elm properties are far fewer.<\/p>\n
Arias said in an interview the new numbers are too good to be true.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s shady shit behind the scenes happening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe basically said to staff, we don\u2019t believe you guys,\u201d he added. \u201cSo we\u2019re gonna bring in an outside party to come and basically double, triple check this.\u201d<\/p>\n
New plan for Belmont area delayed <\/p>\n
The 4-3 vote to delay the CSASP came at the explicit request of the industrial landowners pursuing the Elm rezone. Their Sacramento-based attorney at Downey Brand demanded in a March 13 letter that the city postpone both items for 90 to 120 days. Council Vice President Tyler Maxwell made the motion to continue the CSASP to June 18. Maxwell was joined by Mike Karbassi, Nick Richardson and Council President Nelson Esparza.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Brandon Vang, who represents much of the CSASP area, opposed the delay.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy position is, I am ready to move forward with this item,\u201d Vang said. \u201cI believe the people in southeast Fresno are ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arias and Annalisa Perea also voted no.<\/p>\n
By delaying the CSASP, the council majority preserved the possibility that the two items could eventually be heard together \u2014 the landowners\u2019 preferred scenario, but not Vang\u2019s, who represents the area.<\/p>\n
Karbassi, who resigned as council president last week to focus on his campaign for Fresno County supervisor, said the closed session left him unwilling to take chances.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on the discussion and the analysis in closed session, I think anything short of that 90-day mark could potentially put us at legal risk,\u201d Karbassi said, adding that he was being \u201cvery, very conservative\u201d in light of a recent $15 million ruling against the city in a racial discrimination lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Arias was more pointed about the delay in his post-vote interview with Fresnoland, suggesting the timeline had less to do with legal caution than with election politics. Karbassi is running in a June primary for county supervisor, and Arias said Karbassi wanted to push the hearing past that date.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have supported hearing it May 21,\u201d Arias said, \u201cbut Mike wanted to hear it after the election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karbassi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Rezone still alive<\/p>\n
The rezone has drawn opposition from nearly every corner of Fresno\u2019s political establishment. Mayor Jerry Dyer\u2019s administration has recommended denial. City planning staff and the planning commission both recommended denial. CARB has spent years building a legal case against it. And now the Attorney General has signaled he will litigate.<\/p>\n
Adding to the legal thicket, Arias said the city received a separate challenge on Thursday from a group Green Alliance of Southeast Fresno which argues that an environmental review needs to be conducted for the Central Southeast area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBig picture,\u201d Arias said, \u201cwe had the applicant challenging us for his own reasons. We had the residents opposing it. Then we had the AG basically saying, \u2018We\u2019re monitoring.\u2019 As of today, we have the AG saying, \u2018We\u2019re opposed to it, and we\u2019re gonna litigate you guys.\u2019 And we have an additional group saying the EIR you did for the southeast part is not sufficient.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CSASP is scheduled for June 18 at 3:55 p.m. No date has been set for the Elm Avenue rezone.<\/p>\n
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