Fresno County’s embarrassing general plan earns a smackdown by state’s attorney general

If Fresno County supervisors wanted to doom their quest for new industry south of Fresno, they couldn’t have done a better job than what is occurring with a major planning guide their staff is writing.

No less than California Attorney General Rob Bonta has come out against the draft General Plan being put together now by Fresno County planning staff — a process that is beyond long overdue. The last major overhaul occurred in 2000.

The General Plan is the overarching guide to how a region will develop. It includes sections on land use, transportation, parks and recreation.

A key land use is industry. On that score, the supervisors are keen to allow new industrial uses in the communities of Malaga and Calwa, on Fresno’s southern end.

But a letter Bonta sent the county on Tuesday would dash any such hopes, as the attorney general highlights so many problems with targeting industry into those communities that it would seem near impossible for the county to overcome his objections if it does not change course.

To put it another way, if the county does not revise the sections highlighted by the attorney general to his satisfaction, a lawsuit will surely follow. That, in turn, means a waste of taxpayer money to deal with litigation against a foe who has deep legal resources.

Pollution problems

The county’s draft General Plan says that the “initial focus of new or redeveloped industrial areas shall include Malaga, Calwa and the Golden State Industrial Corridor.” Bonta points out that the word “shall” is defined to mean “an unequivocal directive.” In other words, Malaga and Calwa are precisely where the county wants new industry to go.

What are Bonta’s objections? The list is lengthy.

Manufacturing and warehousing mean jobs, which is good, to be sure. But those uses also mean pollution in the form of air emissions by heavy machinery, truck traffic and wastewater discharges.

Bonta points out Malaga and Calwa already are among the most pollution-burdened communities in the state. Both places are in the 100th percentile of CalEPA’s ranking for pollution burden. “Asthma rates are in the 93rd and 94th percentile for Malaga and Calwa residents, respectively, and cardiovascular disease rates are in the 71st and 74th percentiles,” the letter notes.

Second, allowing industrial uses would violate housing discrimination laws. State law forbids land uses that allow “toxic, polluting and/or hazardous land uses” that harm residents. That is what would occur with more industry in Malaga and Calwa.

Next, state law requires General Plans to have sections on environmental justice. Fresno County’s draft element lists polices already required by law, or has wording so vague as to be unenforceable. The county’s Environmental Justice element fails “to engage with the breadth of environmental issues facing the county’s disadvantaged communities.” Nor does the element address improvements.

Additionally, the letter points out that the county missed a May 2018 deadline to prepare a climate vulnerability assessment and have adopted climate adaptation and resilience goals.

Stinging rebuke

In summary, Bonta’s letter is an embarrassing rebuke of one of the most important documents that county planning staff ever compile and supervisors approve. In today’s lingo, Bonta has given the county a “smackdown.”

In an email statement to Bee staff writer Melissa Montalvo, county spokeswoman Sonja Dosti said: “We welcome Attorney General Rob Bonta’s comments and will continue working with his office and the community to assure that the final, adopted General Plan is in full compliance with all applicable laws and provides a viable long-term framework for future growth in Fresno County.”

If it were so simple.

The supervisors have made it clear they want industrial development south of Fresno to occur. Last August they unanimously directed county staff to study converting 3,000 acres just east of Malaga into a “Fresno County Business and Industrial Complex.” The concerns raised by Bonta were as true then as they are today.

It is not as if the Attorney General’s Office is unaware of the challenges south Fresno residents face. The attorney general helped stop a proposed industrial park near the Amazon center in its tracks to force a proper environmental review, this one by the city.

Fresno County needs to broaden its employment base, and manufacturing jobs are a way to do it. But the county supervisors, as well as Fresno city leaders, need to understand that south and west Fresno, Malaga and Calwa must be off limits.

The choices of previous city and county leaders allowed those communities to become as pollution burdened as they are now. Residents of those places have born the brunt of bad air, water, and ill health. Now Attorney General Bonta is effectively saying: No more.