‘New way of life in Clovis.’ Historic settlement clears path for affordable housing | Opinion
In the near future, Clovis will be less exclusionary and more affordable for low-income people and families.
That extraordinary statement, heretofore practically unthinkable, is the new citywide imperative thanks to one woman’s courage, the expertise of her legal counsel and the righteousness of their argument.
Home building in Clovis, from studio apartments to $1 million tract houses, will never be the same.
In October 2019, local homeless advocate Desiree Martinez (better known as “Dez”) and civil rights attorney Patience Milrod sued the city for discriminatory housing policies designed to make Clovis whiter and wealthier than Fresno. This week, after losing nearly every legal ruling along the way, Clovis leaders acquiesced to a remarkable settlement laid out for public consumption on the city’s website.
The settlement contains six major “action items” that provide a breadth of remedies for the city’s dearth of low-priced housing options.
Clovis agreed to establish a local housing trust fund, kick in $1.8 million to support affordable housing development and designate two city-owned properties (650 Fowler Ave. and 354 Osmun Circle) for affordable housing projects. It also identified 24 infill properties that will be rezoned to accommodate nearly 1,300 affordable housing units.
Furthermore — and this might be the biggie — Clovis will adopt a groundbreaking inclusive zoning ordinance that requires all future mid- to large-scale housing developments to have a certain percentage of units set aside for low-income residents.
Lastly, Clovis must adopt a deferral program for developer impact fees related to affordable housing projects.
Taken in sum, the settlement represents a momentous about-face in a city where “They can’t force poor minorities on us” has long been the unofficial motto.
“I’m happy there’s going to be a new way of life in Clovis,” said Martinez, alluding to the official one.
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Martinez was 16 when family moved to Clovis from Eugene, Oregon, in the late 1980s. She lived in an apartment on Pollasky Avenue with her mother and sister for about 2½ years before moving to Fresno with a boyfriend.
When Martinez had children of her own, she tried moving back to Clovis several times (preferring the “slower pace of life”) but was unable to do so. Despite at one point working during the day as a county courthouse filer and data entry staffer and at night as a gas station attendant.
“It was impossible to find something in my price range, even when I had two jobs,” said Martinez, who has also been homeless.
Clovis not doing its part
Martinez’s legal team, including Milrod and attorneys from Central California Legal Services and the Public Interest Law Project, successfully argued that Fresno County’s second-largest city failed to comply with its obligations under state law to provide sufficient land for multifamily housing and accommodate Clovis’ allotted share of affordable housing within the county.
According to Milrod, the plaintiffs received nearly everything they asked for during months of negotiations that followed the Fifth District Court of Appeal ruling last April. No damages were sought.
“One wonderful thing about the settlement is I think that it will make Clovis an attractive location for low-income housing developers, which it hasn’t really ever been before,” Milrod added.
Now there’s an understatement. Over the years Clovis city leaders have taken a dim view of affordable housing, openly scoffing at state mandates and regional responsibilities.
This has occurred not just behind closed doors, but from the dais during public meetings. Like the time when Clovis City Councilmember Vong Mouanoutoua instructed city staff to look for other cities that don’t comply with California housing laws and “see how they do it.”
Over the years I’ve found several occasions to criticize Clovis leaders for their failure to provide a place to live for those who can’t afford $500,000 houses or $2,000 or more in rent.
This time I’m going to praise them. Even though it took the city being backed into a legal corner for its elected leaders to step up.
Groundbreaking zoning ordinance
By agreeing to this settlement — and I’m told the city council’s decision was unanimous — Clovis has made a real commitment to help the region address its affordable housing crunch by adopting some best practices used by other California cities. For real.
Of the six “action items,” the mixed income zoning ordinance may prove the most impactful in the long-term. Once enacted, any developer that wishes to build more than 10 units (houses or apartments) in Clovis must either set aside a certain percentage as affordable housing, or pay substantial “in lieu fees” that guarantee the same number of low-cost units will be built elsewhere in town.
No other central San Joaquin Valley city’s housing element contains such an ordinance — Clovis has until February 2025 to get it enacted — and it wouldn’t be surprising at all if Fresno feels pressure to follow suit.
Especially (gasp) if all the affordable housing projects suddenly start heading to Clovis now that developers are incentivized and the city has some actual skin in the game.
As for Martinez, she sounds happy Clovis will have more housing options for seniors on fixed incomes and young people working minimum-wage jobs. However, the outspoken advocate for the unhoused community (who was also a co-plaintiff in a successful ACLU suit against the city of Fresno over homeless camps) promises she’s just getting started.
“In the end, this wasn’t about me anymore,” Martinez said. “It became about everybody else.”
