\t\t\t\t\tWhat’s at stake?<\/p>\n
Residents announced on Thursday that with a $3 billion hole in infrastructure funding, they’ll rewrite the city’s power structure to stop SEDA.<\/p>\n
A coalition spanning Fresno\u2019s political spectrum delivered an ultimatum to Mayor Jerry Dyer on Thursday: Kill the massive Southeast Development Area (SEDA) or face a voter referendum that could permanently halt suburban sprawl in California\u2019s fifth-largest city.<\/p>\n
At a press conference scheduled Thursday just before the Fresno City Council\u2019s workshop on the controversial 45,000-home SEDA specific plan, the coalition demanded that Dyer launch a comprehensive process to write a new general plan, charting a new economic future for Fresno.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If he refuses, organizers say they\u2019re prepared to gather signatures for a ballot measure establishing an urban growth boundary for Fresno \u2013 a legal line that developers cannot cross without voter approval.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this goes completely wrong and they approve a plan that really threatens the future of the city, probably the nuclear option is growth boundaries,\u201d said Dan O\u2019Connell, executive director of the Central Valley Partnership, who helped organize Thursday\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n
The coalition represents a rare alliance in Fresno politics, from State Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, who started to press conference, to representatives from former Mayor Ashley Swearengin\u2019s multi-billion-dollar DRIVE Initiative of the Central Valley Community Foundation, the Central Labor Council representing 105,000 workers across four counties, and neighborhood groups from West and Southwest Fresno and Southeast Fresno.<\/p>\n
Such a growth boundary would effectively strip the mayor and city council of their power to approve fringe development, handing those decisions directly to voters \u2013 a tool that has reshaped growth patterns from Portland<\/a> to Ventura County<\/a> but has never been implemented in Fresno.\u00a0<\/p>\n The confrontation comes after a city analysis revealed<\/a> that developer fees for SEDA would cover at most 20% of the project\u2019s $4.3 billion infrastructure costs, leaving a $3 billion funding gap that could burden Fresno taxpayers for generations.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere is the city getting the money to do this expansion, to pay for the infrastructure, the streets, the curbs, the sidewalks, the gutters, while in our core, these older neighborhoods are just falling apart?\u201d asked Sabrina Kelley, a fourth-generation Southwest Fresno resident.<\/p>\n The Dyer administration attempted to fast-track the project in May, only to see the effort collapse<\/a> when Planning Director Jennifer Clark tried to push commissioners to approve environmental documents that hadn\u2019t been completed. The city\u2019s own consultants concluded<\/a> that Phase 1 of SEDA \u201cmay not be financially feasible.\u201d<\/p>\n And yet, Dyer has continued to push SEDA forward. He plans on presenting Phase 1 to the city council again this Thursday, according to slides<\/a> on the city\u2019s website.<\/p>\n Dyer\u2019s position on SEDA has shifted in tone but his overall support has never wavered. In May, he declared<\/a> opposition to developing East SEDA, citing $1.5 billion in immediate infrastructure costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n But now he wants to develop suburban homes there, according to his latest proposal to the council. Now rebranded by him as \u201cSouth SEDA,\u201d on portions of that same area east of Temperance Avenue he opposed in May, are large tracts of land zoned for residential.<\/p>\n It is unclear when the change of plans to include east of Temperance in SEDA\u2019s first phase were made. Dyer\u2019s most recent public statements at the San Joaquin Valley Manufacturing Summit on Oct. 29 suggested that South SEDA would be a hub for industrial development and manufacturing.<\/p>\n Dyer declined to comment ahead of his presentation to the council.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like it\u2019s become a bit of Mayor Dyer\u2019s pet project he wants to see happen,\u201d said Rhonda Dueck, executive director of the Jackson Community Development Corporation.<\/p>\n State population projections compound the coalition\u2019s concerns: Fresno\u2019s population will begin declining<\/a> in 2045, before SEDA reaches even half of its planned buildout. At the administration\u2019s projected pace of building 900 homes annually, the development wouldn\u2019t be complete until 2082 \u2013 a very long time to pay off any infrastructure debts.\u00a0<\/p>\n