‘Dismal’ number of new homes is Fresno’s failure, councilman says. Is there a solution?
Fresno City Councilmember Luis Chavez is pushing a new plan to expand the city’s sphere of influence — an issue past councils have argued could lead to more urban sprawl.
Chavez, who represents southeastern District 5, will be asking the City Council to re-open the discussion on how it regulates home building, saying the city’s General Plan is failing.
The city adopted the latest General Plan in 2014, which restrained the city’s sphere of influence in an attempt to encourage infill projects over newer developments on the outskirts of the city.
“For me, it’s been a failure both on the infill and the growth areas,” he said on Tuesday. “This has actually made the problem worse.”
Chavez said after five years the “dismal” amount of homes built shows the General Plan isn’t working.
The plan projected about 76,000 new homes could be built over the first decade, Chavez said.
However, since the plan’s adoption, developers from 2014 to 2018 only pulled 7,331 building permits, according to numbers from the city. Plus, the number of permits has fallen from 3,270 in 2015 to 1,337 last year.
Chavez argues not allowing Fresno to grow in the southern parts of the city has driven developers away. He pointed to growth in cities like Sanger and Clovis, and to the growing community of more than 100,000 homes planned north of the San Joaquin River in Madera County.
“We essentially created a number of bedroom communities and pushed that development outward,” Chavez said.
Spreading the sphere of influence in the southern part of town could also be good for downtown revitalization, he argues, because those residents could make short trips to breweries and restaurants. People in the northern side of town or in southern Madera County can seek their entertainment at River Park and may never visit downtown.
Under the current General Plan, developers are often left with few opportunities, according to John Bonadelle, president of Bonadelle Neighborhoods. He declined to say how the plan affects his home-building specifically.
“Home builders are currently being forced to meet the demand from home buyers by building in peripheral municipalities due to lack of opportunities in Fresno under the current General Plan,” he said in an email. “This forces people to have to commute further into downtown for work and entertainment.”
He said new homes in the southeast part of town especially make sense because of their proximity to employment centers in downtown and to warehouse jobs like those at the Amazon fulfillment center.
The lack of housing in Fresno, as in much of California, is a pressure that pushes rents and home prices up. Since September 2016, when the average rent for a Fresno apartment was $917 per month, the figure has increased by $172, or almost 19%, according to Rentcafe.com.
Rent in Fresno may be cheaper than in cities in the Bay Area and Southern California, but people in the Central San Joaquin Valley are often burdened by spending 30% or more of their income on housing.
In Fresno County, California Housing Partnership report shows the median income for a three-person household is $58,400. For a family to be able to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment, they would need to make at least 79% of that income figure – or about $46,136.
Councilmember Miguel Arias of District 3 said he’s open to the discussion on widening the sphere of influence. His west Fresno district is home to more affordable-housing units than any other.
“My district, west Fresno, has been asking for market-rate housing at the same quality as the rest of the city, particularly the north,” he said on Tuesday.
The cost to add missing infrastructure and the amount of land held downtown, where few projects are moving, continues to drive up costs in Fresno housing, he said.
The city has learned its lessons and can build new homes without letting urban sprawl run rampant, he stressed.
“That’s something we need to take on front and center,” he said. “People shouldn’t see this as urban sprawl getting new life but smart growth.”
The council will be asked Thursday, according to the agenda, if they want to initiate what would be more than a year of meetings and public input before leaders could officially update the General Plan.
