It’s 2021. When will Fresno County supervisors kick their addiction to urban sprawl?
You’ve really got to hand it to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, past and present. Among the components of urban sprawl, Friant Ranch ticks all the boxes.
Increased air pollution? Check.
Sketchy water sources? Check.
Automobile dependency? Check.
Leapfrog development? Check.
Low-density, single-family homes? Check.
Loss of open space and wildlife habitat? Check.
It’s 2021. Municipalities are supposed to be smarter about how they grow — not stuck in the free-for-all mindset that pervaded the late 20th century.
Yet our county supes can’t help themselves. When it comes to sprawl, they’re like a bunch of addicts who can’t kick the habit.
Envisioned in the 1980s, approved in 2011 and stuck in litigation for the next decade, Friant Ranch is exactly the kind of tumorous growth Fresno County must wean itself off. Just outside the town of Friant (population 550), a pristine bluff would be transformed into an asphalt and stucco jungle of 2,500 homes and 250,000 square feet of commercial space.
Friant Ranch’s air quality, water issues
Judging by what’s occurred in other growth areas (i.e. Fancher Creek, Loma Vista, Harlan Ranch, Millerton New Town), the homes will be built and lived in for many years before any retail and other services take root — leaving Friant Ranch’s envisioned 9,000 residents (mostly seniors) no choice but to hop in their cars and drive 9 miles to Fresno for even the tiniest errand. Because, of course, there’s no public transit.
Do our Fresno County supervisors need a reminder the San Joaquin Valley ranks among the most harmful places in California to breathe? That our collective lungs can’t take any more smog?
Or perhaps they’re glancing across the San Joaquin River, at the unabashed sprawl taking place in southern Madera County, and can’t help be envious.
Friant Ranch’s flawed, inadequate air quality plan is the reason why the California Supreme Court halted its progress in 2018, a decision upheld last November by the Fifth District Court of Appeal. But that’s hardly the only wart on this turkey.
The most glaring — and largely unaddressed — is water. The developer’s purchase of 2,000 acre-feet of water per year (stored in nearby Millerton Lake) won’t amount to a trickle in the shower during drought years when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation cuts off the tap from Friant water contractors, as was the case in 2014 and ‘15.
Where will the water for those 9,000 residents come from in the event of another drought? Like the one we’re in now, for example.
Then there’s this inconvenient truth: The water rights for Friant Ranch were purchased from an irrigation district (the Lower Tule River Irrigation District) that is already critically overdrafted. Hard to see how this jibes with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which requires the state’s water districts to bring their basins into balanced levels of pumping and recharge.
Fresno County committed to sprawl
After a decade of lawsuits and controversy, you’d think the Fresno County Board of Supervisors would find a less harmful way to address the region’s housing shortage. But nope. They simply can’t let go.
No sooner did the supes vote unanimously to rescind their approval of Friant Ranch during Tuesday’s meeting (a procedural matter in lieu of the appellate court decision) did Supervisor Steve Brandau made that clear.
“Is this project ever going to happen? The answer is yes,” Brandau said. “My message to everyone paying attention is that we are committed to this project.”
Just had an idea for a new Fresno County slogan: Committed to Sprawl.
Considering the county hasn’t bothered to formally update its general plan since 2000, there’s no other conclusion left to draw. During that time, we’ve seen the rise of Millerton New Town (a mile east of Friant Ranch) as well as the ongoing construction of a 14-story hotel at Table Mountain Rancheria.
Besides the addition of traffic lights near the casino, the road that services these developments has yet to be touched. Millerton Road remains as narrow as ever — one of the most dangerous stretches of pavement in Fresno County to ride a bike.
Instead, the road money seems to have gone to widen Highway 180 through Centerville and Minkler, literally paving the way for the county’s next sprawl area. Unless, of course, there’s a land rush in Dunlap that I’m not aware of.
Committed to Sprawl. That’s the Fresno County way.
